Study on the Motivation and Consequences of Corporate Greenwashing Behavior-Taking H&M as an Example

College of Accounting and Auditing, Guangxi University of Finance and Economics, Nanning, China

^* Corresponding author: xiaozixuan10@gmail.com

Abstract

With today’s global economic development, the public’s attention to environmental issues and sustainable development is increasing, and various environmental protection-related laws and regulations are also being improved. In this context, environmental protection, social responsibility, sustainability and other green concepts have become the new keywords for enterprise development. However, the rich dividends brought by green development also make some enterprises begin to speculate, through false or exaggerated information to promote its green development contribution and low-carbon environmental protection image, which has resulted in the greenwashing behaviors. Based on this, this paper establishes the research direction of the causes and consequences of corporate greenwashing behaviour, and adopts the case study method and the event study method to select H&M, a representative fast fashion company, as the research object, to sort out and analyse the causes behind the greenwashing behaviour of H&M, as well as the impacts of the company’s financial performance, market response and reputation after the exposure of the greenwashing incident.