Corporate ESG Greenwashing: Does Regulatory Proximity Matter?

ABSTRACT Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) greenwashing undermines sustainable development, yet the influence of regulatory proximity on oversight is understudied. By introducing the “distance decay effect” from geoeconomics into ESG misconduct research and using a sample of Chinese listed firms from 2009 to 2022, this study reveals a counterintuitive finding: Proximity to the regional offices of the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) is positively associated with ESG greenw