Why Firms Hide Their Light: Brownwash, Silence, and Bifurcated Stakeholder Communication

In the face of rapidly increasing public pressure, numerous firms are rushing to trumpet their environmental and social achievements on net-zero, ESG metrics, and justice and inequality commitments to anyone who will listen. While claims of greenwashing abound and are the subject of increasing scrutiny, many firms making real changes have, paradoxically, chosen to downplay and understate their accomplishments. In this paper we draw on emerging literature on brownwashing and silence to offer a comprehensive study of why and how firms undertake such activities, linking extant insights as well as offering a novel model and reconceptualization. Our rich qualitative study with leaders at over 50 North American wineries allows us to offer in depth and in situ insights. Our findings, first, highlight new mechanisms of non-communication not yet identified in this emerging literature. Second, our analysis offers the important insight that firms don’t simply hide their achievements in a reactive manner to avoid negative stakeholder pressures, as in current theory, but also do so when their practices are leading or more proactive than those of stakeholders. Finally, we examine three strategies by which firms divide and conquer through what we term bifurcated stakeholder communications: locational, channel, and temporal. This study also has important practical implications as society, policymakers, and NGOs seek to drive industry change on social and environmental grand challenges, and strive to engage firms publicly in leading change and addressing these challenges.