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ABSTRACT This study examines how firms use politically connected philanthropic donations to shape environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance and engage in greenwashing. Using an instrumental variable approach with political contributions as instruments, we employ two‐stage least squares regression on S&P 500 companies (2010–2023) at aggregate, sectoral, and component levels. Results reveal that companies systematically deploy politically connected philanthropic donations to simultaneously improve self‐reported ESG scores while increasing actual ESG controversies. This behavior is particularly pronounced in environmentally sensitive industries including energy, utilities, and industrial sectors, which face intense environmental and social institutional pressures. Our interaction analysis confirms this ESG‐washing behavior, demonstrating that firms with higher reported ESG performance and greater philanthropic donations face more actual controversies. This research contributes to strategic management literature by extending the understanding of ceremonial conformity under heightened transparency, revealing politically connected philanthropy as a novel greenwashing mechanism, and demonstrating how organizations strategically manage stakeholders' demands through impression management, creating policy‐practice disconnection.
Hasan et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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