No abstract

We use religious background as a proxy for local risk-taking attitudes and investigate whether geographical variation in religion affects corporate environmental responsibility (CER) with regards to corporate cash policies and profitability. We conjecture that the presence of environmentally conscious firms would be higher in areas with more Catholics relative to Protestants. Study data comprises of the largest publicly traded U.S.-listed firms of Newsweek's green rankings of 2015-2016. We use green scores and the concentration of Catholic to Protestant population ratio as proxies for CER and religiosity, respectively. We provide robust evidence that corporate environmental practices attenuate the demand for precautionary cash reserves to protect firms from unforeseeable risks. Furthermore, environmentally conscious firms located in high risk-taking areas gain financial stability and improve profitability, strengthening their CER. The findings provide contributions to risk management literature and document the importance of firms' efforts to harmonize social behavior for sustainable financial policies.

This study investigates the influence of local religious beliefs to evaluate managerial motives towards corporate environmental engagement, considering the growing attention of the role of external factors in shaping corporate behavior. Using Newsweek’s green rankings of the largest publicly traded US firms by market capitalization from 2014–2016, we find that competent managers show a higher strategic preference for corporate environmental practices in firms located in low-Protestant or high-Catholic areas exhibiting higher risk and uncertainty, which tend to mitigate the negative effects of risky environments. We find that corporate environmental practices positively influence the sales of firms in high risk-taking states. This study provides significant contributions to the literature documenting the consequences of local religious risk-taking behavior and elaborates on the perceptions of competent managers on environmental management. The results provide valuable insights for practitioners and policymakers looking to incorporate environmental practices.