| dc.description.abstract | As sustainability issues gain increasing attention, ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) has become an important metric for corporate evaluation. This study aims to explore the impact of board structure and R&D investment on greenwashing behavior in Taiwan′s biotechnology and medical industry from 2013 to 2023, analyzing the difference between corporate ESG apparent actions and actual practices through TESG ratings and carbon emission levels to assess whether companies adhere to their environmental declarations.
This paper employs ordered probit and fixed effects models, using data from the Taiwan Economic Journal (TEJ) database, covering 118 companies and 1,295 observations. The study finds that the proportion of female directors in the board has a significant negative impact on ESG scores but significantly reduces carbon emissions, indicating that female directors do not contribute to greenwashing. The proportion of independent directors has a significant positive impact on ESG scores but no significant effect on carbon emissions, suggesting that independent directors may contribute to greenwashing. Finally, R&D investment (current and up to three lags) has no significant impact on either measure, being unable to claim its role in greenwashing behavior.
The government and regulatory authorities should encourage companies to increase the proportion of female directors in the board to promote gender diversity, which not only strengthens corporate governance structure but also facilitates the planning and execution of environmental initiatives. Given that independent directors may lead to greenwashing behavior, this paper recommends tightening the responsibilities and oversight of independent directors. The government can enact relevant laws and regulations to enhance the accountability of independent directors on environmental and social issues and evaluate their performance on a regular basis. | en_US |