Sustainability Reporting under Scrutiny: A Systematic Literature Review of Bias and Greenwashing

This research intends to collate and analyze all of the available literature concerning the biases present in sustainability disclosures and greenwashing by using the systematic literature review technique. This study analyzes the reasons that cause firms to have biased financial reports, including allegations of greenwashing, in regard to company identity. In this research, 45 studies which were used as samples were drawn from the sample pool. All steps for sample selection used in this research study have outline several steps for quality and usefulness of the information against set criteria as boundaries. In addition to this, the research sample was drawn to obtain information on the reasons and factors that lead firms to have biased sustainability disclosures, or greenwashing. Subsequently, also on the basis of this study there are five overriding constraints on the bias and cleansing of sustainability reports which were found to unclear and hidden information, concealed unethical practices, evading regulations, different priorities, and unsustainable. This study also found that the firms have limited capacity to assess the social and environmental consequences of the work done by their firms. Information gathered from this research will remain applicable as far as further investigations are concerned.