Research on the Impact of Digital and Intelligent Transformation on ESG Greenwashing Behaviors of Enterprises

Digital transformation is the core direction of the integration of the digital economy and green development, and the key path to solving the ESG greenwashing problem of enterprises and promoting sustainable development. This paper takes A-share listed companies from 2012 to 2024 as the research object and empirically examines the impact effect, mechanism of action and heterogeneity characteristics of digital and intelligent transformation on ESG greenwashing behavior of enterprises. The study found that: (1) Digital transformation has a significant inhibitory effect on ESG greenwashing behavior of enterprises, and this conclusion remains valid after endogeneity treatments such as instrumental variable method and Heckman two-stage method, as well as multiple robustness tests such as lag one period, sample screening, and addition of control variables; (2) Digital transformation mainly suppresses ESG greenwashing through three pathways: regulatory empowerment by improving the quality of internal control, reducing opportunistic motives by alleviating financing constraints, and compressing greenwashing space by reducing information asymmetry, forming a synergy of internal control effect, financing constraint effect and information asymmetry effect; (3) There are significant contextual differences in this inhibitory effect: at the micro level, non-state-owned enterprises and mature enterprises respond more positively to digital and intelligent transformation; Macroscopically, the digital empowerment effect is more prominent in high-tech and heavily polluting industries, which is related to the differences in industry technology foundation and environmental regulatory pressure. The research findings provide empirical evidence and decision-making references for regulatory authorities to address the chaos of ESG greenwashing and for enterprises to drive high-quality and sustainable development through digitalization.