The role of project’s initiatives focused on the reduction of environmental footprints during COVID-19: evidence from the United States firms

Abstract

In this paper, we examine whether the projects of the United States (U.S.) corporations have implemented initiatives to reduce the environmental footprint of their supply chains during coronavirus (COVID-19). Environmental footprint reductions could be achieved by reducing waste, reducing resource use, and reducing ecological emissions by introducing environmental management systems in the supply chains. For this aim, the project’s initiatives play a crucial role. This study has the primary purpose of examining the impact of ecological footprints on financial performance achieved by US corporations’ initiatives implemented through projects during the COVID-19 period. The final sample comprises 9997 company-year observations over the investigation period between 2010 and 2020. The results suggest that firms implementing the initiatives to reduce environmental footprint have shown a significant positive financial performance during the COVID-19 period. The results are robust to alternative specifications of informativeness and sensitivity tests controlling for time-invariant firm characteristics and alternative firms' performance measures. Our results corroborate with stakeholder theory, which implies implementing green policies will alleviate the agency issue and safeguard the shareholders' interest. Moreover, it clearly demonstrates the positive impact of environmental projects-focused organizations on the financial and environmental performance even while challenging and disrupting situations such as this unprecedented pandemic.

Role of corporate governance in quick response to Covid-19 to improve SMEs’ performance: evidence from an emerging market

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“…Following prior literature, we use Tobin’s Q as the dependent variable to measure market performance (Atayah et al. , 2021a, b; Dhiaf et al. , 2021; Najaf et al.…”

“…Following prior literature, we use Tobin's Q as the dependent variable to measure market performance (Atayah et al, 2021a, b;Dhiaf et al, 2021;Najaf et al, 2021a;Najaf and Atayah, 2021;Najaf et al, 2021b). Tobin's Q is widely used in several studies as a proxy for market performance, and it does reflect not only the current company's profitability but also its future potential growth.…”

Bridging the supply chain resilience research and practice gaps: pre and post COVID-19 perspectives

“…Fahimnia et al (2018) investigated the relationship and the trade-offs between a green supply chain with a degree of robustness and a robust supply chain with a degree of greening. Dhiaf et al (2021) indicate that firms that followed the environmental regulations showed better financial performance during COVID-19.…”