Examining the drivers and outcomes of corporate commitment to climate change action in European high emitting industry

Abstract

Climate change is a major strategic issue for firms that also has global environmental, social and economic implications. This paper draws upon quantitative survey research to examine the drivers and outcomes of corporate commitment to climate change action in European high emitting industry. More specifically, this research examines the significance of business drivers, sustainability drivers, and stakeholder pressure, in motivating corporate commitment to climate change action in such industry. It furthermore assesses relationships between commitment and actual corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) performance. It is found that in European high emitting industry, business drivers and stakeholder pressure, but not sustainability drivers, enhance corporate commitment to climate change action, and that higher commitment leads to improved GHG performance. This paper contributes to hitherto limited empirical work on the drivers and outcomes of corporate commitment to climate change action, particularly in European industry contexts. It also contributes to advancing methodology in the field.

Analysing the environmental websites of the world’s greatest polluters: a multimodal ecolinguistic approach

“…A number of factors have been found to influence a company's readiness to be publicly engaged with climate change. Among them, size (C ordova et al, 2018;Eleftheriadis & Anagnostopoulou, 2015;Nartey, 2018;S anchez-Infante Hern andez et al, 2020), internal organisation systems (C ordova et al, 2018;Nartey, 2018;Rankin et al, 2011), international presence (Halkos & Skouloudis, 2016), the sector in which the companies operate (Weder et al, 2019), and external pressure (Haque & Islam, 2015;Littlewood et al, 2018), including media exposure (Wang et al, 2013) and extraordinary natural disasters (Pollach, 2018). Research also suggests that those companies and countries which implement environmental issues in their everyday practices, through patents or industrial and economic activity, tend to be more successful in terms of competitive advantages, economic growth and innovation (Ferreira et al, 2020;Mohammadi et al, 2018;Singh et al, 2019;Skare & Golja, 2012).…”

Climate Change

“…A study conducted by Bansal and Roth (2000) revealed that three motivations, such as legitimation, competitiveness, and social/ecological responsibility, trigger corporate responsiveness. Boiral (2012) outlined the determinants of corporate commitment to reduce GHG emissions as business motivations, social and environmental motivations (defined as sustainability drivers by Littlewood et al 2018), and pressure from various stakeholders. Economic motivations are related to corporate competitiveness or potential financial benefits, which may result from the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions (Boiral 2012).…”

“…The external stakeholder list continues with business associations, professional associations and chambers of commerce, financial markets and insurance companies, environmental groups, and local and national experts (Boiral 2012;Ali and Rizwan 2013;Murillo-Luna et al 2008). Significant internal stakeholders are employees, management, leaders, and company headquarters (Littlewood et al 2018). Murillo-Luna et al (2008) classified the large number of stakeholders who demand companies to protect the environment into five groups: regulatory stakeholders and corporate government stakeholders are the groups that managers are most concerned about.…”

“…Pressure from stakeholders to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is often perceived as one of the main drivers not only for corporate commitment but also for improving carbon performance (Boiral 2012). Littlewood et al (2018) examined the European high emission industry and found that business drivers and stakeholder pressure increased corporate commitment to climate change action and higher commitment led to increased GHG performance. Murillo-Luna et al (2008) argue that the pressure from all stakeholders can discipline the environmental behavior of corporations and leads to greater environmental proactivity.…”

Sustainability performance in businesses and its implications for the sustainability service industry

“…,Jones et al (2017),Latan et al (2018), X Li and Hamblin (2016),Linnenluecke and Griffiths (2010),Littlewood et al (2018),Longoni and Cagliano (2018),Lozano (2015),Lozano and von Haartman (2018),Kabongo and Boiral (2017),Khan et al (2018),Kitsikopoulos et al (2018),Maak et al (2016),Mangla et al (2017,Martens and Carvalho (2016),. I. K Mitchell and Walinga (2017),.…”