Corporate Environmental Responsibility Research Articles

Environmental stewardship and corporate social responsibility: A review of case studies from the oil and gas sector

This review presents a comprehensive review of case studies focusing on environmental stewardship and corporate social responsibility (CSR) within the oil and gas sector. The oil and gas industry plays a pivotal role in global energy production, yet its operations often pose significant environmental and social challenges. In response, companies in this sector are increasingly embracing environmental stewardship and CSR principles to mitigate negative impacts and foster sustainable practices. The review examines a diverse range of case studies from various regions and contexts, highlighting both successful initiatives and notable challenges faced by oil and gas companies in integrating environmental stewardship and CSR into their operations. Key themes explored include environmental conservation efforts, community engagement, stakeholder collaboration, regulatory compliance, and technological innovation. Several case studies demonstrate innovative approaches adopted by oil and gas companies to minimize environmental degradation, such as implementing advanced technologies for emission reduction, investing in renewable energy projects, and restoring ecosystems affected by exploration and extraction activities. Moreover, successful CSR programs are showcased, emphasizing community development initiatives, education, healthcare, and infrastructure improvement projects aimed at enhancing the quality of life for local populations impacted by oil and gas operations. However, challenges persist, including balancing economic interests with environmental and social responsibilities, navigating complex regulatory landscapes, and addressing stakeholder concerns effectively. Despite these challenges, the case studies underscore the importance of proactive engagement, transparent communication, and continuous improvement in fostering environmental stewardship and CSR within the oil and gas sector. The review offers insights into best practices, lessons learned, and future directions for promoting sustainability and responsible business practices in the oil and gas industry, thereby contributing to the broader discourse on corporate environmental responsibility and societal impact mitigation.

Product-Service System business model for plastics industry

Traditional business models increasingly less accurately accommodate changes taking place in the market. Growing competition, sharing economy, digital transformation, corporate environmental responsibility, and increasing customer requirements exert pressure on enterprises to change their business mentality. One can easily observe the need for integrated, environment-friendly solutions that generate new value added to customers. To achieve that, we need new business models that would allow to discover new potential in new markets.In the face of dynamic market changes, traditional business models are increasingly less capable of addressing the growing competition, sharing economy, digital transformation, corporate environmental responsibility, and the rising demands of customers. There is a clear need for integrated, environmentally friendly solutions that generate new added value for customers. Achieving this goal requires the development of new business models that enable the discovery of potential in new markets.Therefore, searching for and creating new business models that would stand up to requirements is vital. These problems could be solved by a PSS considered a personalized business model operating in an extended time horizon. PSS is an opportunity to sell product functions and availability, as well as a perspective for multiple uses of products.This paper presents a pioneering attempt to develop a Product-Service System (PSS) business model specifically tailored for the plastics industry. An innovative approach consists in the integration of a machinery and a tool into a production unit and adding an array of services to it. This groundbreaking research, unprecedented in its scale, involved a comprehensive questionnaire-based study conducted across 60 plastics processing plants employing prevalent production techniques. The study is unique in its extensive scope and depth, as such an analysis of PSS business models within the plastics industry has not been previously explored in the open literature. The research methodology applied is thorough, covering a wide range of practical aspects crucial for the effective implementation of PSS in the plastics sector. This paper stands out for its detailed examination of 60 enterprises in the plastics industry, focusing on their interest in 95 services essential for the optimal operation of plastics processing plants and their engagement with representatives from the plastics industry. This extensive study offers valuable insights into the usage of machines and tools in plastics processing, as well as the specific needs, requirements, and challenges faced by businesses in this sector.Results of analyses demonstrate that interest in services differs depending on the size of an enterprise, processing technique, having a toolroom or not, product range, and the duration of breakdowns. A new PSS business model for plastics processing was built based on the analysis of PSS design methods and sectors to which they are addressed, PSS used in practice, plastics processing sector, questionnaire-based studies conducted among plastics processing plants, statistical analyses, advice and consultancy sessions with experts from the investigated industry, finances and trade patterns for machines. Until to date the question of precise design of such a business model for the plastics processing sector has neither been examined nor discussed or evidenced. The paper aims to bridge this gap. The approach to the issue was innovative, based on a questionnaire survey and consultations with experts which allowed to faithfully reproduce the current condition of the investigated sector. In addition, each service added on to the production unit underwent a detailed statistical analysis. The hereto presented business model is extremely comprehensive as it can be used in plastics processing plants of different sizes.

Climate Change Denial and Corporate Environmental Responsibility

AbstractThis paper examines whether corporate environmental responsibility is influenced by regional differences in climate change denial. While there is an overwhelming consensus among scientists that climate change is happening, recent surveys still indicate widespread climate change denial across societies. Given that corporate activity causing climate change is fundamentally rooted in individual beliefs and societal institutions, we examine whether local perceptions about climate change matter for firms’ engagement in environmental responsibility. We use climate change perception surveys conducted in the U.S. to compute a novel measure of climate change denial for each U.S. county. We find that firms located in counties with higher levels of climate change denial have weaker environmental performance ratings, are more likely to commit environmental violations, and impose greater environmental costs on society. Regional differences in religiosity, social capital, political leaning, or county-level demographic characteristics cannot explain these results. Furthermore, we document that strong corporate governance mechanisms and corporate culture moderate the negative relationship between climate change denial and corporate environmental responsibility. Overall, our findings offer new insights into how local beliefs and perceptions about climate change may influence firm-level sustainability practices.

Green institutional investors’ shareholding and corporate environmental responsibility

Data on listed companies in China from 2016 to 2022 serve as a research sample to investigate whether shareholding by green institutional investors improves the environmental governance performance and initiatives of listed companies. Shareholding by green institutional investors is shown to improve the environmental performance and initiatives of listed companies. The promotion effect of green institutional investors in improving the environmental performance of listed companies is more evident for non-state-owned enterprises and those in non-heavily polluted industries than their counterparts.

Does the issuance of green bonds nudge environmental responsibility engagements? Evidence from the Chinese green bond market

Policymakers and managers have increasingly adopted green bonds as a direct financing tool to address environmental degradation and climate change in emerging economies; however, the increasing green washing sentiments in the green bond market raise questions on whether green bonds can nudge polluting businesses to achieve green transformation. Therefore, this study joins the controversial debate by investigating the impact of green bond issuance on corporate environmental responsibilities and the potential impact mechanisms and economic consequences. Using the data of Chinese listed enterprises from 2011 to 2020 and the staggered issuance of green bonds as plausibly exogenous shocks, we determine that the enterprises in the experimental group that issued green bonds increased their environmental performance compared to their counterparts. Furthermore, this positive link is maintains after a series of robustness tests. Moreover, we identify that green bond issuance plausibly enhances environmental responsibility engagements through two governance channels, namely, internal management and external supervision. This beneficial effect appears more pronounced for subsamples of firms in low-polluting industries, without environmental subsidies and with higher managerial abilities. Furthermore, economic consequences indicate that the issuance of green bonds primarily motivates speculative shareholder benefits, as evidenced by short-term increases in stock yields but with limited impact on the short-run financial performance. Overall, these findings offer new evidence supporting that green financing tools could play a helpful hand toward environmental sustainability.

Effects of Corporate Environmental Responsibility, CSR and CEO Shareholding on Financial Performance: Evidence from U.S.-Listed Companies

Effects of Corporate Environmental Responsibility, CSR and CEO Shareholding on Financial Performance: Evidence from U.S.-Listed Companies

Employees’ behavioural action towards corporate environmental performance: The moderating effect of moral reflectiveness

The evolution of the hotel industry’s corporate environmental performance cannot be realized without employees acting in an environmentally friendly manner, such as low carbon behaviour. However, a thorough analysis of the factors influencing employees' low-carbon behaviour and hotels' corporate environmental performance has not yet been done. To overcome this literature gap and envision the social identity theory, this study evaluated how employees' green self-efficacy, environmental awareness, and perceived corporate environmental responsibility facilitate staff low carbon behaviour. Also, the study explored the moderation role of employees' moral reflectiveness. Through a purposive sampling technique, data was collected from 455 employees in the hotel industry in South Africa. The partial least squares structural equation model method examined the proposed hypothesis. The empirical findings revealed that: (1) employees' green self-efficacy, environmental awareness, and perceived corporate environmental responsibility positively influence their low carbon behaviour. (2) Employees' low carbon behaviour directly and positively affected hotels' corporate environmental performance. (3) The outcome supported the moderation effect of employees' moral reflectiveness on the linkage between green self-efficacy and low-carbon behaviour. The practical and theoretical implications are discussed. The limitations and areas of future research are further outlined.

Overcoming double positive spillovers: automatic habits and dual environmental cognitions driving pro-environmental behaviors among hotel customers

Promoting customers’ pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) is crucial for greening the hotel industry. However, customers often hesitate to adopt resource-saving PEBs in public places like hotels due to a "dual positive externality/spillover" problem – extra positive economic spillovers and increased positive environmental spillovers, compared to conducting such behaviors in private households. This study explores habitual PEBs at home and two distinct environmental cognitions associated with key spillover beneficiaries (nature and hotels) to address this challenge and accelerate customers’ PEBs in hotel settings. The rationale is that customers’ habitual PEBs at home can automatically extend to hotels with insensitivity or low sensitivity to positive spillovers; the two beneficiary-linked environmental cognitions (general environmental awareness associated with nature and occasional corporate environmental responsibility attribution [CERA] linked to hotels) can make customers psychologically internalize the positive spillovers of their PEBs at home and hotels to different degrees by changing psychological boundaries between actors and beneficiaries, and/or enable them to realize the intrinsic psychological rewards or incentives (such as a sense of pride or identification) that serve as compensation for the spillovers. Furthermore, this study proposes that habitual PEBs at home mediate between general environmental awareness and PEBs at hotels by bridging the cognition-behavior gap. Moreover, there is a sequential decrease in the effects of habitual PEBs at home, altruistic CERA, and environmental awareness on PEBs at hotels. Empirical evidence from a survey of Chinese hotel guests supports most hypotheses, offering valuable insights for promoting PEBs in the hotel industry.

The Impacts of External Sustainability: Institutional Investors’ Sustainable Identity, Corporate Environmental Responsibility, and Green Innovation

Motivated by the growing importance of corporate sustainable development and corporate executives’ strong desire for shareholder input, this paper fulfills the research gap of corporate green innovation determinants from the view of institutional investors’ sustainability, which is scarcely investigated in related research. Prior research (on green innovation determinants) mostly focused on internal sustainability’s influencing effects (e.g., green absorptive capacity, green organizational identify); few investigated the role of external sustainability (e.g., institutional investors) in influencing corporate green innovation. We examine the potential impact of institutional investors’ sustainable identity and corporate environmental responsibility efforts on green innovation, utilizing the difference-in-differences (DID) design along with Chinese-listed companies’ data from 2010 to 2020. Our empirical results confirm that an institutional investor’s sustainable identity has a promoting effect on corporate green innovation. This promoting effect is more pronounced in companies that perform better in environmental responsibility. Our cross-sectional analysis validates such better-performing effects. Additionally, we find that this external sustainable identity produces a shock effect similar to a sustainable rating from a third-party agency on corporate green innovation. Our study contributes to the literature on green innovations’ external green (sustainable) determinants and the research on institutions’ outcomes (prior research investigated institutional investors’ various characteristics, such as ownership dispersion and site visit, on influencing corporate green innovation, though few determined whether their sustainable identity produced such effects).

The short and long-term effects of cross-border M&A network on Chinese enterprises’ green innovation

How does cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&A) network affect green innovation? To achieve pollution management and circular economy development, green innovation is the key path. However, little literature investigated the influence of cross-border M&A on green innovation from a network perspective. Using Chinese listed companies and an original database sourced from Zephyr of cross-border M&A deals from 2009 to 2019, this paper examines the short and long-term impact of the network on green innovation of Chinese corporations. It is suggested that the network plays a positive role in green innovation, which is not pronounced in the short term, but obvious in the long run. We further demonstrate that the long-term facilitating role is more evident for large enterprises, heavily polluting enterprises, non-high-tech enterprises, enterprises with deep knowledge base, and enterprises without myopic managers. Moreover, the long-term positive impact of cross-border M&A network on green innovation is augmented by corporate environmental responsibility and mitigated by government environmental protection subsidies.

Can Integrate a Sustainable Business Model and Global Value Chains Revive the Value Chain’s Sustainable Growth?

AbstractTraditional value chains link factors of production and production to final consumption, adding economic value. To reduce the negative effects of the value chain on the environment and societies, the sustainable business model must be integrated into all parts of the global value chain. This necessitates responsible production and procurement, but all participants must recognise the importance of reusing resources, increasing the product life cycle, and minimising waste. However, this does not imply that all value chain participants in the value chain have equal responsibilities, as they have varying degrees of dominance, interests, and environmental and societal impact in their value chain-related activities. We claim that regional trade agreements are the key to balancing each other’s interests in an international value chain, assisting participants in reaching a consensus. On the other hand, existing regional trade agreements have flaws in how they distribute value. Furthermore, their standard-setting does not contribute to developing a sustainable global value chain because it ignores the impact of the sustainable business models of value chain participants on the global value chain. So, the article will focus on reconstructing global value chains by introducing a sustainable business model and using regulatory incentive systems to guide value chain participants in fulfilling corporate social and environmental responsibilities. As a result, this article discusses how a sustainable business model can aid in developing the global value chain in a sustainable direction, as well as how regulation can help.

How does green culture impact corporate environmental responsibility? A dual perspective from ability-motivation-opportunity and organizational learning theory

How does green culture impact corporate environmental responsibility? A dual perspective from ability-motivation-opportunity and organizational learning theory

Sustainable Practices and Performance of Resource-Based Companies: The Role of Internal Control

As the concept of sustainable resource usage gains popularity, resource-based companies are faced with the challenge of reconciling environmental responsibility with corporate performance to achieve the “coexistence” of environmental and economic benefits. We take data related to RBCs for 2010–2020 and perform a multiple regression analysis of the data. This study focuses on the role of internal control in analyzing the impact of resource-based companies (RBCs) on corporate financial performance (CFP) while assuming corporate environmental responsibility (CER). The findings reveal that the fulfillment of CER by RBCs positively impacts CFP. We then add a moderating test to observe the role of internal controls in the relationship between the two. The results show that the positive effect of CER on CFP is greater with stronger internal control measures. In addition, we introduce heterogeneity analysis to analyze the effect of firm ownership. The moderating effect is diminished in privately owned companies. This research provides empirical evidence for the moderating effect of internal control on the connection between CER and CFP while also considering the influence of ownership.

Enhancing the corporate social & environmental responsibility of Chinese energy enterprises: A view from the role of management compensation incentive

Energy enterprises are an important basis for ensuring national energy security and economic development, and their social responsibility is closely related to addressing environmental concerns such as over-exploitation of resources and excessive discharge of pollution. The casual effects of management compensation incentives on corporate social & environmental responsibility are explored based on the panel data of Chinese energy enterprises from 2010 to 2021 using the instrumental variable estimation method. The results indicate that management salary incentives can significantly promote the implementation of corporate social responsibility and environmental responsibility, while the proportion of management shareholding will reduce corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental responsibility (CER) activities. In addition, there are obvious industry differences and corporate ownership differences in the effects of management compensation incentives on CSR and CER. The negative impact of equity incentives on CSR and CER is even more pronounced in the electricity and environmental industry, and salary incentives have a greater positive effect on CSR for state-owned enterprises. The study shows that enterprises should focus on the salary incentive of managers and appropriately reduce their shareholding. The government should pay attention to the development of state-owned energy enterprises, and limit the shareholding ratio of management through policies and other incentive systems.

Firm environmental disclosure and government’s sustainable leadership: an analysis of keywords in Chinese Government work reports

PurposeThis paper examines how firms respond to local government’s environment initiatives through textual analysis of government work reports (GWRs). This study aims to provide insights into how firms strategically respond to government’s environmental initiatives through their disclosure and investment practices.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a textual analysis of GWRs from China’s provinces. The frequency and change rate of environmental keywords in these reports are used as a measure of the government’s environmental initiatives.FindingsThis study finds that environmental disclosure scores in environmental, social and governance (ESG) reports increase with the frequency or change rate of environmental keywords in provincial GWRs. This effect is more pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises, firms in highly marketized provinces or those listed in a single capital market. However, there is no significant relationship between firms’ environmental investments and government initiatives, except for cross-listed firms in provinces with consistently high frequency of environmental keywords in their GWRs.Practical implicationsThe findings indicate that government environmental initiatives can shape firms’ disclosure behaviors, yet have limited influence on investment decisions, suggesting that environmental disclosure could potentially be opportunistic. This underscores the need for more effective strategies to stimulate firms’ environmental investments.Originality/valueThis study provides valuable insights into the differential impacts of government environmental initiatives on firms’ disclosure and investment behaviors, contributing to the understanding of corporate environmental responsibility in the context of government initiatives.

Is more always better? How government ecological attention influences corporate environmental responsibility: Empirical evidence from Chinese listed companies

Under the concept of sustainability, government attention has become a topical subject of discussion in the environmental management. The text mining techniques in this study are employed to quantify government ecological attention (GEA). Combining with the work reports of Chinese local government in 169 cities and taking the data of Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2019 as samples, this study adopted text mining method to measure the degree of GEA and empirically analyse its influence on the corporate environmental responsibility (CER). The conclusions suggest that, first, the intensity of GEA is inconsistent between regions, showing significant phase variations. Second, there is an inverted U-shaped relation with GEA and CER, and this conclusion remains plausible after the UTEST test, endogeneity test, and other robustness test. The effects of GEA are more evident in larger firms, heavy polluting industry and Midwest region. Third, urban green innovation and government environmental support significantly weaken the inverted U-shaped relationship. This study highlights the research on government attention in the area of ecological governance, enriches the research content of environmental regulatory theory, and provides a reference for how to promote CER.

PROFITABILTAS SEBAGAI MODERATING PENGARUH KINERJA ESG, GREEN INNOVATION, ECO-EFFICIENCY TERHADAP NILAI PERUSAHAAN

Firm that listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange need to publishing sustainability reports at the end of their accounting period as a form of corporate environmental responsibility and concern in meeting the interests of stakeholders. This research aims to examine the effect of Environmental, Social and Governance performance, green innovation and eco-efficiency on firm value with profitability as the moderator. The object of this research is non-financial firm that listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange and rated by Bloomberg for the 2020-2022 period. This research data was obtained from annual reports and company sustainability reports using purposive sampling techniques, resulting in a sample of 136 companies. Multiple linear regression analysis was used to process the data with the help of Statistical Product and Solutions version 25 software. The results of this research show that Environmental, Social and Governance performance has a positive effect, green innovation has no effect, while eco-efficiency has a negative effect on firm value. Profitability weakens the effect of Environmental, Social and Governance performance on firm value. On the contrary, profitability actually strengthens the effect of green innovation and eco-efficiency on firm value.

Green Advertising through the Eyes of the Youth: A Study on Environmentally Responsible Behaviour

Green advertising aims to highlight environmentally friendly products or the advertiser's corporate environmental responsibility towards environment. Considering the importance that responsibility of organisations towards environment and environmental behaviour of consumers have in modern market circumstances, green advertising is a crucial theoretical and practical idea in modern advertising. The goal of undertaking present research was to know the opinion of the youth of Vadodara city regarding green advertisement and their environmentally responsible behaviour. The research was descriptive in nature. Questionnaire was prepared to collect the data using the survey approach wherein 200 youth from Vadodara City made up the study's sample, sample size, and locale. The study's conclusions demonstrated that majority of respondents (80%) were undergraduates belonging to nuclear families (78%) where only 9% of the respondents were men and 90% were women. It was also found that majority of respondents (80%) were students and television was the source of medium from which highest number of respondents heard about green advertising. Results showed that the majority (98.50%) of respondents showed most favourable opinion towards green advertisements. Majority (94%) of the respondents showed somewhat environmentally responsible behaviour. Further, the sub section “emotional response to environmental problems” (31.50%) showed highest environmentally responsible behaviour and the sub section “emotional response to environmental problems” (4.50%) again showed least environmentally responsible behaviour. The results of the study implies that targeting youth through television advertisements may be an effective strategy to garner favorable opinions and encourage environmentally responsible behavior, with a specific focus on emotional engagement with environmental problems as a key driver. Thus, green advertising is becoming a crucial component of the advertising industry to promote company’s products in an innovative way and attract customers who would eventually purchase eco-friendly goods. The long-term benefits and necessity of it will make it profitable through increased customer satisfaction, which will positively affect consumer purchasing intentions.

Analysis of Corporate Communication Strategies in Enhancing Company Image

This research has the main objective to investigate how PT. XYZ utilizes social media as a means to improve its corporate image. This research adopts a descriptive qualitative approach with an in-depth focus on PT XYZ. We analyzed the various communication strategies they implemented, including the application of P.E.N.C.I.L.S and RPAE theories, as well as conducted a SWOT analysis to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats faced by the company. In addition, we also conducted surveys and interviews with the corporate communication department. The results revealed that PT XYZ succeeded in building a positive image by implementing an effective corporate communication strategy. This strategy includes Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities, quality service, social and environmental responsibility, and attention to safety. In addition, we found that PT XYZ is also active in customer acquisition (CA) strategies on social media platforms, such as Twitter, regardless of the company's reputation. Information strategies are used more often than response and engagement. However, some experts argue that engagement may be more effective in achieving CSR goals. In addition, CSR communication is more focused on the outcomes produced by CSR actions rather than the concrete ways such actions are taken, in line with consumer interests and expectations. In conclusion, this study provides important insights into PT XYZ's successful corporate communication strategies in building its positive image through social media. These discoveries can serve as a helpful roadmap for other companies seeking to enhance their corporate communication strategies in social media. Therefore, this study holds the promise of making a beneficial impact on advancing corporate communication practices in the ever-expanding digital era.

The cross‐cutting pursuit of family values: When and how do family firms engage in corporate environmental responsibility

AbstractThis study examines how family values in a firm can impact non‐market strategies. Given that family members on the board tend to pursue non‐economic, especially family related, values, we attempt to specify how the perspectives, values, and tastes of family members serving on the board can be infused into the firm's environmental performance. Since actions addressing environmental issues are less directly related to family values than other types of CSR actions, such as donations and services to the local community, the family‐value‐infused characteristics of boards that represent family firms' pursuit of socio‐emotional wealth, can make firms less committed to environmental issues. Using our comprehensive sample of large U.S. firms consisting of 15,086 firm‐year observations between 1998 and 2016, we find that when family values are treated as a critical factor for non‐market strategies, family dominated firms are less likely to pursue corporate environmental responsibility. We also find that both external and internal factors can positively moderate the family firm's environmental underperformance by diluting the family values.