IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v148y2022icp489-504.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Does religious diversity play roles in corporate environmental decisions?

Author

Listed:
  • Alabbad, Amal
  • Al Saleem, Jafar
  • Kabir Hassan, M.

Abstract

We examine whether religious diversity influences management decisions concerning the environment. Using a large U.S. sample, we document that the corporate environmental initiatives are positively associated with the religious diversity present in the counties within which that company’s headquarters resides. This positive association persists even after we control for firm characteristics and region demographic factors and after using a variety of robustness checks. In further analysis, we also show that companies in religiously diverse regions tend to support more initiatives that benefit the environment and attempt to resolve their negative impact on the environment. This paper contributes to the literature by examining the extent to which the characteristics of society shape firms’ environmental initiatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Alabbad, Amal & Al Saleem, Jafar & Kabir Hassan, M., 2022. "Does religious diversity play roles in corporate environmental decisions?," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 489-504.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:148:y:2022:i:c:p:489-504
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.04.058
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322003988
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.04.058?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. Chen, Tao & Dong, Hui & Lin, Chen, 2020. "Institutional shareholders and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 135(2), pages 483-504.
    2. Hoje Jo & Maretno Harjoto, 2011. "Corporate Governance and Firm Value: The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 103(3), pages 351-383, October.
    3. Hess, David, 2007. "Social Reporting and New Governance Regulation: The Prospects of Achieving Corporate Accountability Through Transparency," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 17(3), pages 453-476, July.
    4. S. Brammer & Geoffrey Williams & John Zinkin, 2007. "Religion and Attitudes to Corporate Social Responsibility in a Large Cross-Country Sample," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 71(3), pages 229-243, March.
    5. Eastman, Wayne & Santoro, Michael, 2003. "The Importance of Value Diversity in Corporate Life," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(4), pages 433-452, October.
    6. Hausman, Jerry, 2015. "Specification tests in econometrics," Applied Econometrics, Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (RANEPA), vol. 38(2), pages 112-134.
    7. Hilary, Gilles & Hui, Kai Wai, 2009. "Does religion matter in corporate decision making in America?," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 93(3), pages 455-473, September.
    8. Engelland, Brian T., 2014. "Religion, humanism, marketing, and the consumption of socially responsible products, services, and ideas: Introduction to a special topic section," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 1-4.
    9. Robert J. Barro, 1999. "Determinants of Democracy," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 107(S6), pages 158-183, December.
    10. Gelb, Betsy D. & Longacre, Teri Elkins, 2012. "Acknowledging religious diversity: Opportunities and challenges," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 55(5), pages 509-518.
    11. Chantziaras, Antonios & Dedoulis, Emmanouil & Grougiou, Vassiliki & Leventis, Stergios, 2020. "The impact of religiosity and corruption on CSR reporting: The case of U.S. banks," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 362-374.
    12. Aaron K. Chatterji & David I. Levine & Michael W. Toffel, 2009. "How Well Do Social Ratings Actually Measure Corporate Social Responsibility?," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(1), pages 125-169, March.
    13. Corrie Mazereeuw-van der Duijn Schouten & Johan Graafland & Muel Kaptein, 2014. "Religiosity, CSR Attitudes, and CSR Behavior: An Empirical Study of Executives’ Religiosity and CSR," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 437-459, September.
    14. Maretno Harjoto & Indrarini Laksmana & Robert Lee, 2015. "Board Diversity and Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(4), pages 641-660, December.
    15. Stergios Leventis & Emmanouil Dedoulis & Omneya Abdelsalam, 2018. "The Impact of Religiosity on Audit Pricing," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 148(1), pages 53-78, March.
    16. Jinhua Cui & Hoje Jo & Manuel Velasquez, 2015. "The Influence of Christian Religiosity on Managerial Decisions Concerning the Environment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 203-231, November.
    17. Peter L. Daniels, 2003. "Buddhist economics and the environment: Material flow analysis and the moderation of society's metabolism," International Journal of Social Economics, Emerald Group Publishing, vol. 30(1), pages 8-33, January.
    18. Jiménez, Alfredo & Jiang, Guoliang Frank & Petersen, Bent & Gammelgaard, Jens, 2019. "Within-country religious diversity and the performance of private participation infrastructure projects," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 13-25.
    19. Brown, Sarah & Taylor, Karl, 2007. "Religion and education: Evidence from the National Child Development Study," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 63(3), pages 439-460, July.
    20. Pattanaporn Chatjuthamard-Kitsabunnarat & Pornsit Jiraporn & Shenghui Tong, 2014. "Does religious piety inspire corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Evidence from historical religious identification," Applied Economics Letters, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(16), pages 1128-1133, November.
    21. Lipford, Jody W. & Tollison, Robert D., 2003. "Religious participation and income," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 249-260, June.
    22. Hoje Jo & Maretno Harjoto, 2012. "The Causal Effect of Corporate Governance on Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 106(1), pages 53-72, March.
    23. Agle, Bradley R. & Van Buren, Harry J., 1999. "God and Mammon: The Modern Relationship," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 9(4), pages 563-582, October.
    24. Scott D. Dyreng & William J. Mayew & Christopher D. Williams, 2012. "Religious Social Norms and Corporate Financial Reporting," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(7-8), pages 845-875, September.
    25. Xingqiang Du & Wei Jian & Quan Zeng & Yingjie Du, 2014. "Corporate Environmental Responsibility in Polluting Industries: Does Religion Matter?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 124(3), pages 485-507, October.
    26. Cui, Jinhua & Jo, Hoje & Velasquez, Manuel G., 2019. "Christian Religiosity and Corporate Community Involvement," Business Ethics Quarterly, Cambridge University Press, vol. 29(1), pages 85-125, January.
    27. Thomas C. Omer & Nathan Y. Sharp & Dechun Wang, 2018. "The Impact of Religion on the Going Concern Reporting Decisions of Local Audit Offices," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 149(4), pages 811-831, June.
    28. Royston Greenwood & C. R. Hinings & Dave Whetten, 2014. "Rethinking Institutions and Organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 51(7), pages 1206-1220, November.
    29. Sadok El Ghoul & Omrane Guedhami & Yang Ni & Jeffrey Pittman & Samir Saadi, 2012. "Does Religion Matter to Equity Pricing?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 111(4), pages 491-518, December.
    30. Ye Cai & Hoje Jo & Carrie Pan, 2011. "Vice or Virtue? The Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Executive Compensation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(2), pages 159-173, December.
    31. Zolotoy, Leon & O'Sullivan, Don & Chen, Yangyang, 2019. "Local religious norms, corporate social responsibility, and firm value," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 218-233.
    32. Najah Attig & Paul Brockman, 2017. "The Local Roots of Corporate Social Responsibility," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 142(3), pages 479-496, May.
    33. Felix, Reto & Hinsch, Chris & Rauschnabel, Philipp A. & Schlegelmilch, Bodo B., 2018. "Religiousness and environmental concern: A multilevel and multi-country analysis of the role of life satisfaction and indulgence," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 304-312.
    34. Graafland, J.J. & Kaptein, M. & Mazereeuw, C, 2007. "Conceptions of God, normative convictions and socially responsible business conduct: An explorative study among executives," MPRA Paper 20280, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    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. Ahsan Habib & Mabel D' Costa & Ahmed Khamis Al‐Hadi, 2023. "Consequences of local social norms: A review of the literature in accounting, finance, and corporate governance," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 63(1), pages 3-45, March.
    2. Kun Su, 2019. "Does religion benefit corporate social responsibility (CSR)? Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(6), pages 1206-1221, November.
    3. Bo Xu & Linlin Ma, 2022. "Religious Values Motivating CSR: An Empirical Study from Corporate Leaders’ Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 176(3), pages 487-505, March.
    4. Chourou, Lamia, 2023. "Corporate donations and religiosity: Cross-country evidence," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 39(C).
    5. Nebojsa Dimic & Veda Fatmy & Sami Vähämaa, 2024. "Religiosity and corporate social responsibility: A study of firm‐level adherence to Christian values in the United States," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(1), pages 396-413, January.
    6. Dominik Aaken & Florian Buchner, 2020. "Religion and CSR: a systematic literature review," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 90(5), pages 917-945, June.
    7. Jinhua Cui & Hoje Jo & Manuel Velasquez, 2015. "The Influence of Christian Religiosity on Managerial Decisions Concerning the Environment," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(1), pages 203-231, November.
    8. Chuluunbat Tsendsuren & Prayag L. Yadav & Seung Hun Han & Seongjae Mun, 2021. "The effect of corporate environmental responsibility and religiosity on corporate cash holding decisions and profitability: Evidence from the United States' policies for sustainable development," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 29(5), pages 987-1000, September.
    9. Rami Salem & Ernest Ezeani & Xi Song, 2023. "The relationship between religiosity and voluntary disclosure quality: a cross-country evidence from the banking sector," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 983-1023, April.
    10. Shahid, Ahmad Usman & Patel, Chris & Pan, Peipei, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility, intrinsic religiosity, and investment decisions," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 34(C).
    11. Simone Terzani & Teresa Turzo, 2021. "Religious social norms and corporate sustainability: The effect of religiosity on environmental, social, and governance disclosure," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(1), pages 485-496, January.
    12. Jinhua Cui & Hoje Jo & Manuel G. Velasquez, 2016. "Community Religion, Employees, and the Social License to Operate," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 136(4), pages 775-807, July.
    13. Corrie Mazereeuw-van der Duijn Schouten & Johan Graafland & Muel Kaptein, 2014. "Religiosity, CSR Attitudes, and CSR Behavior: An Empirical Study of Executives’ Religiosity and CSR," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 123(3), pages 437-459, September.
    14. Harjoto, Maretno Agus & Rossi, Fabrizio, 2019. "Religiosity, female directors, and corporate social responsibility for Italian listed companies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 95(C), pages 338-346.
    15. Leon Zolotoy & Don O’Sullivan & Keke Song, 2021. "The Role of Ethical Standards in the Relationship Between Religious Social Norms and M&A Announcement Returns," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 170(4), pages 721-742, May.
    16. Petya Koleva, 2021. "Towards the Development of an Empirical Model for Islamic Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from the Middle East," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(4), pages 789-813, July.
    17. Nazia Adeel & Chris Patel & Nonna Martinov-Bennie & Sammy Xiaoyan Ying, 2022. "Islamic Religiosity and Auditors’ Judgements: Evidence from Pakistan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(2), pages 551-572, August.
    18. Jinhua Cui & Hoje Jo & Haejung Na & Manuel Velasquez, 2015. "Workforce Diversity and Religiosity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(4), pages 743-767, June.
    19. Kejing Chen & Wenqi Guo & Yanling Kang & Qingqing Wan, 2021. "Does religion improve corporate environmental responsibility? Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(2), pages 808-818, March.
    20. Gwenael Roudaut, 2017. "The Representation of Managers, Shareholders and other Stakeholders inside the Boardroom: Does it Matter for CSR Commitment? ," Working Papers hal-01623944, HAL.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Religious diversity; Corporate behaviors; Environment initiatives; Stewardship theory; Dominion theory;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • N3 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy
    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis
    • P48 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Other Economic Systems - - - Legal Institutions; Property Rights; Natural Resources; Energy; Environment; Regional Studies

    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:eee:jbrese:v:148:y:2022:i:c:p:489-504. 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/jbusres .

    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.