Mitigating climate change: A role for regulations and risk‐taking

Andrew Bryant; Jennifer J. Griffin; Vanessa G. Perry

doi:10.1002/bse.2391

journal article Nov 11, 2019

Mitigating climate change: A role for regulations and risk‐taking

Andrew Bryant Jennifer J. Griffin

Vanessa G. Perry

Business Strategy and the Environment Vol. 29 No. 2 pp. 605-618 · Wiley

View at Publisher Save 10.1002/bse.2391

Abstract

AbstractWhy do some firms engage in actions to reduce climate change? We propose two counterintuitive mechanisms: high levels of regulation and a firm's increased tolerance for risk. Drawing from insights on how institutional contexts constrain, and enable, prosocial firm behavior, we argue that external pressures, amplified internally by a firm's higher tolerance for risk, increase the likelihood that a greenhouse gas (GHG)‐intensive firm will engage in climate change actions that exceed regulatory requirements. An analysis based on 7,101 observations of U.S. publicly traded firms during the 2013 to 2015 period supports our hypotheses. Our models show high overall prediction accuracy (88.6%) using an out‐of‐time holdout sample from 2016. Moreover, we find that firms that have exhibited environmental wrongdoing are also more likely to engage in beyond‐compliance activities, which may be a form of greenwashing. Thus, more formal and informal regulatory oversight has the potential to spur positive environmental actions. This has implications for a firm's corporate social responsibility actions as well as for climate change regulatory policy.

Topics

No keywords indexed for this article. Browse by subject →

References

101

[1]

10.1057/s41267-018-0201-5

[2]

Ariely D. (2010)

[3]

10.2307/3146906

[4]

10.1509/jmkg.67.2.106.18604

[5]

TALKING TRASH: LEGITIMACY, IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT, AND UNSYSTEMATIC RISK IN THE CONTEXT OF THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT.

P. Bansal, I. Clelland

Academy of Management Journal 10.2307/20159562

[6]

WHY COMPANIES GO GREEN: A MODEL OF ECOLOGICAL RESPONSIVENESS.

P. Bansal, K. Roth

Academy of Management Journal 10.2307/1556363

[7]

Corporate Social Responsibility as a Conflict Between Shareholders

Amir Barnea, Amir Rubin

Journal of Business Ethics 10.1007/s10551-010-0496-z

[8]

Strengthening Stakeholder–Company Relationships Through Mutually Beneficial Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives

C. B. Bhattacharya, Daniel Korschun, Sankar Sen

Journal of Business Ethics 10.1007/s10551-008-9730-3

[9]

10.1007/s10551-015-2791-1

[10]

10.1002/bse.723

[11]

The Attractiveness of Political Markets: Implications for Firm Strategy

Jean-Philippe Bonardi, Amy J. Hillman, Gerald D. Keim

The Academy of Management Review 10.5465/amr.2005.16387895

[12]

10.1002/bse.1832

[13]

Corporate Reputation and Philanthropy: An Empirical Analysis

Stephen Brammer, Andrew Millington

Journal of Business Ethics 10.1007/s10551-005-7443-4

[14]

10.1177/0007650311398780

[15]

10.1002/bse.2070

[16]

Why would corporations behave in socially responsible ways? an institutional theory of corporate social responsibility

John L. Campbell

The Academy of Management Review 10.5465/amr.2007.25275684

[17]

Corporate social responsibility and access to finance

Beiting Cheng, Ioannis Ioannou, George Serafeim

Strategic Management Journal 10.1002/smj.2131

[18]

How firms respond to being rated

Aaron K. Chatterji, Michael W. Toffel

Strategic Management Journal 10.1002/smj.840

[19]

Doing Well by Doing Good: The Benevolent Halo of Corporate Social Responsibility

Alexander Chernev, Sean Blair

Journal of Consumer Research 10.1086/680089

[20]

Firm Engagement and Social Issue Salience, Consensus, and Contestation

Cynthia E. Clark, Andrew P. Bryant, Jennifer J. Griffin

Business & Society 10.1177/0007650315613966

[21]

CookT.(2017).Decision to withdraw from the #ParisAgreement was wrong for our planet. Apple is committed to fight climate change and we will never waver.Twitter @Tim_Cook 5:36 PM 1 June 2017.

[22]

10.1177/0170840611403670

[23]

10.1002/bse.1968

[24]

10.1177/0007650310394400

[25]

The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields

Paul J. DiMaggio, Walter W. Powell

American Sociological Review 10.2307/2095101

[26]

10.1007/s10551-015-2981-x

[27]

10.5465/amj.2011.0744

[28]

Friedman M. (1970)

[29]

10.5465/amr.2006.20208684

[30]

Corporate Social Responsibility Theories: Mapping the Territory

Elisabet Garriga, Domènec Melé

Journal of Business Ethics 10.1023/b:busi.0000039399.90587.34

[31]

Ghemawat P. (1991)

[32]

10.1002/bse.1962

[33]

10.1146/annurev.energy.31.020105.100157

[34]

Glass C "Do Women Leaders Promote Sustainability? Analyzing the Effect of Corporate Governance Composition on Environmental Performance" Business Strategy and the Environment (2015)

[35]

The Relationship Between Corporate Philanthropy And Shareholder Wealth: A Risk Management Perspective

Paul C. Godfrey

The Academy of Management Review 10.5465/amr.2005.18378878

[36]

The relationship between corporate social responsibility and shareholder value: an empirical test of the risk management hypothesis

Paul C. Godfrey, Craig B. Merrill, Jared M. Hansen

Strategic Management Journal 10.1002/smj.750

[37]

10.1017/cbo9781107415942

[38]

10.1177/1059601114560168

[39]

10.1509/jppm.11.040

[40]

10.1002/smj.4250020407

[41]

A Natural-Resource-Based View of the Firm

Stuart L. Hart

The Academy of Management Review 10.2307/258963

[42]

10.5465/amj.2010.1045

[43]

Shareholder value, stakeholder management, and social issues: what's the bottom line?

Amy J. Hillman, Gerald D. Keim

Strategic Management Journal 10.1002/1097-0266(200101)22:2<125::aid-smj150>3.0.co;2-h

[44]

INSTITUTIONAL EVOLUTION AND CHANGE: ENVIRONMENTALISM AND THE U.S. CHEMICAL INDUSTRY.

A. J. Hoffman

Academy of Management Journal 10.2307/257008

[45]

10.2307/41166305

[46]

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199584451.003.0001

[47]

10.1002/bse.2317

[48]

The impact of corporate social responsibility on investment recommendations: Analysts' perceptions and shifting institutional logics

Ioannis Ioannou, George Serafeim

Strategic Management Journal 10.1002/smj.2268

[49]

IPCC (2014)

[50]

Jeong Y.‐C. "Between legitimacy and efficiency: An institutional theory of corporate giving" Academy of Management Journal (2018)

Showing 50 of 101 references

Metrics

73

Citations

101

References

Details

Published: Nov 11, 2019
Vol/Issue: 29(2)
Pages: 605-618
License: View

Authors

A

Andrew Bryant

College of Business & Public Administration Drake University Des Moines Iowa

J

Jennifer J. Griffin

Quinlan School of Business Loyola University Chicago Chicago Illinois

V

Vanessa G. Perry

School of Business The George Washington University Washington DC U.S.A.

Cite This Article

Andrew Bryant, Jennifer J. Griffin, Vanessa G. Perry (2019). Mitigating climate change: A role for regulations and risk‐taking. Business Strategy and the Environment, 29(2), 605-618. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2391

Mitigating climate change: A role for regulations and risk‐taking

You May Also Like