Environmental management: The impact of national and organisational long-term orientation on plants' environmental practices and performance efficacy

Abstract

This paper assesses the influence of national culture on firms' environmental management and performance efficacy. Specifically, we contribute to the convergence-divergence discussion by assessing whether a long-term oriented national cultural impacts on the implementation level of a firm's environmental management and environmental performance. Furthermore, we assess whether or not potential negative cultural characteristics at the national level can be addressed through specific cultural characteristics at the organisational level. To test our hypotheses we use large-scale, cross-country survey data from 413 plants in eight countries. The results suggest that investments in environmental practices are approached more systematically in long-term oriented countries. The performance efficacy of these practices is found to be stronger in countries with a long-term oriented culture compared to plants situated in countries with a short-term oriented culture. Furthermore, firms can compensate for the negative impact of being situated in a short-term oriented country by practicing a long-term oriented facility culture. This study is one of the first to investigate the interplay between national culture and systematic environmental practices. Increasing its practical value, it considers organisational culture in terms of its effectiveness in overcoming locational disadvantages.