Associate Professor Xianming Sun, Deputy Director of the Base, and Associate Professor Xiaohang Ren, Researcher, co-authored the paper "The impact of artificial intelligence on corporate greenwashing: evidence from Chinese listed firms," which was published in the prominent academic journal Journal of Accounting Literature.

Abstract: Purpose：This paper investigates the impact of AI penetration rate on the degree of corporate greenwashing and aims to assess the potential of AI in enhancing firms' environmental performance and reducing false disclosures.

Design/methodology/approach：This study employs a year and firm fixed-effects model to analyze data from Chinese listed firms from 2012 to 2022. We use the low-carbon city pilot as a quasi-natural experiment to address endogeneity concerns and conduct a series of robustness tests, including adding control variables and transforming the model.

Findings：The results of this paper show that the application of AI can inhibit firms' greenwashing behavior, with green innovation activities further enhancing this inhibitory effect. In state-owned firms and those with Party Organizations, the inhibitory effect of AI on corporate greenwashing is more significant. This reduction in greenwashing is more likely to be observed in firms that are heavily influenced by Confucian culture, receive higher public attention regarding their environmental impact, face less market competition, suffer from more serious pollution and face less financial constraints.

Originality/value：We propose a new research perspective that offers novel insights into promoting the green development of firms by revealing the potential of AI in reducing their greenwashing behavior. Corporate boards can explore specific strategies for applying AI to monitor, prevent and correct greenwashing, thereby enhancing corporate environmental performance and social responsibility.

Keywords: Greenwashing； Artificial intelligence；Heterogeneity analysis； D21,；M14； O30

Link: https://doi.org/10.1108/JAL-07-2024-0174

Teacher profile

Xianming Sun is an associate professor and department head of the Financial Engineering Department at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law, as well as the Executive Deputy Director of the Innovation and Talent Base for Digital Technology and Finance. His research focuses on financial engineering, financial technology, and related fields, with his research findings published in journals such as Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Journal of Futures Markets, Accounting and Finance, and Energy Economics. He has been honored as a "Wenlan Young Scholar" at Zhongnan University of Economics and Law and has led research projects funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities. His related research has won the Excellent Paper Award at the 16th China Finance Engineering Annual Conference.

Xiaohang Ren is a specially appointed associate professor at the Business School of Central South University, a highly cited Chinese scholar of Elsevier, and a top 2% scientist in the world. He mainly focuses on research in energy finance, financial risks, and financial measurement. He has published more than 100 papers in authoritative domestic and foreign journals such as Journal of the American Statistical Association, Transportation Research Part A, Energy Economics, Quantitative Finance, Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, International Review of Financial Analysis, Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Business Strategy and the Environment, Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Applied Energy, Resources Policy, Renewable & Sustainable Energy Review, Energy, Journal of Management Sciences in China (English Edition), Systems Engineering - Theory & Practice, and Chinese Journal of Management Science. Among them, more than 30 papers are ESI hot articles or highly cited papers. He serves as the lead editor of Sustainable Communities (Taylor & Francis), associate editor of Humanities & Social Sciences Communications (the only social science and humanities journal affiliated with Nature), and guest editor of SSCI journals such as Climate Change Economics, Economic Change and Restructuring.