Beyond a definition of greenwashing: from different types to different impacts

This study aims to enrich greenwashing literature by developing a theoretical framework that blends elements of legitimacy theory and signalling theory. The first objective of the research is to detect and analyse the main greenwashing levels from a business and managerial perspective. In particular, we aim to understand and describe how and what type of greenwashing practices companies adopt to ‘talk the talk without walk the walk’, defining the different areas, at the decision and application levels, of misleading communication. The main hypothesis is that different theorized levels and areas of greenwashing and related types and methodologies of misleading communication have different impacts on stakeholders, and lead to different reactions.