Does a firm’s low-carbon awareness promote low-carbon behaviors? Empirical evidence from China

Abstract

Abstract Scholars have debated about whether a firm’s low-carbon awareness promotes low-carbon behaviors. Such debates may be caused by, on the one hand, the heterogeneity of low-carbon behaviors, and on the other hand, the contingent factors which may also create disparate results. This paper conceptualizes the different types of low-carbon behaviors, i.e. soft and hard low-carbon behaviors, and examines the impact of low-carbon awareness on the two distinct behaviors. This paper further assesses how a firm’s low-carbon behaviors are conditional on firm characteristics (i.e., ownership type) and external factors (i.e., environmental legitimacy). Based on a panel dataset (2011–2018) of 216 Chinese public listed firms from heavy-polluting industries (e.g., textiles, chemicals, leather, etc.), our empirical findings indicate that: (1) low-carbon awareness promotes only soft low-carbon behaviors; (2) environmental legitimacy positively moderates the relationship between low-carbon awareness and soft low-carbon behaviors; and (3) such moderating effect is strengthened when firms are non-state-owned. This paper enriches our understanding of the impact mechanism of low-carbon awareness on low-carbon behaviors and provides implications for policy making and managerial practices.