scholarly journals Impact of Corporate Environmental Responsibility on Investment Efficiency: The Moderating Roles of the Institutional Environment and Consumer Environmental Awareness

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (17) ◽  
pp. 4512 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shihong Zeng ◽  
Yujia Qin ◽  
Guowang Zeng

The increasingly serious destruction of the natural environment represents a great threat to the sustainable development of human beings and the earth. Under pressure from the government and public opinion, companies must assume environmental responsibility; however, there is no conclusion on whether corporate environmental responsibility is beneficial to companies. From the perspective of investment efficiency, this paper collects panel data from Chinese listed companies from 2011 to 2016 to discuss the impact of corporate environmental responsibility on investment efficiency and the moderating role of the institutional environment and consumer environmental awareness. The results show that corporate environmental responsibility can significantly positively affect investment efficiency, but this effect is not a short-term effect; it needs time to play a role. Second, in regions with a good institutional environment, corporate environmental responsibility has a more significant impact on improving investment efficiency. Finally, with the improvement of consumer environmental awareness, companies that assume environmental responsibility can address underinvestment. The research in this paper supports stakeholder theory, indicating that corporate environmental responsibility is not “selfless dedication”. In addition, the research results of this paper are robust and not subject to endogenous influences.

Author(s):  
Vallari Chandna

The impact of personal characteristics, beliefs, values and attitudes of the entrepreneur on firm's culture and business practices, is substantive. These aspects of the founder coupled with the institutional environment of the firm, affect the investment, efforts and involvement of the firm in a multitude of activities. With regard to activities that impact the natural environment, this paper argues that the environmental attitudes of entrepreneurs have a strong influence on the corporate environmental responsibility (CER) of the firm that are in turn moderated by the need for legitimacy by new entrepreneurial firms. The role of imprinting is examined to understand how founders' attitudes impact their firm's CER activities. A further contribution is the creation of a taxonomy of sub-categories of CER activities that illustrate the level of engagement of the firm.


Author(s):  
S.S. Skaranik

The article is devoted to environmental responsibility issues in the modern corporate governance practice of the largest Russian corporations, which are leaders in the domestic corporate charity rating. The content, directions and main functions of corporate environmental responsibility are determined. Based on reports on the sustainable development of leading Russian companies, their goals in the field of environmental safety and environmental protection are considered, the main indicators of the impact on the environment are analyzed. Priority measures implemented in the field of environmental responsibility of companies are considered. The advantages and benefits for socially and environmentally responsible companies are identified.


PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0257670
Author(s):  
Yuanyang Wang ◽  
Yanlin Yang ◽  
Chenyu Fu ◽  
Zengzeng Fan ◽  
Xiaoping Zhou

Innovation and green are the directions to promote the circular economy and environmental sustainability at the corporate level. This paper examines the impact of environmental regulation (pollution charge) on green technology innovation and the mediating role of corporate environmental responsibility. Our results indicate that: (1) Environmental regulations stimulate manufacturing enterprises’ environmental responsibility and green technology innovation. It is worth noting that corporate environmental responsibility strengthens the relationship between environmental regulation and green technology innovation. (2) Further investigation reveals that R&D expenditure and environmental investment have greatly strengthened the positive effect of environmental regulation on green technology innovation. (3) With more detailed disclosure about enterprises’ environment-related information, the more outstanding stimulation effects of environmental regulation. Discussions on the features of enterprise location have revealed that, if the goal of environmental protection is set too high or if the fiscal decentralization is too strong, implementation of environmental regulation would not achieve desirable results. Accordingly, we need to optimize the collection of environmental taxes, strengthen the enterprises’ environmental responsibility, and increase investment in R&D and environment protection. Meanwhile, the execution of environmental regulation should also take into account the institutional environment and governance features of the enterprise locations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (21) ◽  
pp. 8839
Author(s):  
Jieqiong Yang ◽  
Panzhu Luo ◽  
Yong Tan

Using 522 nonfinancial listed companies on the Chinese A-share Market during 2008–2016 as the sample, this paper studies the discretion of corporations to fulfill their environmental responsibilities in the face of economic policy uncertainty (EPU) through a panel regression model and a panel quantile regression model. Additionally, the sample is classified and the heterogeneity is analyzed based on the equity nature, the financing constraints and the economic region in which the corporations are located. The conclusions are as follows. First, faced with EPU, the corporations are willing to actively undertake environmental responsibilities, but their marginal propensity to these responsibilities shows a downward trend. Second, under the premise of EPU, the decision-making behavior of different types of corporations to fulfill their environmental responsibilities is heterogeneous, which is embodied in the equity nature, financing constraints and economic region. Third, through the stepwise regression method, this paper further studies the impact mechanism, and finds that the enterprise’s leverage ratio plays a partial mediating role in the relationship between EPU and environmental responsibility of nonfinancial corporations. Our paper provides important policy implications for the government. In the process of requiring corporations to fulfill their environmental responsibilities, relevant government organizations should fully consider the impact of EPU on the corporations’ development, and the level of environmental responsibilities should be controlled based on the type of the corporation. We further suggest that the requirement should be imposed on the corporations to disclose high-quality and reliable environmental protection information. Finally, we recommend that the corporations should adhere to the route of sustainable development.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 4173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feifei Wu ◽  
Xinyu Yan

The knowledge about the relations between domestic institutional quality and the sustainable development of exports in emerging markets remains limited, since most research into the relations between the institutional environment and the sustainable development of exports has been conducted in developed market economies, especially in those of North America and Europe. With dynamic changes in the institutional environment of emerging countries over the years, this paper provides a novel perspective for investigating the relations above. This is the first paper to investigate the impact of institutional quality on the sustainable development of industries’ exports in emerging countries from a comprehensive perspective of multiple institutional environments and multi-dimensional industries’ heterogeneity. On the basis of defining institutional quality and industry heterogeneity, this paper explores the underlying mechanisms of institutional quality affecting sustainable development of industries’ exports and conducts empirical analyses by using the data from China’s 20 industries’ exports to 117 countries for the period of 1996–2011. The results show that: (a) Industries with higher degrees of financial dependence or higher product technical complexities have export comparative advantages in better financial environments; (b) Industries with higher research and development (R&D) intensity or a higher concentration of intermediate inputs have export comparative advantages in better legal environments; (c) The differences in the level of financial development or in the efficiency of legal system would influence the effects of interactions between institutional quality and industry heterogeneity on the sustainable development of industries’ exports. The present paper provides new evidence that institutional quality does promote the sustainable development of industries’ exports in emerging countries. These results indicate that exports of heterogeneous industries in emerging economies are an adaptive response to the specific institutional environment, as well as a continuous release of institutional dividends with the improvement of the institutional environment.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 366-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chengzhi Long ◽  
Jing Lin

PurposeThough enormous research studies were conducted on corporate environmental responsibility (CER), few of them could empirically justify how CER helps to improve firm’s competitive advantage and firms are still hesitant to incorporate CER with their business strategy at present. The purpose of this paper is to theoretically and empirically explore how the CER strategy could help the firm to gain competitive advantage in Chinese context, particularly in terms of achieving brand sustainability (BS).Design/methodology/approachIn this study, 310 listed companies in China were chosen as research sample. First, the CER strategies were classified into developing eco-friendly products, adopting EMAS or other eco-management, enhancing the impact of CER through value chain and charitable CER. Second, BS is constructed as two dimensions, i.e. resource-acquisition and consumer impact. Accordingly, this paper analyzed the relationship between CER and BS with regression model analysis, taking account of several moderating and control variables.FindingsThe results indicate that CER strategies have positive effect on BS. Among all CER strategies, developing eco-friendly products and charitable CER undertakings are the most effective ones to promote BS performance. Also, the paper found that the length of time in adopting CER strategy moderates the effect of CER on BS. The empirical evidence proves that CER strategies could enhance the brand value in terms of BS and help the company to gain competitive advantage.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, most of our samples are of the state-owned enterprises, so our assumption might not be applicable to other types of business. Second, corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication is an important factor in the relation between CSR and corporate performance, but it is not taken into account in this study. Third, the difference in industries and ownership in this research is out of concern.Practical implicationsAs this paper has provided empirical evidence to reveal the effectiveness of different CER strategies, firms in China could be more motivated to undertake CER not only for the sake of environment but also for their brand value and competitive advantage. More importantly, this paper could be a valuable reference for the firms in China to choose suitable and effective CER strategies, as proved in this study, to gain competitive advantage in the market.Originality/valueAt first, while public environmental awareness has improved gradually, we introduce the BS concept to explain how the CER strategies affect CCA. This approach gives us another perspective to highlight the relationship between these two constructs. Second, we conducted our research from practical perspective to explore how to apply the CER undertakings as the company’s strategy. Third, we conducted our empirical research in Chinese context, which will enrich the theoretical CER and CSR literature.


2018 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 225-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maxwell Peprah Opoku ◽  
William Nketsia ◽  
Elvis Agyei-Okyere ◽  
Wisdom Kwadwo Mprah

In many low-income countries, persons with disabilities are consistently denied access to essential services, contributing to a high incidence of poverty among them. The Goal 1 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) exhorts countries to develop appropriate social protection to serve as a springboard to alleviate poverty among all persons. The government of Ghana has introduced Disability Fund to provide one-off financial support to persons with disabilities through its decentralised political units. This is to enable persons with disability to participate in socio-economic activities. However, after a decade of the establishment of the fund, anecdotal evidence still shows that many persons with disabilities continue to live in deplorable conditions. Therefore, the main aim of this qualitative study was to explore the beneficial impact of the fund on the lives of persons with disabilities in Ghana. A semi-structured interview guide was used to collect data from 48 participants, comprising 20 males and 28 females with disabilities. The narratives from the participants revealed that only a few were able to access the fund. In their quest to access the fund, participants encountered barriers, such as lack of information, delays in disbursement and insufficient funds. The findings underscore the need for re-evaluation of the administration of Disability Fund and its disbursement processes. The implications of the findings for policy reform are extensively discussed.


2016 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 501-526 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.M. Solaiman

Purpose The main purpose of this paper is to critically examine the impact of black money whitening opportunity on the Bangladesh housing market and its ramifications for honest taxpayers and criminal conduct of the people in the country. Design/methodology/approach This paper relies on both primary and secondary materials and carries out an archival analysis of the resources available in libraries and online databases. Findings It demonstrates that black money whitening opportunity has failed to create additional demands for housing property, rather it encourages money laundering, corruption and other criminal activities. Hence, a set of specific recommendations have been submitted to effectively deal with the prevention of generation of black money instead of allowing them to be invested in properties with impunity. Research limitations/implications The discussions are concentrated on the legality of offering amnesty to black money holders and the impact of such indemnities on the housing market in Bangladesh; hence, it does not consider impacts on other economic sectors. It is expected that the publication of this paper will stimulate the government of Bangladesh to discontinue the disputed amnesty in Bangladesh, and other nations having similar problems with black money will be encouraged to follow suit. Practical implications It is anticipated that the implementation of the recommendations furnished in this paper will contribute to significantly decreasing money laundering, corruption and other offences involving money in Bangladesh and in other countries. Social implications Prevention of corruption and other financial crimes. Originality/value This paper represents its originality in its critical analysis of frequent offerings of the opportunity for whitening black money and their unfair impacts on honest taxpayers and resultant stimulation for engaging in money laundering, corruption and other felonies. It evidently justifies the assumption that such amnesties to wrongdoers are contrary to the national constitution, anti-corruption and anti-money laundering legislation and they wound the sense of ethical behaviour of human beings. Moreover, it proves the hypothesis that such opportunities being offered to black money holders have no positive contribution towards creating additional demands in the country’s property markets.


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