Voluntary agreements to encourage proactive firm action against climate change: an empirical study of industry associations' voluntary action plans in Japan

Wakabayashi, Masayo; Arimura, Toshi H.

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.071

Cited by 56 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…The advantage of simple, specific and concise questions on the use of procedural measures to measure environmental performance is that they diminish social desirability bias (Podsakoff et al 2003). In fact, Wakabayashi and Arimura (2016) also employ these self-reported data to measure environmental performance. As reported in Table 1, only 10-13% of the companies responded that they adopt these procedural measures.…”

Section: Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Government regulation, business leaders’ motivations and environmental performance of SMEs

Graafland

Bovenberg

2019

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

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This paper investigates whether government regulation crowds out intrinsic motivation to improve environmental performance of small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Motivation crowding is the phenomenon by which external pressures reduce intrinsic motivation. Literature on motivation crowding effects of environmental regulations exhibits two gaps. First, previous studies have focused on households while neglecting business organizations, even though businesses account for a major part of industrial pollution worldwide. Second, previous literature neither measured intrinsic motivation nor tested how government regulation affects this motivation. Empirical evidence of motivation crowding by environmental regulations is therefore still lacking. This paper fills both research gaps. Using a dataset of 2,373 SMEs from 12 European countries, we show that government regulation enhances environmental performance directly but harms it indirectly by crowding out intrinsic and extrinsic motivations of business leaders. It only stimulates environmental performance for companies exhibiting low motivation.

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Section: Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Government regulation, business leaders’ motivations and environmental performance of SMEs

Graafland

Bovenberg

2019

Journal of Environmental Planning and Management

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“…Meanwhile, Lee and Klassen () examine this question focusing on the role of external business uncertainty and internal organisational capabilities. Across the environmental management literature as a whole, authors have furthermore considered the drivers of and benefits from proactive versus more reactive environmental strategies (Wakabayashia & Arimurac, ). Clearly, commitment to action on climate change is translated into practice in varied ways, with context and institutional variability significant in explaining observed differences.…”

Section: Conceptual Framework and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

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

Littlewood

Decelis²,

Hillenbrand

et al. 2018

Bus Strat Env

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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.

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“…Sugino and Arimura (2011) found that industries with absolute targets are more likely to invest in energy efficiency technology than those with relative targets. Wakabayashi and Arimura (2016) found that the VAP encouraged small-and medium-size companies to set voluntary emissions targets. Not all industries, however, achieved their targets.…”

Section: Climate Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Political economy of voluntary approaches: A lesson from environmental policies in Japan

Arimura

Kaneko

Managi

et al. 2019

Economic Analysis and Policy

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In this paper, we attempt to identify the reasons behind the differences in environmental policy between Japan and other developed countries, particularly the US. Japan's environmental policy is unique in that voluntary approaches have been taken to reduce total emissions. This strategy is quite different from the traditional approach of heavy-handed regulation. In Japan, voluntary approaches are conducted through negotiations with polluters. The idea behind this type of voluntary approaches is that the government can induce polluters to abate emissions voluntarily by using light-handed regulations and the threat of heavy-handed regulations. The light-handed regulation is quite effective especially when it is costly to introduce heavy-handed regulations, although the negotiations are difficult to conduct when the number of stakeholders is large. To strengthen our analysis, we provide some examples of Japanese environmental policies which are successful and the ones that are not.

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Voluntary agreements to encourage proactive firm action against climate change: an empirical study of industry associations' voluntary action plans in Japan

Cited by 56 publications

References 36 publications

Government regulation, business leaders’ motivations and environmental performance of SMEs

Government regulation, business leaders’ motivations and environmental performance of SMEs

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

Political economy of voluntary approaches: A lesson from environmental policies in Japan

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