How international is corporate environmental responsibility? A literature review

In this paper we explore the current state of research on international aspects of corporate environmental responsibility (CER). A Literature review of approximately 10,200 articles in leading management journals published between 1997 and 2010 reveals 54 studies that deal explicitly with CER. We provide answers regarding the emphasis, geographic focus, research methods, theoretical focus, industries covered by CER research, and primary study content. We find that although environmental aspects of management are often international by their very nature, CER research does not have many international links as significantly more single- than multi-country studies exist. We also derive several implications for the internationalization of future CER research. Future studies should further investigate cross-country effects and focus on the transferability of CER practices across boarders.