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Corporate Sustainability and Economic Performance: an Empirical Analysis of a Voluntary Environmental Program in the USA

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  • Seong‐gin Moon
  • Suho Bae
  • Moon‐Gi Jeong

Abstract

Voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) are designed based on a win–win approach to environmental protection that reconciles environmental protection and economic performance. Despite the claims about VEPs, there has been an ongoing debate over their efficacy with regard to whether environmental goals are balanced by economic interests on both theoretical and empirical grounds. To resolve this controversy, this paper empirically investigates a public VEP by the US Environmental Protection Agency: Green Lights (GL). For this, the paper constructs a treatment effects regression model to account for the effects of non‐random assignment for GL participants and non‐participants. The proposed model can simultaneously estimate probit models that predict corporate participation in the GL program and linear models that test the extent to which this participation contributes to economic performance. The results indicate significant positive effects of corporate participation in the GL program on economic performance, providing support for the win–win perspective. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

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  • Seong‐gin Moon & Suho Bae & Moon‐Gi Jeong, 2014. "Corporate Sustainability and Economic Performance: an Empirical Analysis of a Voluntary Environmental Program in the USA," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(8), pages 534-546, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:23:y:2014:i:8:p:534-546
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.1800
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    7. George Bulman & Robert W. Fairlie, 2015. "Technology and Education: Computers, Software, and the Internet," CESifo Working Paper Series 5570, CESifo.
    8. Kyungmin Baek, 2018. "Sustainable development and pollutant outcomes: The case of ISO 14001 in Korea," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(5), pages 825-832, September.
    9. Jing Lu & Kathleen Rodenburg & Lianne Foti & Ann Pegoraro, 2022. "Are firms with better sustainability performance more resilient during crises?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(7), pages 3354-3370, November.
    10. Sang‐Bum Park, 2018. "Multinationals and sustainable development: Does internationalization develop corporate sustainability of emerging market multinationals?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1514-1524, December.
    11. Shanyong Wang & Jun Li & Dingtao Zhao, 2018. "Institutional Pressures and Environmental Management Practices: The Moderating Effects of Environmental Commitment and Resource Availability," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 52-69, January.
    12. Anton Shevchenko & Xiaodan Pan & Goran Calic, 2020. "Exploring the effect of environmental orientation on financial decisions of businesses at the bottom of the pyramid: Evidence from the microlending context," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1876-1886, July.
    13. Jennifer DeBoer & Rajat Panwar & Jorge Rivera, 2017. "Toward A Place‐Based Understanding of Business Sustainability: The Role of Green Competitors and Green Locales in Firms' Voluntary Environmental Engagement," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(7), pages 940-955, November.
    14. Jiang, Zhenyu & Wang, Zongjun & Lan, Xiao, 2021. "How environmental regulations affect corporate innovation? The coupling mechanism of mandatory rules and voluntary management," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).

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