Institutional Pressures and Environmental Management Practices: The Moderating Effects of Environmental Commitment and Resource Availability

With the deterioration of the environment and the shortage of natural resources, firms are facing increasing pressures to implement environmental management practices in their daily operation management. Drawing on institutional theory and environmental management literatures, this research tries to explore how institutional pressures motivate firms to implement environmental management practices, and how such effects are moderated by firms' environmental commitment and resource availability. The results of a survey of 188 Chinese firms suggest that regulatory pressures and normative pressures are positively and significantly related to firms' propensity to implement environmental management practices. Moreover, the results indicate that firms' environmental commitment positively moderates the relationships between institutional pressures and environmental management practices, while firms' resource availability plays different roles depending on the types of pressure (regulatory or normative pressures). Implications and suggestions for future research are provided. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Corporate environmentalism strategy in the Spanish consumer product sector: a typology of firms

In recent years, the protection of the environment has gained a growing importance. Accordingly, small and large firms have become aware of their responsibility and begun to develop environmental strategies as an enterprising challenge. In such a situation, this study describes firms' environmental orientation and its impact on the design of corporate and marketing strategies in the Spanish consumer product sector. The purpose of this paper is to identify different groups of firms according to their environmental behaviour. The information was obtained through 81 personal interviews with firms in the final consumer product sector. With the data obtained we have conducted several exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and a cluster analysis. Findings have proved that there is a specific firm type characterized by certain variables: influence of external forces; environmental orientation; corporative and marketing strategies; size; macro‐sector and, if existing, the environment department. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Disentangling the influence of internationalization on sustainability development: Evidence from the energy sector

This paper aims to deepen our understanding of the relationship between firms' internationalization and their sustainability development. We expected firms with a higher level of internationalization to exhibit better environmental management and performance. A sample of 287 publicly traded firms in the energy and energy‐related utilities sector was used to test these relationships. We focused on the energy sector, as energy production and supply have historically accounted for the lion's share of global greenhouse gas emissions. We found that firms' level of internationalization had a positive effect on their environmental management, whereas its effect on environmental performance was not found to be significant. We also tested whether these relationships change when firms' internationalization is oriented towards developing countries. Upon a closer look, the relationship was found to be significant between internationalization towards developing countries and better environmental management, thus contributing to the line of literature that does not support the pollution haven hypothesis.     

Managerial perceptions of corporate environmentalism: interpretations from industry and strategic implications for organizations

Environmental issues are becoming increasingly important in organization theory and practice. Corporate environmentalism is emerging as a process of addressing environmental issues facing business firms. In this paper I examine managerial perceptions of corporate environmentalism and describes how key organizational members interpret the relationship between their firm and the biophysical environment. Corporate environmental orientation and environmental strategy focus are two themes of corporate environmentalism that emerge from the study. I discuss managerial perceptions of regulatory forces, public environmental concern, top management commitment and need for competitive advantage, and how perceptions of these factors might translate into environmental strategies. I conclude by discussing implications of corporate environmentalism for organizational theory and practice.     

Environmental Strategies,Upgrading and Competitive Advantage in Global Value Chains

The literature is increasingly focusing on how firms are improving their environmental performances and promoting green strategies to transform environmental constraints into new drivers of competitive advantage. This paper contributes to the literature by expanding knowledge about environmental management at the value chain level by exploring the concept of environmental upgrading and its implications in terms of economic upgrading and greening of industries. Leveraging on the global value chain and environmental managerial literature, the paper develops an integrated theoretical framework to analyse environmental upgrading trajectories and their implications in terms of firms' green strategies based on case studies in the Italian home‐furnishing industry. Empirical evidence suggests that firms develop green strategies to reduce environmental impacts while achieving economic benefits and competitiveness, which may be internal to the firm but also apply to value chains, with different implications in terms of bargaining power and value appropriation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Assessing the Comprehensiveness of Supply Chain Environmental Strategies

As environmental awareness grows, firms are expected to expand the scope of their environmental strategies beyond organisational boundaries and to address more comprehensively environmental issues in their supply chains and product life cycles. Drawing on different literature streams, international standards and corporate disclosure, this paper presents a conceptual framework for the quantitative assessment of the comprehensiveness of firms' environmental strategies. This framework allows us to capture: (i) the environmental inputs and outputs addressed, (ii) the firm versus supply chain orientation of environmental strategies, and (iii) the environmental management practices adopted by companies. We illustrate the application of this framework with a content analysis of corporate sustainability reports for a cross‐sectoral sample of sustainability leaders. Our results indicate that there is a need for greater specificity in environmental reporting and that, overall, companies remain firm‐oriented. It is also observed that supply chain orientation can generally be associated with stakeholder pressure. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Sustainability and Environmental Behaviour in Family Firms: A Longitudinal Analysis of Environment‐Related Activities,Innovation and Performance

Environmental behaviour plays an important role as concerns the public image and performance of firms, as well as for the achievement of sustainable development in society. This study investigates the behaviour of family firms regarding environment‐related activities, innovation and performance. Opposing goals are found to impact environmental behaviour of family firms, in particular the trade‐off between family firms' risk awareness and their aim of achieving socioeconomic wealth. We find that family firms initially lag regarding environment‐related activities, beneficial product, process and organizational innovations and performance. Yet, family firms catch up and show overall less volatility compared with other firms. Overall, we thus observe a convergence process between family and non‐family firms, which ultimately enables the two types of firm to achieve similar outcomes in terms of environment‐related activities, beneficial innovations and performance. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Modeling the Impacts of Corporate Commitment on Climate Change

The aim of this paper is to propose an integrative framework for understanding the determinants of business strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the impact of these determinants on performance. The proposed structural equation model is based on a survey of 319 Canadian manufacturing firms. The study calls into question the traditionally positive relationship between a firm's environmental commitment and its economic motivations. However, the results also show a win–win relationship between the commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and financial performance. This study contributes to the understanding of the motivations underlying the efforts manufacturers make to tackle climate change and their economic benefits. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Environmental commitment and manufacturing excellence: a comparative study within Canadian industry

The development of an environmental policy represents the cornerstone of an environmental management system (EMS), an essential tool that helps companies both systematically manage their environmental obligations and risks, and promote these objectives throughout the entire organization. The implementation of such policies must rest not solely upon the development of specific pollution‐reduction programmes but also upon more encompassing issues dealing with the examination of existing management systems and work procedures. This paper presents the results of a study conducted in 250 manufacturing firms. It examines factors such as manufacturing policies and competitive positioning in their role as driving forces behind environmental commitment. The study's results demonstrate that environmental commitment is often linked to sound management practices. Good relations with both employees and suppliers, participatory management and total quality management programmes appear to be intimately correlated with the existence of an environmental policy. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment     

Environmental sustainability engagement of firms: The roles of social capital,resources, and managerial entrepreneurial orientation of small and medium enterprises in Vietnam

How firms in transition economies demonstrate their strategic engagement in sustainable environmental management given their limited resources and capabilities is less understood in the literature. This study explores how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam, an exemplar of a country in transition from a closed and socialist economy to an open and liberal market, draw on their external social capital to access critical resources that are leveraged by the entrepreneurial orientation or capabilities of the firms' top management towards engagement in business-wide environmentally sustainable practices. Drawing on a database of more than 2000 firms from a large-scale survey of firms in Vietnam, this study tests the relationships between two facets of social capital, environmental management resources and environmental sustainability engagement. This study further contends that managerial entrepreneurial orientation moderates by enhancing the strategic utilisation of resources to enable firms in Vietnam to engage in environmental sustainability. The results offer novel theoretical insights and timely managerial or practical implications as well as promising directions for future research on the resources, strategies and capabilities of firms in transition economies.     

Does going abroad lead to going green? Firm outward foreign direct investment and domestic environmental performance

This study examines whether and how outward foreign direct investment (OFDI) affects firms' domestic environmental performance. We use both the reverse knowledge transfer and resource crowding perspectives to predict the association. Using a sample of Chinese firms, we find that firms' environmental performance improves after the initiation of OFDI, which is consistent with the reverse knowledge transfer perspective. Furthermore, we find that when the host countries of OFDI are developed countries, have stricter environmental regulations, and are characterized by higher values for the long-term orientation and masculinity dimensions of national culture, firms enjoy a further improvement in environmental performance. Our channel tests show that firms' domestic green patent applications and their investment in research and development increase after the initiation of OFDI.     

Business Strategy and Firm Reorganization: Role of Changing Environmental Standards,Sustainable Business Initiatives and Global Market Conditions

My study is framed against the backdrop of increasingly stringent environmental demands on the pulp and paper industry to reduce water and air pollution, and the changing global market conditions. I first present an observation‐based analysis conducted by visiting selected paper mills in Finland, the US, Germany and Sweden. Interesting differences and similarities emerge. Some of the observed differences lie in their focus on achieving incremental efficiency gains from better management of production processes, inventories, supply‐chain, product distribution and timing of modernization investments such as information technology. In the second part of the paper I present evidence on firms' productivity paths and the heterogeneity in productivity among relatively similar firms, and selected evidence of firms' investments in specific areas and how these affected productivity. My findings have implications for organizational behavior and business strategies employed by firms to improve their performance and productivity under changing environmental standards and market conditions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Do firm characteristics affect environmental sustainability? A literature review-based assessment

Combating environmental pollution and climate change mandates strong commitment and participation of all firms across sectors. However, the environmental conduct of firms is seen to vary as per their characteristics, especially their size, ownership, and age. Current understanding of these characteristics' influence on environmental sustainability is limited, fragmented, and scattered across the literature, which this study seeks to improve and contribute to. Based on a rigorous screening of the last 25 years' literature (1996–2020), the study develops a comprehensive understanding of firm characteristics' implications for environmental sustainability, namely, environmental practices implementation, environmental drivers, environmental barriers, and associated (environmental, cost/economic, operational, and organizational) performance implications. Several meaningful and generalizable trends, conflicts, and consensus, or lack thereof, are revealed. For instance, the extent of environmental practices' implementation can be seen to be greater at large firms' (vis-à-vis small ones) and at foreign firms' (vis-à-vis local ones), though not much difference is seen between old and new firms. Also, several metafactors such as resources availability, innovation propensity, and bureaucracy and organizational inertia are identified that explain the differential influence of firm characteristics on environmental sustainability and dispel erroneous stereotypes. Finally, gaps in the literature offering avenues for future research are highlighted along with implications for research, theory, and practice. Results are expected to help policymakers and practitioners develop policies/interventions that ensure all firms, irrespective of their characteristics contribute to environmental sustainability. A comprehensive review of this kind has not been previously undertaken and constitutes the novelty of this work.     

Corporate environmental commitment: Developing the operational concept

This article attempts to develop an operational measure of the notion of Corporate Environmental Commitment (CEC), through an examination of CEO's perceptions of their firms' behaviour regarding a number of environmental items. This is done by identifying a number of salient items in the literature and integrating them into a survey instrument. The mail survey was administered to the key informants of the 1000 largest organisations in Australia of which 306 responded. Iterative Factor-Analysis of the data revealed that the questionnaire items (55 items in total) could be statistically collapsed into four factors representing the overall degree of ‘Corporate Environmental Commitment’. The four factors were (1) the degree to which environmental audits are emphasised as an environmental evaluation tool (Audit); (2) the existence and role of a clear and well disseminated environmental policy (Policy); (3) consideration of environmental impacts in assessing future corporate activities including investments & projects (Future Activities) and (4) incorporation of environmental issues in corporate appraisal systems (Appraisal Systems). Internal consistency within each of the four factors revealed significant reliability of all factors. It is suggested that the use of the four-factor method uncovered in this study bears significant practical relevance, allowing firms to assess their environmental commitment (EC) at the corporate level.     

Beyond symbolic and substantive: Strategic disclosure of corporate environmental information in China

Under increasing regulatory pressure to disclose environmental impacts, corporate environmental information disclosure (EID) is becoming more prevalent. However, the motives for EID and disclosure approaches (i.e., symbolic or substantive) remain controversial. Using a sample of data for 742 listed manufacturing firms in China across 3 years, we provide evidence to show that the level of EID is significantly positively associated with a firm's advertising intensity and that firms in moderately competitive industries have a higher propensity for adopting an EID‐based differentiated strategy than firms in stronger or weaker competitive industries. We also find that firms that are more sensitive to environmental issues strategically understate their environmental impact when directly facing consumers. Our results suggest that the implementation of corporate EID is strategic and that firms have strong market motives, even under regulatory pressure to demonstrate legitimacy. We discuss this study's contributions to research on EID theory and implications for strategic EID management.     

Market Orientation and FIRMS' Environmental Innovation: The Moderating Role of Environmental Attitude

Drawing on market orientation theory, innovation theory and the theory of reasoned action, this paper integrates market orientation, environmental attitude and firms' environmental innovation into a model to establish a relationship among these three variables. By taking 247 manufacturing firms in China as the research sample and by analyzing the data using SPSS19.0, we found that customer and competitor orientation have a significant and positive impact on firms' environmental innovation, while the effect of inter‐functional coordination is not significant. Furthermore, environmental attitude plays a positive moderating role between customer orientation and firms' environmental innovation, as well as between competitor orientation and firms' environmental innovation. Finally, the results of the study are discussed, and the theoretical and practical significance of this study is clarified further. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Corporate Ownership and Environmental Proactivity

The present paper advances knowledge of the drivers of firms' proactive environmental strategies. In particular, it explores the relationship between different corporate ownership structures and firms' green proactivity, in order to see whether some types of shareholder act as a stimulating driver for firms' proactive environmental behaviors. The study examines the explanatory power of corporate governance issues, such as a firm's ownership structure, as potential determinants of companies' environmental proactivity. Attention is focused on the European firms included into the Carbon Disclosure Project questionnaire 2012. The results show that ownership structure matters in firms' environmental proactivity. In particular, firms with a higher percentage of state ownership present superior green proactivity, while ownership concentration appears negatively related to proactive environmental strategy. The paper offers theoretical and practical implications. It focuses attention on a still underdeveloped research area, namely organizations and their relationship with the natural environment, including corporate ownership as a driver of a company's proactive environmental strategy. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Business strategy and firm efforts on environmental protection: Evidence from China

Although business strategy plays a fundamental role in firm operations, whether and how business strategy affects firms' environmental protection behaviors remain unclear. On the basis of a typical emerging market, we show that firms following prospector strategies take more environmental protection actions than do those following defender strategies. Our findings are robust to endogeneity checks and alternative measures of business strategy. We further find that prospectors engage in more environmental activities than do defenders when the degree of financial constraint or earning management is high. Our results are particularly pronounced in state‐owned enterprises, heavy‐polluting industries, and firms located in regions with strict environmental regulations. Overall, this study provides clear policy implications for regulators concerned with environmental protection.     

The interplay of corporate entrepreneurship,environmental orientation,and performance in clean‐tech firms—A double‐edged sword

Clean‐tech innovations are an important driver in solving global issues such as climate change and for the sustainable development of economies around the world. Whereas a large part of the literature focuses on clean‐tech ventures, less is known on corporate entrepreneurship, that is, entrepreneurial behavior in established firms and its relation to sustainability. This paper extends the sustainable entrepreneurship debate to corporate entrepreneurship, which represents a fruitful avenue to further developing clean technologies. We focus particularly on clean‐tech firms' organizational preparedness for corporate entrepreneurship (OPCE), that is, how well a firm's structures and processes are set for entrepreneurial activities. On the basis of contingency theory, this study investigates how the level of OPCE influences the environmental and financial performance of clean‐tech firms and whether their environmental orientation affects these relationships. Building on data from 103 firms, we find support for a positive effect of OPCE on both environmental and financial performance. Both effects are stronger the higher the external environmental orientation. In contrast, the leverage of internal environmental orientation is not equally positive. Our study reveals that the effect of OPCE on financial performance diminishes for firms that are more strongly driven by an internal than an external environmental orientation.