Why companies might under‐communicate their efforts for sustainable development and what can be done?

Alice Falchi (), Gilles Grolleau () and Naoufel Mzoughi
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Alice Falchi: ESSCA - ESSCA – École supérieure des sciences commerciales d'Angers = ESSCA Business School

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Abstract: In contrast with the increasing green demands from various stakeholders, corporations might prefer green blushing, that is, deliberately avoiding communicating their efforts for sustainable development. Surprisingly, these companies make substantial green achievements, but decide not to communicate their greenness. Using a broad literature review on green blushing and a conceptual reasoning backed up by anecdotal evidence, we expose the likely consequences of under-communicating green achievements and develop several rationales that explain this apparent puzzle. We also propose that silent or timid corporations can make the best of two worlds, by taking advantage from communicating their greenness while avoiding its main pitfalls. We suggest practical ways to do it.

Keywords: green blushing; green communication; greenhushing; stakeholders; sustainable innovations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-ene and nep-env
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.inrae.fr/hal-03545817v1
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Published in Business Strategy and the Environment, 2022, 31 (5), pp.1938-1946. ⟨10.1002/bse.2991⟩

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Journal Article: Why companies might under‐communicate their efforts for sustainable development and what can be done? (2022)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-03545817

DOI: 10.1002/bse.2991

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