Climate Inaction in Business Management: An Exploratory Review of the Literature

Alan F Rodriguez-Jasso,Ana L Zorrilla,Arturo Briseno

doi:10.5539/jsd.v13n4p87

Abstract

Climate change is considered as one of the major threats for the international community due to its negative consequences in the financial, social, and environmental issues. Companies, who are considered as an essential element in the mitigation process, have exerted corporate inactivity to address climate change that has led to the increment of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, contributing to climate change over the last decade. The objective of this review is to explore, summarize, and analyze the state of knowledge in the business and management literature about climate inaction that guides future researches to diminish this corporate inactivity, enhancing the practices aimed to reduce such emissions. The review was developed through the narrative method in order to acquire a broad perspective of the phenomenon through the examination of 24 articles from the Web of Science from 1998 to 2018. Our findings indicate that climate inaction is nascent and fragmented literature where the company is identified as one of the main actors, being this approach developed from different perspectives that guide to decrease such corporate inactivity, and motivating the corporate action. The inclusion of the concept of climate inaction might lead to an understanding of the mechanisms for climate mitigation, providing a guide for future research in the field of environmental performance.

Highlights

The globalization process makes possible interdependence among countries creating different benefits such as a greater integration in various aspects of the economy and problems such as income polarization (Surugiu & Surugiu, 2015)
Several studies highlight the potential risks of not taking action to mitigate climate change, and the consequences of this organizational inaction might be significant in the financial and social aspects, where the private sector has an essential role in the designing, development, and implementation of strategies to address climate change impacts, considering that this sector has contributed in a significant manner to the increment of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the last decades (Ackerman & Stanton, 2006; Stern, 2013)
Climate change demands an international collaboration focused on climate mitigation where the decrement of the GHG emissions is fundamental, due to the threat it represents for nature and human wellbeing (Funfgeld, 2015), but at the same time, it brings opportunities for developed and developing economies, where its private sector might transform this threat into a competitive advantage, and improve its reputation, assuring the long-term survival of the companies (Kumarasiri, 2017; Stern, 2006)

Summary

Introduction

The globalization process makes possible interdependence among countries creating different benefits such as a greater integration in various aspects of the economy and problems such as income polarization (Surugiu & Surugiu, 2015). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, 2014) conceptualized climate change as a modification in the condition of the climate, where such changes stay for a long time, and it is caused by internal and external anthropogenic changes in the composition of the atmosphere. Both definitions coincide with the possibility that human influence is a catalyst for the existence of a new climatic regime (Kelman, 2015). Derivate of the importance that represents climate change worldwide, this literature review focus on corporate climate inaction a key concept to understand how firms can create impacts in reducing emissions to the atmosphere

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