IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/80906.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Environmental and Financial Performance. Is there a win-win or a win-loss situation? Evidence from the Greek manufacturing

Author

Listed:
  • Kounetas, Kostas
  • Alexopoulos, Elias
  • Tzelepis, Dimitris

Abstract

This study examines the causal linkage between environmental and financial performance in Greek manufacturing firms. Environmental performance is measured according to accounting data following the Eco Management and Auditing Scheme guidelines and ISO certification. Return on assets and return on sales are used as indicators of financial performance. Empirical findings suggest that there seems to be a link between these dimensions irrespectively of the particular sector of activity. Contrary to similar studies a “virtuous circle” does not exist as the avoidance of environmental improving investments is related to a better financial performance. On the other hand firms with superior financial performance seem to achieve a better environmental performance. At the same time firm specific and market characteristics significantly affect this relationship. These findings provide evidence that governmental and corporate actions are necessary in order to lead to a more sustainable corporate performance in the long run

Suggested Citation

  • Kounetas, Kostas & Alexopoulos, Elias & Tzelepis, Dimitris, 2016. "Environmental and Financial Performance. Is there a win-win or a win-loss situation? Evidence from the Greek manufacturing," MPRA Paper 80906, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 19 Jul 2017.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:80906
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/80906/1/MPRA_paper_80906.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Blacconiere, Walter G. & Patten, Dennis M., 1994. "Environmental disclosures, regulatory costs, and changes in firm value," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 357-377, November.
    2. Clarke, Roger & Davies, Stephen & Waterson, Michael, 1984. "The Profitability-Concentration Relation: Market Power or Efficiency?," Journal of Industrial Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(4), pages 435-450, June.
    3. Abay Mulatu & Reyer Gerlagh & Dan Rigby & Ada Wossink, 2010. "Environmental Regulation and Industry Location in Europe," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 45(4), pages 459-479, April.
    4. Simon Feeny & Mark Harris & Mark Rogers, 2005. "A dynamic panel analysis of the profitability of Australian tax entities," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 30(1), pages 209-233, January.
    5. Zvi Griliches, 1998. "Productivity, R&D, and Basic Research at the Firm Level in the 1970s," NBER Chapters, in: R&D and Productivity: The Econometric Evidence, pages 82-99, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    6. Holtz-Eakin, Douglas & Newey, Whitney & Rosen, Harvey S, 1988. "Estimating Vector Autoregressions with Panel Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 56(6), pages 1371-1395, November.
    7. Esther Blanco & Javier Rey-Maquieira & Javier Lozano, 2009. "The Economic Impacts Of Voluntary Environmental Performance Of Firms: A Critical Review," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(3), pages 462-502, July.
    8. Edward Nelling & Elizabeth Webb, 2009. "Corporate social responsibility and financial performance: the “virtuous circle” revisited," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 32(2), pages 197-209, February.
    9. Clarkson, Peter M. & Li, Yue & Richardson, Gordon D. & Vasvari, Florin P., 2011. "Does it really pay to be green? Determinants and consequences of proactive environmental strategies," Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 122-144, March.
    10. Adam B. Jaffe & Karen Palmer, 1997. "Environmental Regulation And Innovation: A Panel Data Study," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 610-619, November.
    11. 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.
    12. Takashi Hatakeda & Katsuhiko Kokubu & Takehisa Kajiwara & Kimitaka Nishitani, 2012. "Factors Influencing Corporate Environmental Protection Activities for Greenhouse Gas Emission Reductions: The Relationship Between Environmental and Financial Performance," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 53(4), pages 455-481, December.
    13. Andrew King & Michael Lenox, 2002. "Exploring the Locus of Profitable Pollution Reduction," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(2), pages 289-299, February.
    14. Hidemichi Fujii & Kazuyuki Iwata & Shinji Kaneko & Shunsuke Managi, 2013. "Corporate Environmental and Economic Performance of Japanese Manufacturing Firms: Empirical Study for Sustainable Development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 187-201, March.
    15. Sidney L. Barton & Paul J. Gordon, 1988. "Corporate strategy and capital structure," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 9(6), pages 623-632, November.
    16. Elsayed, Khaled & Paton, David, 2005. "The impact of environmental performance on firm performance: static and dynamic panel data evidence," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 395-412, September.
    17. Pratima Bansal, 2005. "Evolving sustainably: a longitudinal study of corporate sustainable development," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(3), pages 197-218, March.
    18. Halkos, George & Sepetis, Anastasios, 2007. "Can capital markets respond to environmental policy of firms? Evidence from Greece," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(2-3), pages 578-587, August.
    19. 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.
    20. Elisabeth Albertini, 2013. "Does Environmental Management Improve Financial Performance? A Meta-Analytical Review," Post-Print halshs-01887802, HAL.
    21. Fujii, Hidemichi & Kaneko, Shinji & Managi, Shunsuke, 2010. "Changes in environmentally sensitive productivity and technological modernization in China's iron and steel industry in the 1990s," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(4), pages 485-504, August.
    22. Jennifer Martínez‐Ferrero & José Valeriano Frías‐Aceituno, 2015. "Relationship Between Sustainable Development and Financial Performance: International Empirical Research," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(1), pages 20-39, January.
    23. Ilias Alexopoulos, 2011. "Environmental performance and technical efficiency, is there a link?: The case of Greek listed firms," International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 61(1), pages 6-23, December.
    24. Bennedsen, Morten & Kongsted, Hans Christian & Nielsen, Kasper Meisner, 2008. "The causal effect of board size in the performance of small and medium-sized firms," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 1098-1109, June.
    25. Grolleau, Gilles & Mzoughi, Naoufel & Pekovic, Sanja, 2012. "Green not (only) for profit: An empirical examination of the effect of environmental-related standards on employees’ recruitment," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 74-92.
    26. Yuriko Nakao & Akihiro Amano & Kanichiro Matsumura & Kiminori Genba & Makiko Nakano, 2007. "Relationship between environmental performance and financial performance: an empirical analysis of japanese corporations," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 16(2), pages 106-118, February.
    27. Christoph Trumpp & Thomas Guenther, 2017. "Too Little or too much? Exploring U‐shaped Relationships between Corporate Environmental Performance and Corporate Financial Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 49-68, January.
    28. George E. Halkos & Konstantinos I. Evangelinos, 2002. "Determinants of environmental management systems standards implementation: evidence from Greek industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(6), pages 360-375, November.
    29. Rim Makni & Claude Francoeur & François Bellavance, 2009. "Causality Between Corporate Social Performance and Financial Performance: Evidence from Canadian Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 89(3), pages 409-422, October.
    30. Barbera, Anthony J. & McConnell, Virginia D., 1990. "The impact of environmental regulations on industry productivity: Direct and indirect effects," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 18(1), pages 50-65, January.
    31. Manuel Arellano & Stephen Bond, 1991. "Some Tests of Specification for Panel Data: Monte Carlo Evidence and an Application to Employment Equations," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 58(2), pages 277-297.
    32. Tsani, Stela Z., 2010. "Energy consumption and economic growth: A causality analysis for Greece," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 582-590, May.
    33. José Allouche & Patrice Laroche, 2005. "A Meta-analytical investigation of the relationship between corporate social and financial performance," Post-Print hal-00923906, HAL.
    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. Dolores Gallardo-Vázquez & María J. Barroso-Méndez & María L. Pajuelo-Moreno & Julio Sánchez-Meca, 2019. "Corporate Social Responsibility Disclosure and Performance: A Meta-Analytic Approach," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-33, February.
    2. Surender Kumar & Pritika Dua, 2022. "Environmental management practices and financial performance: evidence from large listed Indian enterprises," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 65(1), pages 37-61, January.
    3. Yi Yang & Congxu Yao & Ying Li, 2020. "The impact of the amount of environmental information disclosure on financial performance: The moderating effect of corporate internationalization," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(6), pages 2893-2907, November.
    4. Siew − Peng Lee, 2021. "Environmental responsibility, CEO power and financial performance in the energy sector," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 15(8), pages 2407-2426, November.
    5. Sini Laari & Tomi Solakivi & Anu Bask & Juuso Töyli & Lauri Ojala, 2021. "Unravelling Mickey Mouse: The Effect of Supply Chain Position and Organisational Slack on the Uneven Balance of Sustainability Dimensions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-16, December.
    6. Margarita Robaina & Mara Madaleno, 2020. "The relationship between emissions reduction and financial performance: Are Portuguese companies in a sustainable development path?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(3), pages 1213-1226, May.
    7. Francesco Gangi & Lucia Michela Daniele & Nicola Varrone, 2020. "How do corporate environmental policy and corporate reputation affect risk‐adjusted financial performance?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(5), pages 1975-1991, July.
    8. Othman Hel Al-Dhaimesh, 2020. "Green Accounting Practices and Economic Value Added: An Applied Study on Companies Listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(6), pages 164-168.
    9. Diego A. Vazquez-Brust & José Antonio Plaza-Úbeda, 2021. "What Characteristics Do the Firms Have That Go Beyond Compliance with Regulation in Environmental Protection? A Multiple Discriminant Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-27, February.
    10. Thi‐Hong‐Van Hoang & Wojciech Przychodzen & Justyna Przychodzen & Elysé A. Segbotangni, 2020. "Does it pay to be green? A disaggregated analysis of U.S. firms with green patents," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1331-1361, March.
    11. Mudeer Ahmed Khattak & Buerhan Saiti, 2021. "Banks' environmental policy and business outcomes: The role of competition," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 302-317, January.

    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. 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.
    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. 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).
    4. 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.
    5. 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.
    6. Surender Kumar & Pritika Dua, 2022. "Environmental management practices and financial performance: evidence from large listed Indian enterprises," Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 65(1), pages 37-61, January.
    7. 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.
    8. Dechezleprêtre, Antoine & Kozluk, Tomasz & Kruse, Tobias & Nachtigall, Daniel & de Serres, Alain, 2019. "Do Environmental and Economic Performance Go Together? A Review of Micro-level Empirical Evidence from the Past Decade or So," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 13(1-2), pages 1-118, April.
    9. Amy McMillan & Timothy C. Dunne & Joshua R. Aaron & Brandon N. Cline, 2017. "Environmental Management’s Impact on Market Value: Rewards and Punishments," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 20(1), pages 105-122, February.
    10. Ki‐Hoon Lee & Beom Cheol Cin & Eui Young Lee, 2016. "Environmental Responsibility and Firm Performance: The Application of an Environmental, Social and Governance Model," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(1), pages 40-53, January.
    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. Ben Lahouel, Béchir & Ben Zaied, Younes & Managi, Shunsuke & Taleb, Lotfi, 2022. "Re-thinking about U: The relevance of regime-switching model in the relationship between environmental corporate social responsibility and financial performance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 140(C), pages 498-519.
    13. 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.
    14. 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).
    15. Iwata, Hiroki & Okada, Keisuke, 2010. "How does environmental performance affect financial performance? Evidence from Japanese manufacturing firms," MPRA Paper 27721, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Joaquín Cañón-de-Francia & Concepión Garcés-Ayerbe, 2019. "Factors and Contingencies for the “It Pays to Be Green Hypothesis”. The European Union’s Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and Financial Crisis as Contexts," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(16), pages 1-15, August.
    17. Xiang Deng & Li Li, 2020. "Promoting or Inhibiting? The Impact of Environmental Regulation on Corporate Financial Performance—An Empirical Analysis Based on China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-17, May.
    18. Horváthová, Eva, 2010. "Does environmental performance affect financial performance? A meta-analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 52-59, November.
    19. Christoph Trumpp & Thomas Guenther, 2017. "Too Little or too much? Exploring U‐shaped Relationships between Corporate Environmental Performance and Corporate Financial Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(1), pages 49-68, January.
    20. Shoaib Aslam & Mohamed H. Elmagrhi & Ramiz Ur Rehman & Collins G. Ntim, 2021. "Environmental management practices and financial performance using data envelopment analysis in Japan: The mediating role of environmental performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1655-1673, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    environmental performance; financial performance; causality; GMM; Greece.;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q0 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General
    • Q00 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - General
    • 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

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:pra:mprapa:80906. 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: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    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.