Taking Off the Green Mask: A Bibliometric Review of ESG Disclosures, Greenwashing Measurement, and Market Consequences

Abstract

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure now sits at the centre of how capital is allocated, yet the spread of corporate greenwashing puts the credibility of that system at risk. This paper maps the greenwashing and ESG disclosure literature through a bibliometric analysis of 4,162 articles retrieved from Scopus and processed in VOSviewer for the period 2015 to 2026. Annual output rose from 32 articles in 2015 to 768 in 2024 and has continued to climb; the corpus carries an h-index of 151 and total citations above 114,000. China, the United States and the United Kingdom lead by volume. The keyword analysis of the full corpus produces four research clusters: ESG governance and reporting; environmental policy and green finance; consumer behaviour and greenwashing detection; and ESG rating divergence and environmental impact. Two further analyses sharpen the picture. A recency cut covering 2024 to 2026 shows newer terms moving to the front of the field, among them greenhushing, brownwashing, double materiality and the CSRD. A top-cited cut applying a threshold of 100 citations reveals a foundation built on legitimacy, institutional, signalling and stakeholder theory. The bibliometric work is read alongside a critical review of recent high-impact studies covering greenwashing typology, the ESG rating paradox, market consequences and governance. The paper identifies where the evidence is thin, in particular the field’s heavy reliance on proxy measures of greenwashing and proposes a research agenda built around verified-incident data, second-generation greenwashing under mandatory disclosure, and the redesign of rating methodologies.