Would you date a liar? The impact of greenwashing on B2B relationships under the managerial trust view

Valero-Gil, Jesus; Suárez-Perales, Inés; Ferrón-Vílchez, Vera Article Would you date a liar? The impact of greenwashing on B2B relationships under the managerial trust view BRQ Business Research Quarterly Provided in Cooperation with: Asociación Científica de Economía y Dirección de Empresas (ACEDE), Madrid Suggested Citation: Valero-Gil, Jesus; Suárez-Perales, Inés; Ferrón-Vílchez, Vera (2025) : Would you date a liar? The impact of greenwashing on B2B relationships under the managerial trust view, BRQ Business Research Quarterly, ISSN 2340-9444, Sage Publishing, London, Vol. 28, Iss. 3, pp. 731-749, https://doi.org/10.1177/23409444241250360 This Version is available at: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/327094 Standard-Nutzungsbedingungen: Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden. 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Introduction As recently shown by the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor (Day et al., 2023), greenwashing is a common business practice in the climate strategies of the 24 major companies worldwide. Greenwashing is understood as a symbolic strategy of corporate selective communication whereby companies disclose positive environmental efforts while hiding negative ones to create a misleadingly good impression of overall environmental performance (Lyon & Maxwell, 2011). Varied well-known corporate scandals in the last decade illustrate this behavior. For instance, in July 2021, Synthetics Anonymous’ report (Changing Markets Foundation, 2021) showed how nearly 60% environmental claims made by the 50 largest fashion brands, such as H&M, Hugo Boss, or Primark, were “unsubstantiated or misleading” to consumers and are clear illustrations of greenwashing. The negative consequences of these practices have forced organizations and institutions to fight against them. The new European law proposal on green claims is an example of how institutions are fighting against greenwashing (European Commission, 2023). This normative forces organizations to opt for credible and trustworthy labels and claims. Furthermore, in the academic arena, scholars have argued that “greenwashing is more virulent than ever. A profusion of environmental, social, and governance and net zero commitments are becoming fraught Would you date a liar? The impact of greenwashing on B2B relationships under the managerial trust view Jesus Valero-Gil1,2, Inés Suárez-Perales1,3 and Vera Ferrón-Vílchez4 Abstract Greenwashing can be perceived as dishonest behavior that can threaten trust in business deals due to the current trend of an intensive scrutiny of sustainability-related messages from organizations. Drawing on the literature concerning managerial trust, our study analyzes how perceived greenwashing negatively affects business-to-business relationships, focusing on two aspects: (1) whether managers’ perception of greenwashing is influenced by uncertainty in the business decision-making process and (2) whether individual manager characteristics play a significant role in modulating this influence. We used an experimental design involving 125 Spanish managers to confirm the importance of uncertain scenarios under the negative influence of greenwashing on business decision-making process. The findings also confirm that this negative influence is intensified by managers’ characteristics in terms of risk aversion and the importance they place on corporate reputation. The study makes several contributions to academia and practitioners by advancing the understanding of greenwashing in the context of business-to-business relationships. JEL CLASSIFICATION: M100; M140; M210 Keywords Greenwashing, managers, corporate reputation, risk aversion, trust, uncertainty 1Department of Management, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain 2ENERGAIA Institute, University of Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain 3 Institute on Employment, Digital Society and Sustainability, Zaragoza, Spain 4Department of Business Management II, University of Granada, Granada, Spain Corresponding author: Vera Ferrón-Vílchez, Department of Business Management II, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Granada, Campus Cartuja S/N, 18071 Granada, Spain. Email: [email protected] 1250360BRQ0010.1177/23409444241250360BRQ Business Research QuarterlyValero-Gil et al. research-article2024 Regular Paper 732 Business Research Quarterly 28(3) with questionable and misleading claims” (Montgomery et al., 2023, p. 1) and more research is needed, as “this topic remains in its infancy” (Pizzetti et al., 2021, p. 21). Therefore, greenwashing is a topical issue, which is in the spotlight of practitioners, institutions, and academics. Until now, scholars have mainly analyzed greenwashing’s negative effects in three different domains (Marquis et al., 2016). First, there is considerable evidence about the negative effects of greenwashing as a marketing strategy (in business-to-consumer context) on final consumers’ perceptions and faith (e.g., Guo et al., 2018; Jahdi & Acikdilli, 2009; Szabo & Webster, 2021; Wu et al., 2020). Second, scholars have also focused on the internal effects of corporate-level greenwashing (Bowen, 2014; Lyon & Montgomery, 2015), detecting some mechanisms that generate a loss of confidence among employees (Walker & Wan, 2012) and investors (Painter-Morland, 2006; Pizzetti et al., 2021; Yu et al., 2020). Third, with scarce evidence, adverse and external effects of corporate-level greenwashing on business-to-business (B2B) relationships, including those with suppliers, clients, strategic alliances, and partnerships, have been identified. Studies of this third category have shown that greenwashing could be rejected by B2B partners due to their lack of social desirability (Ferrón-Vílchez et al., 2021; Torelli et al., 2020), the reputation loss of greenwashers (Berrone et al., 2017; Boiral et al., 2017), and the infection risk to maintain relationships with greenwashers (Yang et al., 2020). Even though these studies have advised companies against the use of greenwashing, it continues to be a common practice (Day et al., 2023). Indeed, a growing amount of controversies are surrounding greenwashing, such as corporate reputation problems as a consequence of collaborating with suspicious greenwashers (Yang et al., 2020), difficulties in detecting greenwashing (Gosselt et al., 2019) and, in general, the need of eliminating the mechanisms that deteriorate trust among different stakeholders (Painter-Morland, 2006; Pizzetti et al., 2021; Walker & Wan, 2012; Yu et al., 2020). These calls on the negative consequences of the greenwashing highlight that it is a phenomenon that requires further research, especially because greenwashing represents an undesirable outcome that has usual adoption. The consequences of greenwashing is a topic that is already at an advanced level of study in the academic literature. However, despite much evidence about greenwashing’s adverse effects in prior literature, less is known about its origin, particularly concerning managers’ B2B decision-making (Ferrón-Vílchez et al., 2021; Torelli et al., 2020). Now it is essential to analyze in depth the reasons for the existence of this phenomenon on managerial decision-making. We consider that trust is one of the values that greenwashing and managerial decision-making have in common. Thus, our study’s novelty is that it attempts to answer the following research question: What factors influence managers’ lack of trust in a business partner performing greenwashing? At this point, it is important to note that our study is focused on corporate-level greenwashing, as the analysis of consequences of greenwashing in B2B relationships could differ from those in B2C markets, attending to the main differences between decision-makers in both environments. For example, a consumer will stop buying a product if the manufacturing company is found to be lying about its environmental characteristics. At the same time, a manager might maintain a business relationship with a greenwasher partner for the sake of profit. Thus, the study’s main objective is to shed light on the mechanisms that could explain how perceived greenwashing affects managers’ decision-making related to starting or maintaining B2B relationships. Drawing upon managerial trust literature, in particular on the approaches of the strategic cognition theory and the expectation confirmation theory, we delve into the knowledge of corporate greenwashing by studying some factors affecting managers’ perception of this phenomenon that influence the results of B2B relationships. Greenwashing is interrelated to trust, as trust is damaged when a deceptive behavior is uncovered (Chen et al., 2019; Chen & Chang, 2013). Thus, managerial trust could be especially affected by the disappointment generated by greenwashing. In detail, we explore the effects of uncertainty and three individual factors related to managerial trust in B2B relations such as managers’ propensity to trust, risk aversion, and the importance of corporate reputation. We select these factors due to their special relation to managerial trust models, which explain the facilitators of risk-taking, confidence, and reliability in decision-making (Mayer et al., 1995). In particular, we analyze these effects using an experimental design involving 125 Spanish managers from medium and large companies. We contribute new insights to the current debate on greenwashing in different ways. From a theoretical perspective, we explore the factors under greenwashing adverse effects in B2B situations, taking novelty advantage of the managerial trust theoretical approach. Thus, we extend the current knowledge on greenwashing down to the level of managers and their individual characteristics (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012). This contribution is particularly relevant for practitioners as it sheds light on the unexplored impact of greenwashing on intrinsic B2B traits based on trust and the underlying factors under these effects. Also, it urges policymakers about the need for effective regulatory measures in this regard. From a methodological view, we develop an experimental design involving 125 Spanish managers, responding to the call for additional empirical evidence in corporate sustainability literature, using this technique, which is popular in many disciplines, but not frequently in management Valero-Gil et al. 733 (Delmas & Aragon-Correa, 2016). Experiment with real managers’ responses is one of the most suitable methods to test managerial perceptions and decisions in the highly complex environment of greenwashing, which would guarantee the causality of the relationships studied (FerrónVílchez et al., 2021; Pizzetti et al., 2021; Torelli et al., 2020). In addition, this approach enables us to focus on B2B relationships by analyzing managers’ perceptions who create, manage, and take back these relations based on their own behavior. We have structured this work into five sections. First, we present a theoretical review on greenwashing under the managerial trust view. Second, we discuss how uncertainty, risk aversion, the propensity to trust, and the importance of reputation impact the manager’s willingness to deal with a greenwasher. Third, our empirical approach is presented. Fourth, results are explained and, finally, we present a discussion of our findings and their implications arguing prior research. Theoretical background In their theoretical review of the means, drivers, actors, and end of greenwashing, Lyon and Montgomery (2015, p. 226) concluded that “greenwashing is used to cover any communication that misleads people into adopting overly positive beliefs about an organization’s environmental performance, practices, or products.” When one subject intentionally misleads another, trust between them deteriorates or may even disappear. As our focus is to analyze how greenwashing influences managerial decision-making, we theoretically frame the concept of greenwashing as an act of (interpersonal) trust in business relationships. Trust has been recurrently analyzed by studies on consumer behavior (Chen & Chang, 2013), organization theory (Mayer et al., 1995), and business relationships (Shah & Swaminathan, 2008; Terwiesch et al., 2005). Greenwashing activities trigger the individual mechanisms of confusion, skepticism, and perceived risk (Aji & Sutikno, 2015; Chen & Chang, 2013), concepts that are present in business and interpersonal relationships and that could betray trust (Chen & Chang, 2013; Chen et al., 2019). The organizational trust model of Mayer et al. (1995) indicates not only the importance of the trustor characteristics (e.g., propensity to trust) but also the role of risk and context where the act of trust takes place. Other studies have shown that trust is an essential factor for corporate cooperation (Shah & Swaminathan, 2008; Terwiesch et al., 2005). For instance, Shah and Swaminathan (2008) hypothesized that trust is the most crucial factor influencing partner selection in strategic alliances. This mature thinking leads us to the analysis of greenwashing under the managerial trust perspective, considering trust and greenwashing at the individual level (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012), that is, through managerial perceptions. In management literature, several theoretical frames are based on how managerial perceptions influence strategic choices (Narayanan et al., 2011). On the one hand, strategic cognition theory analyzes how decision-making is carried out in a management process. Cognitive structures are especially relevant during the decision-making process as they consider how managers filter information, analyze alternatives, and interpret strategic problems during the decision-making process (Bundy et al., 2013; NorheimHansen, 2015). Therefore, the information perceived in the decision-making process, as well as the trust existing between the parties involved, plays a very relevant role in this theoretical approach. It is because of the above arguments that strategic cognition theory is an appropriate framework with which to analyze greenwashing at the individual level, because greenwashing largely depends on the eyes of the beholder, that is, a firm cannot be a greenwasher if it is not considered or perceived as such by a third party (Seele & Gatti, 2017). For this reason, greenwashing depends mainly on how it is perceived, that is, on cognitive structures. On the other hand, the expectation confirmation theory (Oliver, 1980) argues that if the outcomes of some experiences do not coincide with the initial expectations (e.g., because the performance was lower than expected), a degree of dissatisfaction emerges. Kim (2019) proved this theory on consumers’ response to greenwashing, which could be extrapolated to other stakeholders in a business relationship environment, such as commercial partners, suppliers, or even public institutions. Anticipating this situation to a B2B relationship, if a part turns out to be a greenwasher, there will be an increase in dissatisfaction because initial expectations are not confirmed increasing the likelihood that the relationship will break down. We consider that these two theoretical perspectives are intimately related to managerial trust because the expectation of the results of a business relationship between a company and its stakeholder is determined by managerial perception of trust. Managers tend to assess and interpret the information available to them for decision-making, based on which they generate environmental expectations related to a business relationship (Siano et al., 2017), and these expectations tend to be affected by their level of trust in the third party. In the next section, we explain several factors that could significantly influence the level of trust in a B2B relationship, precisely the degree of certainty about the achievement of benefits, the propensity to trust, the risk aversion level, and the importance that managers place on reputation. Hypotheses development Greenwashing and uncertainty Uncertainty in a business relationship is the lack of complete knowledge regarding the outcomes or results of a 734 Business Research Quarterly 28(3) particular action or decision (Gigerenzer & Brighton, 2009; Sitkin & Pablo, 1992), such as economic gains, efficiency improvement, new product or service development, market expansion, resource sharing, and knowledge transfer. In this regard, business relationships are inherently uncertain, as they involve multiple external factors, such as market conditions, economic policies, and technological changes, among others, that can impact these relationship’s outcomes (Ganesan, 1994). Research has shown that trust can facilitate risk-taking by reducing uncertainty and increasing confidence in the reliability and competence of others (Mayer et al., 1995; Mishra, 1996). Based on our theoretical concept of greenwashing as an act of (interpersonal) trust in business relationships, being in a scenario of uncertainty, with uncertain economic results, could affect the commercial relationship, trust in the common business, and perception of a manager toward his or her commercial partner in case the latter carries out greenwashing. Sharma et al. (2007) showed that a firm’s environmental strategy could help decrease the effect of uncertainty in strategic decision-making, thereby increasing the use of implicit relationships between parties. In this regard, some scholars, such as Ferrón-Vílchez et al. (2021), have shown that managerial decision-making could be influenced by the disclosure of the environmental strategy of the other party in a business relationship, especially when greenwashing exists. When a manager perceives that one stakeholder is a greenwasher, it affects the decision on whether to establish (or not) business relationships with that stakeholder. In this way, if greenwashing is confirmed to exist, thereby violating the trust, the relationship can result in negative outcomes such as a decrease in the willingness to engage in future transactions (Moorman et al., 1993). In this sense, we argue that perceiving greenwashing has a negative impact on trust and willingness to engage in future transactions may be reduced. Thus, we hypothesize: Hypothesis 1 (H1). Perceived greenwashing has a negative effect on a manager’s willingness to deal with a greenwasher. As mentioned earlier, trust is a key factor in business relationships in scenarios of uncertainty, that is, in situations in which the economic results depend on variables out of control of the involved parties (Doney & Cannon, 1997). However, the role of trust will not be as relevant in business relationships with a scenario of certainty (Brammer et al., 2012), that is, in which the economic results are guaranteed. Occasionally, there may be business relationships where the results of this collaboration may be guaranteed or highly predictable. This may be as a result of a previous collaborative relationship, such as a long history of reliable results, or due to contractual clauses or agreements, such as franchise agreements or long-term sales. If there are certainty results as the mentioned ones, the impact of the violation of trust may be less significant (Brammer et al., 2012). That is, in the so-called certain result scenarios, the impact of the breach of trust due to the perception of greenwashing will be less than in the scenarios with uncertain results. In this case, the parties may be more willing to continue the B2B relationship, even if they are not entirely sure about the other party’s honesty in environmental terms. Scholars have shown evidence in this regard. For example, Liao et al. (2017) found that when a supplier engaged in opportunistic behavior, such as dishonesty, but still delivered high-quality products, the level of trust between the buyer and supplier was still positively related to the buyer’s satisfaction and willingness to continue the B2B relationship. Therefore, it can be argued that while trust is crucial in uncertain situations, it may not be as important when dealing with known results. Thus, we hypothesize: Hypothesis 2 (H2). The manager’s willingness to deal with a greenwasher is less affected by perceived greenwashing in the scenario of certainty than in scenario of uncertainty. Greenwashing and managerial trust Mayer et al.’s (1995) trust model showed several factors that have a significant influence on the organizational trust relationship and that are connected to the notion of greenwashing, specifically the trustor’s propensity to trust and perceived risk in business contexts. We consider that, in addition to these two factors, a third factor is needed to complement the trust-based causes that affect, at the individual level, business relationships when one of the parties involved in the relationship engages in greenwashing activities. This factor is the importance a manager attributes to corporate reputation. A firm’s reputation is critical in building trust with different stakeholders, and negative information about its reputation can significantly reduce stakeholders’ trust (Kim, 2019; Norheim-Hansen, 2015). As greenwashing can be seen as an attempt to mislead about a firm’s environmental practices (Seele & Gatti, 2017), it can potentially damage a firm’s reputation if uncovered/found/ discovered. As these three factors are important, we provide below explanations for their influence on trust in B2B relationships individually. Greenwashing and propensity to trust. Trust is not a onesided characteristic: both parties in a business relationship must be willing to trust each other (Gulati, 1995). Thus, it is important to analyze the propensity to trust of individuals involved in a business relationship, that is, the extent to which an individual is more or less trusting. Rotter (1967, Valero-Gil et al. 735 p. 651) defined interpersonal trust as “an expectancy held by an individual or a group that the word, promise, verbal or written statement of another individual or group can be relied upon.” Furthermore, Mayer and Davis (1999, p. 124) argued that “a trustor will be willing to be vulnerable to another party based both on the trustor’s propensity to trust other people in general, and on the trustor’s perception that the particular trustee is trustworthy.” We extrapolated this rationale to the context of greenwashing, interpreting that the more susceptible the manager is to trust, the more the negative effects of greenwashing on the willingness to deal with a greenwasher. Decision-makers with a high propensity to trust could feel more cheated and damaged when they perceive the existence of greenwashing in their counterparts. In this sense, studies based on consumers’ trust on Internet service providers have shown that trust has significant impacts on decision-makers’ repurchase decision (e.g., Kim et al., 2009; Rahi et al., 2021; Videlaine & Scaringella, 2019). For instance, Rahi et al. (2021) found that, to retain customers, information technology-based service providers should consider that trust boosts user intention toward continued use of online banking services. These ideas in the e-commerce context could be easily transferred to environmental management issues as, in both cases, decision-makers (i.e., consumers or managers) have to trust voluntary tools (i.e., online apps or environmental initiatives) that produce intangible results (i.e., virtual services or environmental performance). In addition, it is essential to consider that the degree of uncertainty in decision-making determines the degree of trust’s necessity (Zand, 1972). In situations of high uncertainty, individuals’ propensity to trust can affect the level of trust developed in a relationship and the subsequent outcomes (Doney & Cannon, 1997). However, when outcomes are certain/assured, the importance of trust may decrease and other factors such as social norms, legitimacy, or compliance with legal requirements may play a more significant role (Mayer et al., 1995). Thus, while trust is crucial in uncertain situations, it may not be as important when dealing with assured outcomes. Thus, we hypothesize: Hypothesis 3 (H3). The negative effect of perceived greenwashing on a manager’s willingness to deal with a greenwasher is stronger in the presence of greater levels of propensity to trust and only in the uncertainty scenario. Greenwashing and risk aversion. Risk aversion, defined as the opposite of the willingness to take risks (Cable & Judge, 1994; Judge et al., 1999), is associated with a decision-maker’s security (Judge et al., 1999), which can be substituted through trust relationships (Schoorman et al., 2007). Research has shown that individuals with high levels of risk aversion may be less willing to engage in risky business ventures. For instance, Fellner and Maciejovsky (2007) reported a negative relation between risk aversion and market activity—the higher the degree of risk aversion, the lower the market activity in terms of concluding trades. Sharma and Tarp (2018) demonstrated that risk aversion predicts lower revenue growth and positively correlates with firms adopting safety measures. Risk aversion is also crucial in accepting or rejecting business collaborations (Azzone et al., 1997). For example, Stadtler and Lin (2017) argued that in uncertain scenarios firms managed by risk-averse individuals are less willing to start collaborating projects than firms managed by risk lovers. In the case of greenwashing, Ferrón-Vílchez et al. (2021) conclude that managers’ strategic response to greenwashers is to reject possible collaborations with them since the perceived risk of this type of partners is higher. In this sense, risk aversion is translated into a lower disposition to carry out commercial relations with these partners since the lack of trust is not buffering the effect of lower levels of security of these collaborations, given the uncertainty involved (Judge et al., 1999; Schoorman et al., 2007). However, it is essential to remark that risk aversion is considered relevant in situations where outcomes are uncertain (Kogut & Kulatilaka, 1994). Individuals who are more risk averse tend to be more cautious in their business dealings and may require greater levels of reassurance before committing to a partnership (Makadok, 2001), which is not required if outcomes are certain. Overall, the degree of trust needed to balance out risk aversion effects may depend on the level of uncertainty, leading to a greater need for trust in situations with higher levels of uncertainty (Lewicki & Bunker, 1996). Therefore, in B2B relationships under certain scenarios, risk aversion may not be a key factor in decision-making, and in consequence, trust is not called to act. Thus, Hypothesis 4 (H4). The negative effect of perceived greenwashing on a manager’s willingness to deal with a greenwasher is stronger in the presence of greater levels of risk aversion and only in the uncertainty scenario. Greenwashing and reputation. Corporate reputation is defined as “a perceptual representation of a company’s past actions and future prospects that describe the firm’s appeal to all of its key constituents” (Fombrun, 1996, p. 165). Norheim-Hansen (2015, p. 814), who explored how environmental reputation could influence trust in forming strategic alliances, conceptualized environmental reputation as “the level of environmental credibility attributed to a firm by its stakeholders.” Kim (2019) found that, for consumers, more trust in a firm’s corporate social responsibility commitment leads to a more positive perceived reputation. 736 Business Research Quarterly 28(3) In exploring the importance of corporate reputation, Keh and Xie (2009) showed that, in the presence of mistakes or scandals, firms with positive corporate reputation suffer more than those with poor reputation owing to the effect from disconfirmation (i.e., expectations were higher than the actual results). Related to corporate scandals, greenwashing can be considered a reputation-damaging event, exposing companies to significant reputational risk (Coombs & Holladay, 2015; Gatzert, 2015; Siano et al., 2017). Thus, an individual who highly values corporate reputation will be less willing to establish business relationships with a greenwasher because, if the greenwasher is discovered (Seele & Gatti, 2017), the decision-maker might feel that his or her firm would, in one way or another, be tainted or implicated (Yang et al., 2020). Therefore, due to a greenwashing scandal, the corporate image of different business partners could be adversely affected, and this would negatively affect the corporate reputation. This situation is closely related to the contagion effect (Siano et al., 2017; Skarmeas & Leonidou, 2013). “The contagion effect of being linked to a greenwasher could be interpreted as a negative motivation by managers, because it could harm the related firm’s reputation” (Ferrón-Vílchez et al., 2021, p. 863). It is worth mentioning that the importance of reputation is only relevant in uncertainty scenarios because the potential for negative outcomes exists (Rindova & Fombrun, 1999). In uncertain scenarios, a company’s good reputation serves as a signal of their trustworthiness and reliability, providing a level of assurance to managers in their decision-making process and reducing asymmetric information (Fombrun & Shanley, 1990). In situations with certainty, the importance of reputation may diminish, as predictable results eliminate the risks associated with the business relationship results. Thus, when uncertainty exists, managers who place a high value on reputation may decide not to engage with a greenwashing firm. Hence, we hypothesize: Hypothesis 5 (H5). The negative effect of perceived greenwashing on the willingness to deal with a greenwasher is stronger in the presence of greater levels of importance of reputation and only in the uncertainty scenario. Figure 1 summarizes our theoretical model presented in this section. Methods Experimental design and procedure We designed a between-subjects field experiment with four experimental groups to test our hypotheses. Given our focus on managerial perceptions and behaviors, this methodology offers irrefutable benefits and positive implications for this analysis (Delmas & Aragon-Correa, 2016). We used QualtricsTM for experiment management and participants’ involvement. We informed the participants that we had research interest in their personal reactions when they are faced with certain information about a firm. They were also informed that they would be required to answer some questions. The experimental design involved completing four steps. First, we collected data through an initial questionnaire from participants on confounding variables and the information needed to measure their propensity to trust, risk aversion, and reputation attitudes as recommended by previous studies (e.g., Castañeda-García et al., 2020). Second, we randomly assigned all participants to one of the four experimental groups, exposing them to different stimuli through a firm’s website and some related media information. Third, we asked the participants to respond to the questionnaire to confirm the stimuli reception with some manipulation checks. They were also asked about their perceptions and willingness to maintain business relationships with the firm presented in the treatment. Finally, they were requested to provide some sociodemographic information. Participants and sample Our final sample included 125 managers from medium and large Spanish firms. Participants were recruited through a representative (on size and industries) panel of Spanish managers. Owing to the random participants’ assignment and the measures applied to guarantee the quality of the final answers, the number of cases in each treatment group ranged from 30 to 32. Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics of the participants and the companies they serve. All participants were informed about the research aims of the experiment and the data protection and privacy policy. They provided their informed consent for their anonymous participation in the study and were fully debriefed at the end of the study. We also consulted the ethical committee and personal data protection office of the universities involved in the experiment design. The approving bodies confirmed that the design was in accordance with the privacy and ethical standards without any conflict of interest. Measures Stimulus development. Stimulus development is a crucial aspect of social experimentation, as it involves creating and refining stimuli used to elicit participants’ perceptions of the phenomenon collected by the main variable of interest, greenwashing1 in this case. In view of the original differentiated characteristics of greenwashing presented by Delmas and Burbano (2011), we followed Ferrón-Vilchez et al. (2021) to construct our stimulus as a combination of Valero-Gil et al. 737 environmental performance and environmental corporate communication manipulation. This combination of positive versus poor environmental performance and environmental versus general communication resulted in four treatment groups (Figure 2): (1) Greenwashing (GW) involves poor performance and environmental communication; (2) Brownwashing (BW) requires positive performance and general communication; (3) Greenest (GR) requires positive performance and environmental communication; and (4) Passivist (PS) requires poor performance and general communication. Our main target group was GW, while BW, GR, and PS acted as control groups in our analysis of greenwashing managerial reactions to isolate other effects related to environmental performance or communication. We operationalized this manipulation through a fictitious chemical Spanish firm, Nitrachemical, to elude any bias in terms of previous personal opinions and perceptions (de Vries et al., 2015; Nyilasy et al., 2014; Parguel et al., 2011). On corporate communication, following the recommendations of Parguel et al. (2011) on the use of a website interface in experimental designs, we created two versions of a Nitrachemical webpage to manipulate corporate communication. We created an environmental message using a typical interface for a corporate webpage in both versions but including a clear environmental message in the firm’s mission, vision, and values and using environmental-related images and design for the environmental version of the webpage. On environmental performance, we relied on Nyilasy et al. (2014), who constructed positive and negative environmental performance events in terms of written cases. Then, similar to prior studies on experimental design (Nyilasy et al., 2014; Parguel et al., 2011), we created two fictitious media news about an environmental award to manipulate the positive/poor environmental performance: one of them narrating that Nitrachemical won an environmental award based on its positive environmental performance (Parguel et al., 2011) and the other narrating that it did not win the environmental award specifically due to its negative environmental performance. A copy of media news (including their translation) and Nitrandalsa webpage have been added to the Supplementary Material file to clarify how we presented the stimuli to the participants during the experiment. After the treatment phase, we included four items in the questionnaire confirming the planned stimulus reception in terms of both environmental performance and environmental communication as the first manipulation check. The questionnaire also included eight items adapted from Leonidou and Skarmeas (2017) for measuring perceived greenwashing as the second manipulation check, to guarantee the suitability of the experimental design. Table 2 shows the items included in the questionnaire for confirming the stimulus reception and measuring the perceived level of greenwashing. Items were scored using a 7-point Likert-type scale where 1 = totally disagree and 7 = totally agree with the sentence presented in the item. Managerial characteristics H3(-) H4(-) H5(-) *H2effect is less negative that H1 effect Certainty scenario Perceived greenwashing Willingness to deal with a greenwasher in a B2B relationship Willingness to deal with a greenwasher in a B2B relationship Uncertainty scenario H1(-)* H2(-)* Risk aversion Importance of reputation Propensity to trust Figure 1. Theoretical model. 738 Business Research Quarterly 28(3) Dependent variable. We measured the participants’ general willingness to maintain business relationships using a multiple-item scale including nine affirmations adapted from the literature (Chatterji et al., 2016; de la Torre-Ruiz et al., 2015; FerrónVílchez et al., 2021). Table 3 lists the items used for measuring the willingness to accept different business decisions related to the fictitious firm. All cases used a 7-point Likert-type scale, from “1” implying “totally disagree” to “7” denoting “totally agree” with the sentence presented in the item. We asked the participants to offer two different answers for every item to capture the willingness to maintain business relationships under uncertain and certain results scenarios. Thus, respondents were aimed to value their willingness to accept these business decisions when economic results are both guaranteed and unsure. Moderation variables. To measure our different moderation variables, we used the instrument’s measurement of seven items originally proposed by Rotter (1967) and more recently adapted and updated by Mayer and Davis (1999) and David Schoorman et al. (2016) to measure the participants’ propensity to trust. In the case of the participants’ risk aversion, we included a single item following the adaptation of Casaló et al. (2015) from the original scale of Jaworski and Kohli (1993). Finally, we measured the importance of reputation by using five items adapted from Norheim-Hansen (2015). In all cases, we used a 7-point Likert-type scale, as mentioned earlier. Table 3 offers detailed information on these items. We also controlled for participants’ sociodemographic and professional conditions, such as age, sex, professional experience (number of years/months in total and in the current position), whether the participants had received environmental training, and some descriptive information from the firms they worked at. We also accounted for perceptions and opinions that could affect the responses, such as the participants’ green attitude level and their feelings about media information and the chemical sector. Scale evaluation. We ran different tests to evaluate our scales and confirm the suitability of our measures to gather data on the theoretical constructs. In terms of reliability and internal consistency, Cronbach’s alpha indicators (greenwashing [0.94], business relationships [0.95], propensity to trust [0.75], importance of reputation [0.90]), composite reliability values (greenwashing [0.86], business relationships [0.90], propensity to trust [0.80], importance of reputation [0.83]), and high items correlations (greenwashing [>0.44], business relationships [>0.48], propensity to trust [>0.36], importance of reputation [>0.44]) confirmed the suitability of our measures Table 1. Descriptive statistics. Characteristic Categories Sample Gender Female 33.6% Male 66.4% Age 25–35 years 13.6% 36–40 years 16.8% 41–45 years 26.4% 46–50 years 20.0% 51–60 years 17.6% More than 60 years 5.6% Professional experience Less than 13 years 22.4% 13–20 years 32.8% 21–25 years 17.6% More than 25 years 27.2% Career time in the position Less than 5 years 24% 5–10 years 24.8% 11–15 years 25.6% More than 15 years 25.6% Sector Heavy industry 2.4% Light industry 12% Primary sector 3.2% Wholesale 4.8% Construction 2.4% Logistics 10.4% Utilities 5.6% Finance and insurance 8.8% Hospitality 5.6% Information and communications technology 21.6% Education 8% Health 5.6% Other services 9.6% Size Medium enterprise 34.4% Large enterprise 65.6% Environmental training Yes 45.6% No 54.4% Greenwashing (GW) Passivist (PS) Greenest (GR) Brownwashing (BW) Environmental COMMUNICATION General U U N N Poor PERFORMANCE Posive Figure 2. Groups of treatment description. Valero-Gil et al. 745 aversion and considers corporate reputation important, leading to a lower probability for the business collaboration to start or continue. Conclusion In addition to the above contributions of our results to prior literature, this study offers several important implications from a theoretical perspective. On the one hand, it aimed to reveal, through experimental design, how greenwashing affects managerial decision-making in a universal way, without focusing on a specific group of stakeholders. Previous literature discussed how the existence of greenwashing affects the relationship of companies with a specific group of stakeholders. For example, in the context of greenwashing, some studies focused on a company’s relationship with its suppliers or other members of the value chain (e.g., Keh & Xie, 2009; Pizzetti et al., 2021), partners in a strategic alliance (e.g., Norheim-Hansen, 2015), nongovernmental organizations (Berrone et al., 2017), or its consumers (e.g., Park et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2020) considering the relationship with each stakeholder group individually. Our correlation results among items measuring the willingness to maintain business relationships with different stakeholders were very high (M = 0.66). Thus, in the presence of greenwashing, managers tend toward monolithic behaviors in the decision-making process, as their responses and reactions depend more on their individual characteristics than on the stakeholders’ group (under the suspicion of greenwashing) they relate to. This is in line with MurilloLuna et al. (2008) who found no differences in environmental interests across stakeholder groups and asserted that there was a single dimension of environmental demand. On the other hand, our results confirm the role of managers’ individual attitudes related to trust in strategic decisionmaking, especially concerning environmental issues (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012). We analyzed how a manager’s individual characteristics that are intimately related to trust (i.e., propensity to trust, risk aversion, and importance of corporate reputation) affect the negative effect of perceived greenwashing. Our results elucidate strategic decision-making when greenwashing is perceived, extending current knowledge of its consequences on the analysis of managers’ individual characteristics. In this sense, our work is especially interesting, given the scarcity of studies focusing on the personal characteristics of managers when making decisions affecting the global nature of a company, especially in voluntary management practices (Aguinis & Glavas, 2012). Furthermore, from a methodological perspective, this study offers two essential contributions. On the one hand, we offer a better understanding of the phenomenon of greenwashing, taking advantage of an experimental design in which the participants are actual managers with experience in evaluating and selecting business partners instead of being prospective managers, students, consumers, or the public. For instance, Ferrón-Vílchez et al. (2021) used a sample of 243 undergraduate students from business and management degrees; Park et al. (2014) used a sample of 145 business school students; and Pizzetti et al. (2021) involved public participants from an Amazon Mechanical Turk. Here, we used a sample of 125 managers to confirm that when perceived greenwashing exists, the willingness to collaborate with a greenwasher decreases. On the other hand, we propose a three-step control process to ensure the quality and validity of the experiment: controlling the data collection of the experiment before, during, and after the experiment execution. This threephase control method is based on the traditional perspective of type control concerning the time of occurrence: a priori or feedforward, concurrent, and feedback control (Flamholtz, 1996). Implications for managers and regulators The pressing social awareness of climate change and the need to be sustainable have led many companies to adopt symbolic environmental behaviors by simply disclosing environmental information without engaging in actual or meaningful activities. We analyze the consequences of carrying out such symbolic practices on business relationships with other companies; we specifically study the response of a company’s managers to such behavior in a (potential) partner. Our results provide theoretical and empirical contributions as well as implications for practitioners. We reaffirm that managers who observe a greenwashing behavior in their counterpart are less willing to deal with that greenwasher. This fact has repercussions for managers, as it allows them to observe the behavior of a potential partner when they perceive a symbolic environmental profile, and demonstrates the importance of their intrinsic characteristics in making corporate collaboration decisions. The results obtained may also have repercussions on regulators responsible for developing normative bodies for avoiding this type of symbolic practices. In this sense, the European Commission is launching the “Green Claims” Directive (European Commission, 2023), which intends to oblige companies to use credible and trustworthy labels and claims. Our implications result also essential to advance in the study and proposal of ways, variables, and concrete measures or items that can detect greenwashers. Similarly, they also offer evidence of the negative consequences for companies that carry out such practices, which will be increasingly gaining importance in the future. Limitations and future research This study has some limitations. First, although we carried out an extensive experiment, the intention to maintain or initiate business relationships with a greenwasher does not imply an actual business risk. Thus, even if the situations 746 Business Research Quarterly 28(3) of uncertainty and certainty are contemplated for managers participating in the experiment, the risk of carrying out business relationships has no real consequences for such managers and their company. Second, this work had a transversal nature; the analysis could be contrasted and complemented with a sample of managers using longitudinal analyses. Third, future studies can extend our implications by introducing variables related to perceived fairness or business ethics. It would be interesting to performance additional studies on the willingness to deal with a greenwasher in scenarios of certainty and uncertainty when the economic results vary for the company that performs the greenwashing. As in Bazerman and Moore’s (2012) ultimatum game, a manager’s decision to maintain business relationships with someone who is not behaving in a fair way—a greenwasher—may change when the greenwasher has guaranteed economic results. Acknowledgements The authors thank Prof. Vicente Salas Fumás and Prof. Carlos Orus Sanclemente for providing help during the research. Declaration of conflicting interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was partially supported by several research projects granted by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (project numbers ECO2017-88222-P and ECO2017–86305C4-3-R), the Govern ment of Aragón (Group Reference CREVALOR: S42_17R), FEDER 2014–2020 “Construyendo Europa desde Aragón,” and FEDER 2014–2020 Andalucía (project number A-SEJ-192-UGR20). ORCID iD Vera Ferrón-Vílchez https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2475-4686 Supplemental material Supplemental material for this article is available online. Note 1. 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