IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ausman/v42y2017i3p502-521.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Determinants of the perceived importance of organisational adaptation to climate change in the Australian energy industry

Author

Listed:
  • Josephine Bremer
  • Martina K. Linnenluecke

Abstract

Climate change will pose considerable risk to organisations in the 21st century. However, organisational adaptation to climate change has not yet received much attention in the management literature. Drawing on strategic choice theory, we put forward a model proposing that environmental attitudes and climate change knowledge are antecedents of how important adaptation is perceived to be by organisational decision-makers and that the perceived risk towards climate change acts as a mediator in this relationship. We tested the model with responses from 101 managers in the Australian energy industry. Findings of the study show that both environmental attitudes and climate change knowledge have a significantly positive effect on the perceived importance of climate change adaptation and that this relationship is mediated by risk perception. The study highlights the need to draw climate knowledge to the attention of executives and discusses avenues for future research, including the extension of the findings to other industries and settings.

Suggested Citation

  • Josephine Bremer & Martina K. Linnenluecke, 2017. "Determinants of the perceived importance of organisational adaptation to climate change in the Australian energy industry," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 42(3), pages 502-521, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:42:y:2017:i:3:p:502-521
    DOI: 10.1177/0312896216672273
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0312896216672273
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0312896216672273?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
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Mary Tripsas & Giovanni Gavetti, 2000. "Capabilities, cognition, and inertia: evidence from digital imaging," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(10‐11), pages 1147-1161, October.
    2. Martina K. Linnenluecke & Jac Birt & John Lyon & Baljit K. Sidhu & Kathy Walsh, 2015. "Planetary boundaries: implications for asset impairment," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 55(4), pages 911-929, December.
    3. van der Linden, Sander, 2014. "On the relationship between personal experience, affect and risk perception: the case of climate change," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 57689, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    4. John Reilly & David Schimmelpfennig, 2000. "Irreversibility, Uncertainty, and Learning: Portraits of Adaptation to Long-Term Climate Change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 45(1), pages 253-278, April.
    5. Travis William Reynolds & Ann Bostrom & Daniel Read & M. Granger Morgan, 2010. "Now What Do People Know About Global Climate Change? Survey Studies of Educated Laypeople," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(10), pages 1520-1538, October.
    6. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    7. James Risbey & Milind Kandlikar & Hadi Dowlatabadi & Dean Graetz, 1999. "Scale, context, and decision making in agricultural adaptation to climate variability and change," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 137-165, June.
    8. John Hua Fan & Eduardo Roca & Alexandr Akimov, 2014. "Estimation and performance evaluation of optimal hedge ratios in the carbon market of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 39(1), pages 73-91, February.
    9. Martina K. Linnenluecke & Jacqueline Birt & Andrew Griffiths & Kathy Walsh, 2015. "The role of accounting in supporting adaptation to climate change," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 55(3), pages 607-625, September.
    10. Swenja Surminski, 2013. "Private-sector adaptation to climate risk," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 3(11), pages 943-945, November.
    11. Härtel, Charmine EJ & Pearman, Graeme I, 2010. "Understanding and responding to the climate change issue: Towards a whole-of-science research agenda," Journal of Management & Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 16(1), pages 16-47, March.
    12. James Ford & Tristan Pearce & Jason Prno & Frank Duerden & Lea Berrang Ford & Tanya Smith & Maude Beaumier, 2011. "Canary in a coal mine: perceptions of climate change risks and response options among Canadian mine operations," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 109(3), pages 399-415, December.
    13. Martina K. Linnenluecke & Andrew Griffiths & Monika I. Winn, 2013. "Firm and industry adaptation to climate change: a review of climate adaptation studies in the business and management field," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 4(5), pages 397-416, September.
    14. Busch, Timo, 2011. "Organizational adaptation to disruptions in the natural environment: The case of climate change," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 389-404.
    15. Martina Linnenluecke & Andrew Griffiths & Peter Mumby, 2015. "Executives’ engagement with climate science and perceived need for business adaptation to climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 321-333, July.
    16. Linnenluecke, Martina K. & Chen, Xiaoyan & Ling, Xin & Smith, Tom & Zhu, Yushu, 2016. "Emerging trends in Asia-Pacific finance research: A review of recent influential publications and a research agenda," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 66-76.
    17. Robert E. O'Connor & Richard J. Bard & Ann Fisher, 1999. "Risk Perceptions, General Environmental Beliefs, and Willingness to Address Climate Change," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(3), pages 461-471, June.
    18. Herbert A. Simon, 1991. "Bounded Rationality and Organizational Learning," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 125-134, February.
    19. Martin Parry & Jason Lowe & Clair Hanson, 2009. "Overshoot, adapt and recover," Nature, Nature, vol. 458(7242), pages 1102-1103, April.
    20. Christina Tobler & Vivianne Visschers & Michael Siegrist, 2012. "Consumers’ knowledge about climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 114(2), pages 189-209, September.
    21. Karl E. Weick & Kathleen M. Sutcliffe & David Obstfeld, 2005. "Organizing and the Process of Sensemaking," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 16(4), pages 409-421, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Linnenluecke, Martina K. & Chen, Xiaoyan & Ling, Xin & Smith, Tom & Zhu, Yushu, 2017. "Research in finance: A review of influential publications and a research agenda," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 188-199.

    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. Martina Linnenluecke & Andrew Griffiths & Peter Mumby, 2015. "Executives’ engagement with climate science and perceived need for business adaptation to climate change," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 131(2), pages 321-333, July.
    2. Linnenluecke, Martina K. & Chen, Xiaoyan & Ling, Xin & Smith, Tom & Zhu, Yushu, 2017. "Research in finance: A review of influential publications and a research agenda," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 188-199.
    3. Salamatu J. Tannor & Christian Borgemeister & Shalom D. Addo–Danso & Klaus Greve & Bernhard Tischbein, 2023. "Climate variability and mining sustainability: exploring operations’ perspectives on local effects and the willingness to adapt in Ghana," SN Business & Economics, Springer, vol. 3(8), pages 1-26, August.
    4. Tiberio Daddi & Niccolò Maria Todaro & Maria Rosa De Giacomo & Marco Frey, 2018. "A Systematic Review of the Use of Organization and Management Theories in Climate Change Studies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 456-474, May.
    5. Piyapong Janmaimool & Jaruwan Chontanawat, 2021. "Do University Students Base Decisions to Engage in Sustainable Energy Behaviors on Affective or Cognitive Attitudes?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(19), pages 1-18, September.
    6. Hayam Elshirbiny & Wokje Abrahamse, 2020. "Public risk perception of climate change in Egypt: a mixed methods study of predictors and implications," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 10(3), pages 242-254, September.
    7. Federica Gasbarro & Francesco Rizzi & Marco Frey, 2016. "Adaptation Measures of Energy and Utility Companies to Cope with Water Scarcity Induced by Climate Change," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 54-72, January.
    8. Li, Mingxiang, 2021. "Exploring novel technologies through board interlocks: Spillover vs. broad exploration," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    9. Femke Hilverda & Margôt Kuttschreuter, 2018. "Online Information Sharing About Risks: The Case of Organic Food," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(9), pages 1904-1920, September.
    10. Rydén, Pernille & Ringberg, Torsten & Wilke, Ricky, 2015. "How Managers' Shared Mental Models of Business–Customer Interactions Create Different Sensemaking of Social Media," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 31(C), pages 1-16.
    11. Veysel Yilmaz & Pınar Guleç & Erkan Ari, 2023. "Impact of climate change information of university students in Turkey on responsibility and environmental behavior through awareness and perceived risk," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(7), pages 7281-7297, July.
    12. Jae-Eun Lee & Seol-A Kwon, 2021. "A Study on the Public’s Crisis Management Efficacy and Anxiety in a Pandemic Situation—Focusing on the COVID-19 Pandemic in South Korea," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-17, July.
    13. Tongyu Meng & Jamie Newth & Christine Woods, 2022. "Ethical Sensemaking in Impact Investing: Reasons and Motives in the Chinese Renewable Energy Sector," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(4), pages 1091-1117, September.
    14. Linnenluecke, Martina K. & Smith, Tom & McKnight, Brent, 2016. "Environmental finance: A research agenda for interdisciplinary finance research," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 124-130.
    15. Mercedes Bleda & Elisabeth Krull & Jonatan Pinkse & Eleni Christodoulou, 2023. "Organizational heuristics and firms' sensemaking for climate change adaptation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 6124-6137, December.
    16. Maria Carmela Aprile & Damiano Fiorillo, 2016. "Water Conservation Behavior and Environmental Concerns," Discussion Papers 6_2016, CRISEI, University of Naples "Parthenope", Italy.
    17. Dorine Maurice Mattar, 2021. "An Organizational Change With Quarantined Members," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(1), pages 21582440209, January.
    18. Anne Kokkonen & Pauli Alin, 2015. "Practice-based learning in construction projects: a literature review," Construction Management and Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(7), pages 513-530, July.
    19. Pham, Dung & Jones, Paul & Dobson, Stephen & Liñán, Francisco & Viala, Céline, 2021. "Entrepreneurial implementation intention as a tool to moderate the stability of entrepreneurial goal intention: A sensemaking approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 97-105.
    20. Giovanni Gavetti, 2012. "PERSPECTIVE—Toward a Behavioral Theory of Strategy," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 267-285, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Adaptation; climate change; climate change knowledge; decision-making; energy industry; environmental attitudes; risk;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • L94 - Industrial Organization - - Industry Studies: Transportation and Utilities - - - Electric Utilities
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • Q54 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Climate; Natural Disasters and their Management; Global Warming
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:sae:ausman:v:42:y:2017:i:3:p:502-521. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.agsm.edu.au .

    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.