IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v15y2022i8p2745-d789774.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Coping with Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Insights from Digital Business Services

Author

Listed:
  • Veronika Belousova

    (Unit for Intellectual Services Market Research, Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (HSE ISSEK), HSE University, 101000 Moscow, Russia)

  • Oxana Bondarenko

    (Centre for Industry and Corporate Projects, Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (ISSEK), HSE University, 101000 Moscow, Russia)

  • Nikolay Chichkanov

    (Unit for Intellectual Services Market Research, Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (HSE ISSEK), HSE University, 101000 Moscow, Russia)

  • Denis Lebedev

    (Unit for Intellectual Services Market Research, Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (HSE ISSEK), HSE University, 101000 Moscow, Russia)

  • Ian Miles

    (Research Laboratory for Economics of Innovation, Institute for Statistical Studies and Economics of Knowledge (HSE ISSEK), Alliance Manchester Business School, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, UK)

Abstract

Digital Business Services (DBS), industries that have grown rapidly in recent years, played important roles in facilitating the adoption of digital technologies, as well as having applications in innovative products, transforming business processes across the economy. If DBS firms are committed to reducing negative environmental impacts, they should be able to make more positive contributions to their clients’ performance; for instance, promoting the digitalization of businesses process in ways that can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and inefficient energy usage. But what are DBS business practices, in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and related topics? This study examines the Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) disclosures of leading companies providing consultancy, advertising/marketing, and information technology services. The plans, targets, and actions of DBS companies with above-average ESG scores, as indexed by the Refinitiv dataset, are examined. The results indicate that all of these firms express goals, and almost all of them have set clear targets, in terms of moving to net zero. A wide range of relevant activities is being implemented, including services that promote energy efficiency. The diversity of these actions suggests that these firms can learn from each other, and that companies with lower ESG ratings have models to emulate.

Suggested Citation

  • Veronika Belousova & Oxana Bondarenko & Nikolay Chichkanov & Denis Lebedev & Ian Miles, 2022. "Coping with Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Insights from Digital Business Services," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(8), pages 1-26, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:8:p:2745-:d:789774
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/8/2745/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/8/2745/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Olga Hawn & Ioannis Ioannou, 2016. "Mind the gap: The interplay between external and internal actions in the case of corporate social responsibility," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(13), pages 2569-2588, December.
    2. Samuel Drempetic & Christian Klein & Bernhard Zwergel, 2020. "The Influence of Firm Size on the ESG Score: Corporate Sustainability Ratings Under Review," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 167(2), pages 333-360, November.
    3. Richard Shearmur & David Doloreux, 2019. "KIBS as both innovators and knowledge intermediaries in the innovation process: Intermediation as a contingent role," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 98(1), pages 191-209, February.
    4. Sanjay K. Arora & Jan Youtie & Philip Shapira & Lidan Gao & TingTing Ma, 2013. "Entry strategies in an emerging technology: a pilot web-based study of graphene firms," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 95(3), pages 1189-1207, June.
    5. Pina, Katia & Tether, Bruce S., 2016. "Towards understanding variety in knowledge intensive business services by distinguishing their knowledge bases," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(2), pages 401-413.
    6. Nisha Sewdass & Jonathan Calof, 2020. "Contemporary Practices of Intelligence Support for Competitiveness," Foresight and STI Governance (Foresight-Russia till No. 3/2015), National Research University Higher School of Economics, vol. 14(3), pages 30-39.
    7. Elisabetta D‘Apolito & Antonia P. Iannuzzi, 2017. "Incentive Plans, Pay-for-non-financial Performance and ESG Criteria: Evidence from the European Banking Sector," International Business Research, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 10(10), pages 169-181, October.
    8. Gregor Weber & Ruxandra Maria Mateescu & Steffen Lange & Manfred Rauch, 2016. "Knowledge Intensive Business Services (KIBS) in the Context of Changing Energy Economics in Germany," The AMFITEATRU ECONOMIC journal, Academy of Economic Studies - Bucharest, Romania, vol. 18(41), pages 1-89, February.
    9. Natalia Semenova & Lars Hassel, 2015. "On the Validity of Environmental Performance Metrics," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 132(2), pages 249-258, December.
    10. Gunnar Friede & Timo Busch & Alexander Bassen, 2015. "ESG and financial performance: aggregated evidence from more than 2000 empirical studies," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 5(4), pages 210-233, October.
    11. Stellner, Christoph & Klein, Christian & Zwergel, Bernhard, 2015. "Corporate social responsibility and Eurozone corporate bonds: The moderating role of country sustainability," Journal of Banking & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 538-549.
    12. Roberts, Simon H. & Foran, Barney D. & Axon, Colin J. & Stamp, Alice V., 2021. "Is the service industry really low-carbon? Energy, jobs and realistic country GHG emissions reductions," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 292(C).
    13. Elena Ageeva & Pantea Foroudi & T. C. Melewar & Bang Nguyen & Charles Dennis, 2020. "A Holistic Framework of Corporate Website Favourability," Corporate Reputation Review, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 23(3), pages 201-214, August.
    14. Amal Aouadi & Sylvain Marsat, 2018. "Do ESG Controversies Matter for Firm Value? Evidence from International Data," Post-Print halshs-02007374, HAL.
    15. Shang Gao & Fanchen Meng & Zhouyang Gu & Zhiyuan Liu & Muhammad Farrukh, 2021. "Mapping and Clustering Analysis on Environmental, Social and Governance Field a Bibliometric Analysis Using Scopus," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-17, June.
    16. Sanjay K. Arora & Yin Li & Jan Youtie & Philip Shapira, 2016. "Using the wayback machine to mine websites in the social sciences: A methodological resource," Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology, Association for Information Science & Technology, vol. 67(8), pages 1904-1915, August.
    17. Chollet, Pierre & Sandwidi, Blaise W., 2018. "CSR engagement and financial risk: A virtuous circle? International evidence," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 65-81.
    18. Amal Aouadi & Sylvain Marsat, 2018. "Do ESG Controversies Matter for Firm Value? Evidence from International Data," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 151(4), pages 1027-1047, September.
    19. Blazquez, Desamparados & Domenech, Josep, 2018. "Big Data sources and methods for social and economic analyses," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 99-113.
    20. 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.
    21. Monika Wieczorek-Kosmala & Dorota Marquardt & Jarosław Kurpanik, 2021. "Drivers of Sustainable Performance in European Energy Sector," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-17, October.
    22. Szerena Szabo & Jane Webster, 2021. "Perceived Greenwashing: The Effects of Green Marketing on Environmental and Product Perceptions," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 171(4), pages 719-739, July.
    23. Rachel Shin & Cory Searcy, 2018. "Evaluating the Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Craft Beer Industry: An Assessment of Challenges and Benefits of Greenhouse Gas Accounting," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(11), pages 1-30, November.
    24. Monika Klimontowicz & Anna Losa-Jonczyk & Bogna Zacny, 2021. "Banks’ Energy Behavior: Impacts of the Disparity in the Quality and Quantity of the Disclosures," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-14, November.
    25. Robin van Emous & Rytis Krušinskas & Wim Westerman, 2021. "Carbon Emissions Reduction and Corporate Financial Performance: The Influence of Country-Level Characteristics," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(19), pages 1-19, September.
    26. Pierre Chollet & Blaise Sandwidi, 2018. "CSR engagement and financial risk: A virtuous circle? International evidence," Post-Print hal-02048716, HAL.
    27. Xianliang Shi & Genzhu Li & Ciwei Dong & Yefei Yang, 2020. "Value Co-Creation Behavior in Green Supply Chains: An Empirical Study," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-26, July.
    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. Hongfeng Zhang & Xiangjiang Ding & Yue Liu, 2023. "The Impact of Low-Carbon Pilot Cities on the Development of Digital Economy: Empirical Evidence from 284 Cities in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(13), pages 1-21, June.

    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. Charl de Villiers & Jing Jia & Zhongtian Li, 2022. "Corporate social responsibility: A review of empirical research using Thomson Reuters Asset4 data," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(4), pages 4523-4568, December.
    2. Khan, Muhammad Arif, 2022. "ESG disclosure and Firm performance: A bibliometric and meta analysis," Research in International Business and Finance, Elsevier, vol. 61(C).
    3. Natalia Semenova, 2021. "Management control systems in response to social and environmental risk in large Nordic companies," International Journal of Corporate Social Responsibility, Springer, vol. 6(1), pages 1-11, December.
    4. Tan, Yafei & Zhu, Zhaohui, 2022. "The effect of ESG rating events on corporate green innovation in China: The mediating role of financial constraints and managers' environmental awareness," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    5. Shakil, Mohammad Hassan, 2021. "Environmental, social and governance performance and financial risk: Moderating role of ESG controversies and board gender diversity," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    6. Ramírez-Orellana, Alicia & Martínez-Victoria, MCarmen & García-Amate, Antonio & Rojo-Ramírez, Alfonso A., 2023. "Is the corporate financial strategy in the oil and gas sector affected by ESG dimensions?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    7. Raymond Kwong & Man Lung Jonathan Kwok & Helen S. M. Wong, 2023. "Green FinTech Innovation as a Future Research Direction: A Bibliometric Analysis on Green Finance and FinTech," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(20), pages 1-27, October.
    8. Paola Brighi & Antonio Carlo Francesco Della Bina & Valeria Venturelli, 2022. "Do ESG Investments Mitigate ESG Controversies? Evidence From International Data," Centro Studi di Banca e Finanza (CEFIN) (Center for Studies in Banking and Finance) 0084, Universita di Modena e Reggio Emilia, Dipartimento di Economia "Marco Biagi".
    9. Ge Ge & Xiang Xiao & Zhenzhu Li & Qinghui Dai, 2022. "Does ESG Performance Promote High-Quality Development of Enterprises in China? The Mediating Role of Innovation Input," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-24, March.
    10. Naumer, Hans-Jörg & Yurtoglu, Burcin, 2022. "It is not only what you say, but how you say it: ESG, corporate news, and the impact on CDS spreads," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    11. Shahbaz, Muhammad & Karaman, Abdullah S. & Kilic, Merve & Uyar, Ali, 2020. "Board attributes, CSR engagement, and corporate performance: What is the nexus in the energy sector?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    12. Zhao Chen & Ling Hu & Xin He & Ziming Liu & Danni Chen & Weirui Wang, 2022. "Green Financial Reform and Corporate ESG Performance in China: Empirical Evidence from the Green Financial Reform and Innovation Pilot Zone," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(22), pages 1-17, November.
    13. Halit Gonenc & Bert Scholtens, 2019. "Responsibility and Performance Relationship in the Banking Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-49, June.
    14. Valentina Marano & Steve Sauerwald & Marc Essen, 2022. "The influence of culture on the relationship between women directors and corporate social performance," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(7), pages 1315-1342, September.
    15. Clementino, Ester & Perkins, Richard, 2020. "How do companies respond to environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings? Evidence from Italy," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 103046, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    16. Simona Galletta & Sebastiano Mazzù & Valeria Naciti, 2021. "Banks' business strategy and environmental effectiveness: The monitoring role of the board of directors and the managerial incentives," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(5), pages 2656-2670, July.
    17. Muhammad Azeem Qureshi & Minhas Akbar & Ahsan Akbar & Petra Poulova, 2021. "Do ESG Endeavors Assist Firms in Achieving Superior Financial Performance? A Case of 100 Best Corporate Citizens," SAGE Open, , vol. 11(2), pages 21582440211, June.
    18. Marsat, Sylvain & Pijourlet, Guillaume & Ullah, Muhammad, 2022. "Does environmental performance help firms to be more resilient against environmental controversies? International evidence," Finance Research Letters, Elsevier, vol. 44(C).
    19. Francisco Javier Forcadell & Antonio Lorena & Elisa Aracil, 2023. "The firm under the spotlight: How stakeholder scrutiny shapes corporate social responsibility and its influence on performance," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(3), pages 1258-1272, May.
    20. Sabbaghi, Omid, 2022. "The impact of news on the volatility of ESG firms," Global Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 51(C).

    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:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:8:p:2745-:d:789774. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.