當企業面臨較高的政治成本壓力時，是否會策略性地選擇強化環境、社會及公司治理（ESG）資訊揭露，而非透過實際提升ESG績效的方式，塑造與實質表現不一致之正面形象？而分析師的角色能夠削弱政治成本壓力下的企業漂綠行為嗎？為回答上述問題，本研究以2019年至2024年中國A股上市公司為研究對象，使用公司規模、環境敏感產業及環境保護稅負擔率作為衡量政治成本壓力的代理變數，探討企業政治成本與ESG漂綠行為之關聯性，以及分析師關注之調節效果。實證結果部分支持企業之政治成本愈高，愈傾向進行漂綠。具體而言，公司規模較大以及屬於環境敏感產業之企業，皆具有較高的ESG漂綠程度，而環境保護稅負擔率則未呈現顯著關聯。此外，分析師關注會削弱公司規模與ESG漂綠程度之間的正向關係，但在環境敏感產業與環境保護稅負擔率所代表之政治成本面向下，則未呈現顯著調節效果。整體而言，本研究提供政治成本壓力對企業ESG漂綠行為影響之實證證據，並揭示分析師關注對此關係之抑制效果。

When firms face greater political cost pressure, do they strategically enhance ESG disclosure rather than improve substantive ESG performance to project a positive image inconsistent with their actual performance? Moreover, can analyst following weaken the positive relationship between political cost pressure and corporate greenwashing? To address these questions, this study uses firm size, environmentally sensitive industries, and the environmental protection tax burden ratio as proxies for political cost pressure, analyzing the impact of political costs on corporate greenwashing and the moderating role of analyst following using data on Chinese A-share listed companies from 2019 to 2024.
First, the empirical results suggest that firms facing higher political costs are more likely to engage in greenwashing. Specifically, larger firms and firms in environmentally sensitive industries exhibit higher levels of ESG greenwashing, whereas the environmental protection tax burden ratio is not significantly associated with ESG greenwashing. Analyst following weakens the positive association between firm size and ESG greenwashing, while no significant moderating effect is found for environmentally sensitive industries or the environmental protection tax burden ratio. Overall, this study contributes to the literature by offering empirical insights into the impact of political cost pressure on corporate greenwashing and highlighting the constraining effect of analyst following on this relationship.

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