IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v26y2017i6p776-790.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Understanding the Impact of Green Initiatives and Green Performance on Financial Performance in the US

Author

Listed:
  • Suhong Li
  • Thomas Ngniatedema
  • Fang Chen

Abstract

Sustainable development has received increasing attention in recent literature, driven by increased environmental concerns. We study the influence of green initiatives and green performance on financial performance for the top 500 publicly traded companies in the USA by industry sector. Green initiatives are measured using the concepts Green Pay Link, Sustainability Themed Committee and Audit. Green performance is measured using Energy Productivity, Carbon Productivity, Water Productivity, Waste Productivity and Green Reputation. The results show that green initiatives have a negative impact on Energy Productivity and Green Reputation, and that both green initiatives and green performance have a significant impact on financial performance. These results are mixed and vary by industry sector. The results suggest that companies take a reactive, not proactive, approach in the implementation of green initiatives. In addition, the results suggest that the impact of green performance on financial performance is not immediate, and may take more than a year for companies to observe. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

Suggested Citation

  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:26:y:2017:i:6:p:776-790
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.1948
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.1948
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.1948?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. 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. Paul Lanoie, 2008. "When And Why Does It Pay To Be Green?," CIRANO Papers 2008n-02a, CIRANO.
    3. 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.
    4. David Annandale & Angus Morrison‐Saunders & George Bouma, 2004. "The impact of voluntary environmental protection instruments on company environmental performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 1-12, January.
    5. Jeffrey Unerman, 2008. "Strategic reputation risk management and corporate social responsibility reporting," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 21(3), pages 362-364, March.
    6. 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.
    7. Peter A. Stanwick & Sarah D. Stanwick, 2001. "CEO compensation: does it pay to be green?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 10(3), pages 176-182, May.
    8. Matthew Potoski & Aseem Prakash, 2005. "Covenants with weak swords: ISO 14001 and facilities' environmental performance," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 24(4), pages 745-769.
    9. Andrew King & Michael Lenox, 2002. "Exploring the Locus of Profitable Pollution Reduction," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(2), pages 289-299, February.
    10. 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.
    11. George A. Akerlof, 1970. "The Market for "Lemons": Quality Uncertainty and the Market Mechanism," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 84(3), pages 488-500.
    12. 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.
    13. N.H.J. Lorraine & D.J. Collison & D.M. Power, 2004. "An analysis of the stock market impact of environmental performance information," Accounting Forum, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 28(1), pages 7-26, March.
    14. Estampe, Dominique & Lamouri, Samir & Paris, Jean-Luc & Brahim-Djelloul, Sakina, 2013. "A framework for analysing supply chain performance evaluation models," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 142(2), pages 247-258.
    15. Prayag Lal Yadav & Seung Hun Han & Jae Jeung Rho, 2016. "Impact of Environmental Performance on Firm Value for Sustainable Investment: Evidence from Large US Firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(6), pages 402-420, September.
    16. Ann Goodman, 2000. "Implementing Sustainability in Service Operations at Scandic Hotels," Interfaces, INFORMS, vol. 30(3), pages 202-214, June.
    17. 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.
    18. Salama, Aly, 2005. "A note on the impact of environmental performance on financial performance," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 413-421, September.
    19. Joseph E. Coombs & K. Matthew Gilley, 2005. "Stakeholder management as a predictor of CEO compensation: main effects and interactions with financial performance," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(9), pages 827-840, September.
    20. Darnall, Nicole & Henriques, Irene & Sadorsky, Perry, 2008. "Do environmental management systems improve business performance in an international setting?," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 364-376, December.
    21. Elisabeth Albertini, 2013. "Does Environmental Management Improve Financial Performance? A Meta-Analytical Review," Post-Print halshs-01887802, HAL.
    22. Madhu Khanna & William Rose Q. Anton, 2002. "Corporate Environmental Management: Regulatory and Market-Based Incentives," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 78(4), pages 539-558.
    23. Khanna, Madhu & Damon, Lisa A., 1999. "EPA's Voluntary 33/50 Program: Impact on Toxic Releases and Economic Performance of Firms," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 1-25, January.
    24. Henning Madsen & John P. Ulhøi, 2016. "Corporate Environmental Initiatives in Small and Medium Sized Enterprises and Their Outcomes: A Longitudinal Study," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(2), pages 92-101, February.
    25. Rosa Maria Dangelico, 2015. "Improving Firm Environmental Performance and Reputation: The Role of Employee Green Teams," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(8), pages 735-749, December.
    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. Alan Murray & Donald Sinclair & David Power & Rob Gray, 2006. "Do financial markets care about social and environmental disclosure?: Further evidence and exploration from the UK," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 19(2), pages 228-255, February.
    28. William Q. Judge & Thomas J. Douglas, 1998. "Performance Implications of Incorporating Natural Environmental Issues into the Strategic Planning Process: An Empirical Assessment," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 241-262, March.
    29. Matthew Potoski & Aseem Prakash, 2005. "Green Clubs and Voluntary Governance: ISO 14001 and Firms' Regulatory Compliance," American Journal of Political Science, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 49(2), pages 235-248, April.
    30. Glen Dowell & Stuart Hart & Bernard Yeung, 2000. "Do Corporate Global Environmental Standards Create or Destroy Market Value?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(8), pages 1059-1074, August.
    31. Charles J. Corbett & Robert D. Klassen, 2006. "Extending the Horizons: Environmental Excellence as Key to Improving Operations," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 8(1), pages 5-22, March.
    32. 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.
    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. 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.
    2. Horváthová, Eva, 2010. "Does environmental performance affect financial performance? A meta-analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(1), pages 52-59, November.
    3. 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.
    4. Stefan Ambec & Paul Lanoie, 2007. "When and Why Does It Pay To Be Green?," CIRANO Working Papers 2007s-20, CIRANO.
    5. He, Wenlong & Liu, Chong & Lu, Jiangyong & Cao, Jing, 2015. "Impacts of ISO 14001 adoption on firm performance: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 43-56.
    6. Wolfgang Schultze & Ramona Trommer, 2012. "The concept of environmental performance and its measurement in empirical studies," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 375-412, January.
    7. Elisabeth Albertini, 2014. "A Descriptive Analysis of Environmental Disclosure: A Longitudinal Study of French Companies," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 121(2), pages 233-254, May.
    8. Horváthová, Eva, 2012. "The impact of environmental performance on firm performance: Short-term costs and long-term benefits?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 91-97.
    9. 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).
    10. Iwata, Hiroki & Okada, Keisuke, 2011. "How does environmental performance affect financial performance? Evidence from Japanese manufacturing firms," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(9), pages 1691-1700, July.
    11. 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.
    12. Nazim Hussain, 2015. "Impact of Sustainability Performance on Financial Performance: An Empirical Study of Global Fortune (N100) Firms," Working Papers 1, Venice School of Management - Department of Management, Università Ca' Foscari Venezia.
    13. Kimitaka Nishitani & M.B. Haider & Katsuhiko Kokubu, 2014. "Corporate Environmental Initiatives and Shareholder Value: Focusing on the Role of Environmental Information and Its Credibility," Discussion Paper Series DP2014-13, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    14. 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).
    15. Ghisetti, Claudia & Rennings, Klaus, 2013. "Environmental innovations and profitability: How does it pay to be green? An empirical analysis on the German innovation survey," ZEW Discussion Papers 13-073, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    16. Andreas Ziegler, 2012. "Is it Beneficial to be Included in a Sustainability Stock Index? A Panel Data Study for European Firms," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 52(3), pages 301-325, July.
    17. 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.
    18. 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.
    19. 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.
    20. Claudia Poser & Edeltraud Guenther & Marc Orlitzky, 2012. "Shades of green: using computer-aided qualitative data analysis to explore different aspects of corporate environmental performance," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 413-450, January.

    More about this item

    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:bla:bstrat:v:26:y:2017:i:6:p:776-790. 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    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.