Do corporate anti-bribery and corruption commitments enhance environmental management performance? The moderating role of corporate social responsibility accountability and executive compensation governance

Abstract

This study aims to examine the potential impact (substantive or symbolic) of firms' anti-bribery and corruption commitments (ABCC) on environmental management performance (ENVS). We also seek to explore whether this link is contingent on corporate social responsibility (CSR) accountability and executive compensation governance. To achieve these aims, we use a sample of 2151 firm-year observations representing 214 FTSE 350 non-financial companies from 2002 to 2016. Our findings support a positive association between firms’ ABCC and ENVS. In addition, our evidence shows that CSR accountability and executive compensation governance are significant substitutes for ABCC to engender enhanced ENVS. Our study highlights practical implications for organisations, regulators and policymakers, and suggests several avenues for future environmental management research. Overall, our findings are unsensitive to alternative measures of ENVS, different types of multivariate regression methods, namely ordinary least squares (OLS) and two-step generalized method of moments (GMM) regressions, and controlling for industry environmental risk and the implementation of the UK Bribery Act 2010.