Export market participation and environmental actions of enterprises in Vietnam

Abstract

The outcome of environmental actions from participation in the export market are examined by unpacking some mechanisms that explain the estimated relationship. The empirical strategy utilizes the variation in the distance between the location of the sampled enterprises and the top 25 destinations of Vietnamese exports across sectors, and the weight of each sampled export to total exports in each period, to obtain exogenous variation in the enterprise's export market participation. The result shows a positive relationship between the enterprise's export participation and its overall engagement in environmental actions (such as the sum of its environmental actions, the sum of actions in the investments in equipment towards environmental issues, and total expenditure for the purchase of equipment for environmental actions). Possible mechanisms are international standardization, national certification, and strong enforcement of environmental regulations from export market engagement.

Examining ecological strategies adopted by agricultural exporting firms in an emerging country

“…Notably, regulatory pressure exerts the most significant influence on the adoption of ESs. A plausible explanation is that export firms in Vietnam are facing strict environmental regulations and hygienic and food safety standards from export markets (Efobi, 2021; VN Report, 2019), which strongly motivates them to adopt ESs. In addition, since most of Vietnam's agricultural products for export are raw and have low added value (Vietdata, 2020), they also face tremendous pressures in different markets.…”

International orientation and environmental performance in Vietnamese exporting small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises

“…In addition, many innovative policies have recently been introduced into the 2020 Law on Environmental Protection (Vietnam National Assembly, 2020); these include environmental criteria‐based investment project classification, a circular economy, climate change response, responsibility for pollution prevention and response, the use of best available techniques to reduce pollution, environmental auditing, and mechanisms to improve law compliance. Such regulations can have broad economic impacts, as well as a positive influence on environmental sustainability, given that the expected improvements in SMEs' environmental behavior as a result of export market involvement may be a critical factor for ensuring long‐term sustainability (Efobi, 2021).…”