Untangling the relationship between Corporate Environmental Performance and Corporate Financial Performance: The double-edged moderating effects of environmental uncertainty

JOURNAL OF CLEANER PRODUCTION

卷:263

Article

Zhang, Yuanyuan¹  Wei, Jiuchang¹  Zhu, Yunhao¹  George-Ufot, Glory¹ 

[1] Univ Sci & Technol China, Sch Management, 96 Jinzhai Rd Baohe Dist, Hefei 230026, Anhui, Peoples R China

关键词: Corporate environmental performance;    Corporate financial performance;    Dynamism;    Munificence;    Complexity;    Inverse U-Shaped relationship;   

DOI  :  10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121584

来源: Elsevier

【 摘 要 】

Is corporate environmental performance (CEP) a benefit or a cost for corporate financial performance (CFP)? Some studies have concluded that CEP nurtures good stakeholder relationships and facilitates acquisition of critical resources controlled by those stakeholders, thereby suggesting a positive CEP-CFP link. By contrast, other researchers have taken a negative stance by suggesting that commitment to improve CEP diverts limited resources from value-creating activities and damages competitive advantage. This study reconciles the longstanding debate about the CEP-CFP link by integrating and extending existing perspectives. We suggest that the CEP-CFP link can be captured by an inverse U-shape, which is steeper and of a lower plateau in higher levels of environmental uncertainty characterized by high dynamism, low munificence, and high complexity. We find strong support for these arguments using a panel dataset of 8364 firm-year observations from 1455 industrial firms. These findings encourage managers to conduct a benefit-cost analysis for determining the optimal level of commitment to CEP. Caution should be paid to the double-edged effect of high levels of environmental uncertainty, which enables CEP to bring great marginal increase (decrease) of financial performance at the left (right) side of the curve. (C) 2020 Published by Elsevier Ltd.

【 授权许可】

Free