IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/proeco/v175y2016icp24-34.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental management practices and firm financial performance: The moderating effect of industry pollution-related factors

Author

Listed:
  • Lucas, Marilyn T.
  • Noordewier, Thomas G.

Abstract

Is the relationship between a firm׳s environmental management practices (EMPs) and its financial performance (FP) dependent on industry pollution-related ("context") characteristics? If so, how? Drawing upon Scott׳s (2004) "dualist" theory of organizations, we propose and test a model that examines the effect of EMPs on firm financial performance both within- and between-industry contexts. In essence, instead of asking "does it pay to be green?" we inquire "what are the circumstances under which it might pay to be green?" Data used to test the hypothesis that industry context matters to the EMP-FP relationship consist of 941 publicly-traded manufacturing U.S. firms, spanning 52 four-digit NAICS codes. The cross-sectional data set includes environmental ratings of firms assigned by Kinder, Lyndenberg, Domini Research and Analytics (KLD), firm-level financial data from Standard & Poor׳s COMPUSTAT database, and industry-level information from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Environmental Protection Agency. Industry "context" is operationalized using measures of industry dirtiness and industry proactiveness. To investigate the influence of both firm- and industry-level variables on firm-level financial performance, we specify a hierarchical (i.e., multilevel) model to test our hypothesis. Among the results, we find that within dirty and non-proactive industries there is a positive marginal effect on firm performance as a result of engaging in EMPs. Moreover, the effect on financial performance of implementing EMPs is greater in relatively dirty and non-proactive industry contexts than in relatively clean and proactive contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Lucas, Marilyn T. & Noordewier, Thomas G., 2016. "Environmental management practices and firm financial performance: The moderating effect of industry pollution-related factors," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 24-34.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:175:y:2016:i:c:p:24-34
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2016.02.003
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527316000396
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ijpe.2016.02.003?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Scholes, Myron & Williams, Joseph, 1977. "Estimating betas from nonsynchronous data," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(3), pages 309-327, December.
    2. Shameek Konar & Mark A. Cohen, 2001. "Does The Market Value Environmental Performance?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 83(2), pages 281-289, May.
    3. Andrew A. King & Michael J. Lenox, 2001. "Does It Really Pay to Be Green? An Empirical Study of Firm Environmental and Financial Performance: An Empirical Study of Firm Environmental and Financial Performance," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 5(1), pages 105-116, January.
    4. Heather Dixon-Fowler & Daniel Slater & Jonathan Johnson & Alan Ellstrand & Andrea Romi, 2013. "Beyond “Does it Pay to be Green?” A Meta-Analysis of Moderators of the CEP–CFP Relationship," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 112(2), pages 353-366, January.
    5. Horváthová, Eva, 2010. "Does environmental performance affect financial performance? A meta-analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 52-59, November.
    6. Elisabeth Albertini, 2013. "Does Environmental Management Improve Financial Performance? A Meta-Analytical Review," Post-Print halshs-01887802, HAL.
    7. Stuart L. Hart & Gautam Ahuja, 1996. "Does It Pay To Be Green? An Empirical Examination Of The Relationship Between Emission Reduction And Firm Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 30-37, March.
    8. Mark A. Youndt & Mohan Subramaniam & Scott A. Snell, 2004. "Intellectual Capital Profiles: An Examination of Investments and Returns," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 335-361, March.
    9. Noel Capon & John U. Farley & Scott Hoenig, 1990. "Determinants of Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(10), pages 1143-1159, October.
    10. Bulent Menguc & Seigyoung Auh & Lucie Ozanne, 2010. "The Interactive Effect of Internal and External Factors on a Proactive Environmental Strategy and its Influence on a Firm's Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 94(2), pages 279-298, June.
    11. Sarkis, Joseph & Cordeiro, James J., 2001. "An empirical evaluation of environmental efficiencies and firm performance: Pollution prevention versus end-of-pipe practice," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 135(1), pages 102-113, November.
    12. Aaron K. Chatterji & Michael W. Toffel, 2010. "How firms respond to being rated," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(9), pages 917-945, September.
    13. Robert D. Klassen & Curtis P. McLaughlin, 1996. "The Impact of Environmental Management on Firm Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(8), pages 1199-1214, August.
    14. Marilyn T. Lucas, 2010. "Understanding environmental management practices: integrating views from strategic management and ecological economics," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(8), pages 543-556, December.
    15. Lioui, Abraham & Sharma, Zenu, 2012. "Environmental corporate social responsibility and financial performance: Disentangling direct and indirect effects," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 78(C), pages 100-111.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Noordewier, Thomas G. & Lucas, Marilyn T., 2020. "On being green and profitable: Does industry context matter?," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 223(C).
    2. Sergio Manrique & Carmen-Pilar Martí-Ballester, 2017. "Analyzing the Effect of Corporate Environmental Performance on Corporate Financial Performance in Developed and Developing Countries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-30, October.
    3. Ruiqian Li & Ramakrishnan Ramanathan, 2018. "Impacts of Industrial Heterogeneity and Technical Innovation on the Relationship between Environmental Performance and Financial Performance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-25, May.
    4. Suhong Li & Thomas Ngniatedema & Fang Chen, 2017. "Understanding the Impact of Green Initiatives and Green Performance on Financial Performance in the US," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(6), pages 776-790, September.
    5. Palmer, Mark & Truong, Yann, 2017. "The Impact of Technological Green New Product Introductions on Firm Profitability," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 86-93.
    6. Misani, Nicola & Pogutz, Stefano, 2015. "Unraveling the effects of environmental outcomes and processes on financial performance: A non-linear approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 150-160.
    7. Markus Hang & Jerome Geyer‐Klingeberg & Andreas W. Rathgeber, 2019. "It is merely a matter of time: A meta‐analysis of the causality between environmental performance and financial performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(2), pages 257-273, February.
    8. Eng, Li Li & Fikru, Mahelet G. & Vichitsarawong, Thanyaluk, 2021. "The impact of toxic chemical releases and their management on financial performance," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    9. Dyna Seng & Chaiporn Vithessonthi, 2017. "Environmental Efforts and Firm Performance," PIER Discussion Papers 64, Puey Ungphakorn Institute for Economic Research.
    10. Stephen Bahadar & Muhammad Nadeem & Rashid Zaman, 2023. "Toxic chemical releases and idiosyncratic return volatility: A prospect theory perspective," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(2), pages 2109-2143, June.
    11. Concepción Garcés-Ayerbe & Pilar Rivera-Torres & Josefina L. Murillo-Luna & Cristina Suárez-Gálvez, 2022. "Does it pay more to be green in family firms than in non-family firms?," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(5), pages 1365-1386, July.
    12. Mahabubur Rahman & Saqib Aziz & Mathew Hughes, 2020. "The product‐market performance benefits of environmental policy: Why customer awareness and firm innovativeness matter," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 2001-2018, July.
    13. Tzouvanas, Panagiotis & Kizys, Renatas & Chatziantoniou, Ioannis & Sagitova, Roza, 2020. "Environmental and financial performance in the European manufacturing sector: An analysis of extreme tail dependency," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(6).
    14. Markus Hang & Jerome Geyer‐Klingeberg & Andreas Rathgeber & Stefan Stöckl, 2018. "Economic Development Matters: A Meta‐Regression Analysis on the Relation between Environmental Management and Financial Performance," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 22(4), pages 720-744, August.
    15. Elisabeth Albertini, 2017. "What We Know About The Environmental Policy: An Inductive Typology Of The Research," Post-Print hal-02148591, HAL.
    16. Danquah Jeff Boakye & Ishmael TIngbani & Gabriel Ahinful & Isaac Damoah & Venancio Tauringana, 2020. "Sustainable environmental practices and financial performance: Evidence from listed small and medium‐sized enterprise in the United Kingdom," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2583-2602, September.
    17. Lee, Ki-Hoon & Min, Byung & Yook, Keun-Hyo, 2015. "The impacts of carbon (CO2) emissions and environmental research and development (R&D) investment on firm performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 167(C), pages 1-11.
    18. Christian Dreyer & Nadja Guenster & Jakob Koegst, 2019. "Empirical Evidence on Environmental Performance and Operating Costs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-13, June.
    19. Justin Hung Nguyen, 2018. "Carbon risk and firm performance: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 43(1), pages 65-90, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:proeco:v:175:y:2016:i:c:p:24-34. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/ijpe .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.