| Author: | Ye, Yuxiao |
| Title: | Three studies in firm environmental initiatives : stakeholder antecedents and performance outcomes |
| Advisors: | Yeung, Andy (LMS) |
| Degree: | Ph.D. |
| Year: | 2020 |
| Subject: | Business enterprises -- Environmental aspects Industrial management -- Environmental aspects Hong Kong Polytechnic University -- Dissertations |
| Department: | Department of Logistics and Maritime Studies |
| Pages: | viii, 153 pages : color illustrations |
| Language: | English |
| Abstract: | In the past few decades, China has experienced prospering economic growth. However, the aggressive progress of industrialization and urbanization causes severe environmental problems in the nation. Environmental pollution induces widespread reflections: Is it possible for firms to reduce harm to the environment and the public as much as possible while sustaining strong economic growth? As the Chinese government is enforcing environmental regulations tightly, and the public is appealing to environmental protection, an increasing number of firms has involved in proactive environmental initiatives. While environmental initiatives cover a broad scope of practices, two types of environmental initiatives are identified to uncover the antecedent and outcomes of environmental initiatives. Environmental strategy is regarded as an upper-level decision, and its formation is dependent on the perception and orientation of managers. Thus, I unpack how environmental strategy is formulated from the managerial cognition perspective. On the other hand, ISO 14001 certification is a process-based standard at the operational level. As the implementation of ISO 14001 requires substantial inputs, it is of particular importance to consider the performance outcomes of ISO 14001. I now examine how ISO 14001 implementation influences operational risk, financial risk, and sales growth. Study 1 investigates the impact of ISO 14001 adoption on operational risks, proxied by regulatory violations and casualties, and the moderating roles of government monitor and slack resources. Existing OM literature mainly evaluates the outcomes of environmental initiatives from an efficiency perspective. Nevertheless, it is less understood how environmental initiative could contribute to the well-being of people. The purpose of the study is to unveil whether saving the environment is a means of saving lives. The researcher collects data from multiple sources and uses propensity score matching and difference-in-difference analysis to draw the causal influence of ISO 14001 on operational risks. As such, I estimate the quantitative impact of ISO 14001 adoption on operational risks, while controlling for selection bias and endogeneity. I also conduct the triple-difference model to examine the moderating impacts of government monitor and slack resources. Finally, a series of robustness tests and extension analysis is conducted to ensure that the results are reliable. This study shows that ISO 14001 adoption significantly decreases operational risks. For firms that receive government monitor, the impact of ISO 14001 adoption on casualties is strengthened. For firms with more slack resources, the impact of ISO 14001 adoption on regulatory violations is weakened. Study 2 examines the impact of ISO 14001 adoption on financial risks and sales growth, and the moderating effects of certification time and industrial pollution level. Low financial risk and high sales growth are indicators for a firm's resilience performance. Following the signalling theory, I propose that ISO 14001 adoption demonstrates a firm's credibility and capability to its shareholders and customers, thus mitigating financial risk and enhancing sales growth. I employ propensity score matching and difference-in-difference models to test the hypotheses and then conduct robustness tests. The findings suggest that ISO 14001 adoption leads to paradoxical outcomes: it decreases financial risks and attenuates market growth simultaneously. Early certification exacerbates the paradox by reducing more financial risk and diminishing more market growth. Adoption of firms in high-polluting industries alleviates the paradoxical outcome by decreasing more financial risk and harming less market growth. Study 3 investigates the impact of perceived stakeholder pressures on firm environmental strategy and the moderating effect of managerial value orientations. In this study, I focus on the antecedent of environmental initiative from the managerial cognition perspective. The finding shows that perceived competitive pressure is positively related to environmental strategy, while perceived social pressure does not affect. Managerial legal orientation is positively related to environmental strategy, while economic orientation does not show an effect. For the moderating effects, economic orientation positively moderates the impact of competitive and social pressure on environmental strategy, while legal orientation negatively moderates the impact of competitive and social pressure on environmental strategy. |
| Rights: | All rights reserved |
| Access: | open access |
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