an analysis of social factors influencing greenwashing

Greenwashing is one of the emerging social harms in industry and companies, which can be considered a form of organizational hypocrisy and dissemination of misleading information to deceive citizens; in other words, greenwashing is the instrumental use of the concept of environmental protection with the aim of gaining economic profit.the purpose of this study is to identify and sociologically analyze the social factors influencing greenwashing, employing the grey dematel technique to determine the causal and interactive relationships among these factors. the statistical population of the study includes professors of the faculty of economics, management, and social sciences of shiraz university. the sampling method was purposive sampling and the sample size was determined to be 12 people. data were collected using library research methods and the questionnaire instrument.the results of the analysis using the grey dematel technique showed that the variables of social stress, social isolation, feeling of social insecurity, and decreased social participation had the greatest impact on greenwashing. it was also found that the variables of social distrust, physical and psychological risks, environmental risks, and reduced organizational creativity received the greatest impact from the greenwashing variable. in addition, in terms of importance, the variables of social distrust with a value of 6.52, physical and psychological risks with a value of 6.38, environmental risks with a value of 6.12, decreased organizational creativity with a value of 5.97, and decreased social participation with a value of 5.80 have the most importance.by reinforcing distrust and increasing social stress, greenwashing negatively affects both the mental and physical health of individuals and weakens the dynamism and efficiency of organizations, ultimately creating an obstacle to achieving sustainable development greenwashing is one of the emerging social harms in industry and companies, which can be considered a form of organizational hypocrisy and dissemination of misleading information to deceive citizens; in other words, greenwashing is the instrumental use of the concept of environmental protection with the aim of gaining economic profit.the purpose of this study is to identify and sociologically analyze the social factors influencing greenwashing, employing the grey dematel technique to determine the causal and interactive relationships among these factors. the statistical population of the study includes professors of the faculty of economics, management, and social sciences of shiraz university. the sampling method was purposive sampling and the sample size was determined to be 12 people. data were collected using library research methods and the questionnaire instrument.the results of the analysis using the grey dematel technique showed that the variables of social stress, social isolation, feeling of social insecurity, and decreased social participation had the greatest impact on greenwashing. it was also found that the variables of social distrust, physical and psychological risks, environmental risks, and reduced organizational creativity received the greatest impact from the greenwashing variable. in addition, in terms of importance, the variables of social distrust with a value of 6.52, physical and psychological risks with a value of 6.38, environmental risks with a value of 6.12, decreased organizational creativity with a value of 5.97, and decreased social participation with a value of 5.80 have the most importance.by reinforcing distrust and increasing social stress, greenwashing negatively affects both the mental and physical health of individuals and weakens the dynamism and efficiency of organizations, ultimately creating an obstacle to achieving sustainable development