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.

Balancing growth targets and environmental regulations: An empirical analysis of dual policy impact on corporate environmental responsibility-insights from China

Balancing economic growth with environmental conservation poses a universal challenge for governments worldwide. This study investigates the intricate interplay between governments' economic-environmental trade-offs and their implementation of policies aimed at promoting Corporate Environmental Responsibility (CER). Given the discretion of Chinese local governments in economic and environmental policy, we take China as a case study. To conduct this research, we first merge critical data on China's economic growth targets and environmental regulations with information on listed enterprises. Then, we employ a "U-shaped" relationship model to examine the impact of these trade-offs on CER implementation. The results reveal that: (1)The effective fulfillment of CER by enterprises is primarily driven by stricter environmental regulations. (2) Economic growth targets can, to some extent, diminish the policy effect of environmental regulations on CER fulfillment. (3)The crowding-out effect of economic growth targets is particularly pronounced within specific subsets of enterprises, including state-owned enterprises, heavily polluting firms, and those facing high profit pressure. These findings imply that when local governments implement contradictory policies, they must consider not only enterprises' political connections and economic contributions but also pay close attention to the survival dilemma of enterprises. This balancing act aims to harmonize conflicting policy objectives. This research deepens the understanding of how institutional and policy frameworks impact enterprise engagement in CER, especially within the context of governments' economic-environmental trade-offs. It sheds light on the strategies employed by China and other emerging economies to effectively leverage contradictory policies to foster sustainable green growth.

A strategic analysis of incorporating corporate environmental responsibility into managerial incentive design: a differential game approach

As corporations' environmental impacts come under greater scrutiny from global financial, regulatory, and societal stakeholders, management scholars have increasingly focused on the role corporate governance plays in undertaking corporate environmental responsibility (CER). This paper combines managerial incentives and CER in a dynamic environment to formulate a differential game model of managerial incentive design in a duopolistic market, investigating whether companies with profit-maximizing interests are motivated to provide their professional managers with incentives related to CER and the impact of such incentives on corporate profitability, social welfare and emissions reduction. The results demonstrate the following: (1) Employing professional managers increases the emissions reduction efforts of firms and giving incentives to professional managers further increases the emissions reduction level of firms. (2) When a firm employs a professional manager and pays him or her a fixed salary, it generates slightly less income than it does when a manager is not employed; however, if the professional manager is given CER-related incentives, the firm's income is greatly increased. (3) As long as professional managers are employed, social welfare increases regardless of whether professional managers are given incentive pay. (4) The emissions reduction of a firm increases with an increase in the income distribution coefficient π₁. This paper extends the existing CER decision-making model by considering different managerial incentive designs, providing new insights into CER and enterprise organizational strategy and offering useful policy recommendations and a scientific basis for environmental governance, which is expected to be useful for finding ways to balance economic development and environmental protection.

The asymmetric influences of environmental subsidy and non-environmental subsidy on corporate environmental responsibility: evidence from China

This study investigates the asymmetric effects of government environmental subsidies (GES) and non-environmental subsidies (GNES) on corporate environmental responsibility (CER). Using a sample of Chinese listed companies over the period 2010 to 2020, we find that GES exhibits an inverted U-shaped impact on CER, while GNES shows a positive influence on CER, and these associations still exist after using the alternative measure of CER and addressing potential endogenous issues. In addition, we document that the effect of GES is not significant in companies operating in non-heavily polluting industries, and the effect of GNES is not significant in state-owned enterprises, firms with lower financing constraints and registered in regions with a lower degree of marketization. This study not only enriches the research on the influencing factors of CER but also provides theoretical guidance for the government to improve the efficiency of the use of different government subsidies and promote the greening process.

Green finance and corporate environmental responsibility: evidence from heavily polluting listed enterprises in China

Green finance is not just a global trend, but it has become an important channel for industrialized countries to achieve sustainable growth. However, few studies have discussed the environmental governance effects of green finance from the micro-firm level. Based on the data of Chinese A-share listed firms in heavily polluting industries, we, combining with property rights and environmental regulation, empirically research the influence of green finance on corporate environmental responsibility (CER) performance. Results indicate that green finance has a significant negative effect on the environmental responsibility of heavily polluting firms. The result remains after a series of robustness tests. In addition, property rights and environmental regulation play a moderating role in the above relationship. The negative impact of green finance on CER is stronger in private firms and firms in areas with low environmental regulation intensity. Moreover, we observe that green finance decreases the CER performance of heavily polluting firms by increasing financing constraints, reducing environmental investment, and diminishing technological innovation. This study identifies the external factors that influence CER and also provides implications and theoretical support for the government to improve the setting and the implementation of green finance policy in the future.

Research on mechanisms to incentivize corporate environmental responsibility based on a differential game approach

As major polluters, enterprises are expected to behave responsibly toward the natural environment. However, enterprises often do not pay enough attention to the environment and may even be environmentally irresponsible. Encouraging enterprises to actively accept environmental responsibility is the key to solving the problem of environmental pollution. This paper uses a differential game model to study the impact of different governmental incentive mechanisms on corporate environmental responsibility (CER). The results of the study show that independent, noncooperative decision-making by the government and the enterprise is not desirable. If the government provides a monetary incentive to the enterprise or sets a corporate pollution threshold to stimulate enterprises' acceptance of environmental responsibility, environmental quality can be improved. These results lead to useful policy recommendations and a scientific basis for environmental governance, which is expected to be helpful for finding ways to balance economic development and environmental protection in developing countries more generally.

The impact of corporate environmental responsibility on financial performance-based on Chinese listed companies

In recent years, environmental protection issues have come under the spotlight. This paper constructs a corporate environmental responsibility evaluation index and examines the impact of environmental responsibility performance on financial performance in China based on the information of A-share listed companies disclosed in the "Company Annual Report" and "Social Responsibility Report" from 2008 to 2017. The empirical results show that: (1) without considering the quality of environmental information, fulfilling environmental responsibility can significantly improve the corporate financial performance; (2) after incorporating the quality of environmental responsibility performance and classifying corporations into subgroups by region and attribute, the fulfillment of environmental responsibility has a significant positive impact on the corporate financial performance in the sample of eastern region and non-state-holding companies, with a lag effect, while it has a negative impact in the sample of central region. The research above politically suggests that the Chinese government should establish a long-term management mechanism to encourage companies to fulfill their environmental responsibilities, improve the evaluation system of corporate environmental responsibility performance quality, as well as provide matching financial support or other compensation, thereby realize the sound and sustainable development of companies and the society.

The impact of regulatory complexity upon self-regulation: Evidence from the adoption and certification of environmental management systems

This article focuses on environmental management systems (EMS) and aims to enhance our understanding of the relationship between environmental state regulation and self-regulation. Unlike previous studies that treat state regulation as uni-dimensional and focus on externally certified forms of environmental self-regulation, this article takes a more nuanced approach. It looks at how direct and indirect state regulation and its stringency influence both non-certified in-house and externally certified adoption of EMS. Methodologically, the study differentiates from previous research by acknowledging the interconnected nature of in-house and external certification decisions, viewing these decisions as sequential. Based on a survey of 2076 UK firms, findings show that effective environmental protection entails collaboration between environmental state regulation and in-house adoption of EMS. Results also reveal that externally certified EMS substitute for state environmental regulation, filling the void that results from weakening state regulation in the context of neoliberalism.

Multilevel corporate environmental responsibility

The multilevel empirical study of the antecedents of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has been identified as "the first knowledge gap" in CSR research. Based on an extensive literature review, the present study outlines a conceptual multilevel model of CSR, then designs and empirically validates an operational multilevel model of the principal driving factors affecting corporate environmental responsibility (CER), as a measure of CSR. Both conceptual and operational models incorporate three levels of analysis: institutional, organizational, and individual. The multilevel nature of the design allows for the assessment of the relative importance of the levels and of their components in the achievement of CER. Unweighted least squares (ULS) regression analysis reveals that the institutional-level variables have medium relationships with CER, some variables having a negative effect. The organizational level is revealed as having strong and positive significant relationships with CER, with organizational culture and managers' attitudes and behaviors as significant driving forces. The study demonstrates the importance of multilevel analysis in improving the understanding of CSR drivers, relative to single level models, even if the significance of specific drivers and levels may vary by context.