IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v15y2023i11p8605-d1155719.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Relationship between Subjective Status and Corporate Environmental Governance: Evidence from Private Firms in China

Author

Listed:
  • Yue Tang

    (Business School, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225012, China)

  • Xueliang Tang

    (Business School, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225012, China)

  • Hong Shen

    (Business School, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225012, China)

Abstract

Private enterprise governance is influenced by how status is perceived by business owners. In this essay, the role of business owners’ subjective statuses on their decisions on pollution control is discussed, along with social-psychology-based justifications. This study distinguishes front-end pollution treatment from back-end pollution treatment and finds the following: (1) A higher subjective status increases the front-end pollution control input but has no discernible impact on the back-end pollution control input. (2) Both the front-end and back-end control inputs are significantly influenced positively by a subjective economic status (ability motive). (3) A subjective social status only increases the front-end pollution control input (altruistic motive). (4) A subjective political standing (prestige motivation) significantly lowers environmental violations of businesses more than it does front-end or back-end inputs. (5) A subjective status can also boost owner expectations and business confidence, as well as help businesses to make the best pollution control measures. The optimum of private firms’ pollution control strategies depends heavily on their subjective status when the government’s pollution regulations are lax. The importance of subjective status is also influenced by how well capitalized private businesses are. This paper offers a novel perspective on the value of social governance from the viewpoint of maximizing the pollution management of private firms. It argues that raising the subjective status of private entrepreneurs has value.

Suggested Citation

  • Yue Tang & Xueliang Tang & Hong Shen, 2023. "The Relationship between Subjective Status and Corporate Environmental Governance: Evidence from Private Firms in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(11), pages 1-22, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:11:p:8605-:d:1155719
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/11/8605/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/11/8605/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Lu, Yi & Tao, Zhigang & Wang, Yijiang, 2010. "Union effects on performance and employment relations: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(1), pages 202-210, March.
    2. John P Weche, 2019. "Does green corporate investment crowd out other business investment?," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 28(5), pages 1279-1295.
    3. Patricio S. Dalton & Sayantan Ghosal & Anandi Mani, 2016. "Poverty and Aspirations Failure," Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 126(590), pages 165-188, February.
    4. Wang, Yang & Zhang, Yifei, 2020. "Do state subsidies increase corporate environmental spending?," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 72(C).
    5. Becker, Randy A. & Pasurka, Carl & Shadbegian, Ronald J., 2013. "Do environmental regulations disproportionately affect small businesses? Evidence from the Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures survey," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 523-538.
    6. Emily Oster, 2019. "Unobservable Selection and Coefficient Stability: Theory and Evidence," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 187-204, April.
    7. Becker, Randy A. & Pasurka, Carl & Shadbegian, Ronald J., 2013. "Do environmental regulations disproportionately affect small businesses? Evidence from the Pollution Abatement Costs and Expenditures survey," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 66(3), pages 523-538.
    8. Bryan, M.; & Roberts, J.; & Sechel, C.;, 2019. "The Effect of Mental Health on Employment:Accounting for Selection Bias," Health, Econometrics and Data Group (HEDG) Working Papers 19/14, HEDG, c/o Department of Economics, University of York.
    9. Cai, Hongbin & Chen, Yuyu & Gong, Qing, 2016. "Polluting thy neighbor: Unintended consequences of China׳s pollution reduction mandates," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 86-104.
    10. Michael Greenstone, 1998. "The Impacts of Environmental Regulations on Industrial Activity: Evidence from the 1970 and 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments and the Census of Manufacturers," Working Papers 787, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    11. Michael Greenstone, 2002. "The Impacts of Environmental Regulations on Industrial Activity: Evidence from the 1970 and 1977 Clean Air Act Amendments and the Census of Manufactures," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 110(6), pages 1175-1219, December.
    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. Yijing Zou & Dayi He & Rui Sun, 2023. "Evolutionary Game Analysis of Risk in Third-Party Environmental Governance," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(18), pages 1-20, September.

    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. Consoli, Davide & Marin, Giovanni & Marzucchi, Alberto & Vona, Francesco, 2016. "Do green jobs differ from non-green jobs in terms of skills and human capital?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(5), pages 1046-1060.
    2. Guan, Jin & He, Dongwei & Zhu, Qigui, 2022. "More incentive, less pollution: The influence of official appraisal system reform on environmental enforcement," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    3. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/3qoljitavv93bptuhfaq9drocb is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Zhang, Guanglai & Zhang, Ning, 2024. "Environmental regulation and worker earnings: Evidence from city-level air quality standards in China," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    5. Simon, Daniel H. & Prince, Jeffrey T., 2016. "The effect of competition on toxic pollution releases," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 40-54.
    6. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/3qoljitavv93bptuhfaq9drocb is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Tonghui Lian & Tingyu Ma & Jie Cao & You Wu, 2016. "The effects of environmental regulation on the industrial location of China’s manufacturing," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 80(2), pages 1381-1403, January.
    8. Wang, Chunhua & Wu, JunJie & Zhang, Bing, 2018. "Environmental regulation, emissions and productivity: Evidence from Chinese COD-emitting manufacturers," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 54-73.
    9. Zhiqiao Xiong & Dandan Li & Hongwei Yu, 2023. "Does PM2.5 (Pollutant) Reduce Firms’ Innovation Output?," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(2), pages 1-19, January.
    10. Jota Ishikawa & Toshihiro Okubo, 2017. "Greenhouse-Gas Emission Controls and Firm Locations in North–South Trade," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 67(4), pages 637-660, August.
    11. Junxiu Sun & Feng Wang & Haitao Yin & Rui Zhao, 2022. "Death or rebirth? How small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises respond to responsible investment," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1749-1762, May.
    12. Wugan Cai & Peiyun Ye, 2022. "Local-neighborhood effects of different environmental regulations on green innovation: evidence from prefecture level cities of China," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(4), pages 4810-4834, April.
    13. Chen, Zhao & Kahn, Matthew E. & Liu, Yu & Wang, Zhi, 2018. "The consequences of spatially differentiated water pollution regulation in China," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 468-485.
    14. Bin Chen & Yuk-shing Cheng, 2017. "The Impacts of Environmental Regulation on Industrial Activities: Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in Chinese Prefectures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-19, April.
    15. Fu, Shihe & Viard, V. Brian & Zhang, Peng, 2022. "Trans-boundary air pollution spillovers: Physical transport and economic costs by distance," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    16. Wu, Mingqin & Cao, Xun, 2021. "Greening the career incentive structure for local officials in China: Does less pollution increase the chances of promotion for Chinese local leaders?," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 107(C).
    17. Kong, Dongmin & Ma, Guangyuan & Qin, Ni, 2022. "The political economy of firm emissions: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    18. Xinze Li & Luojia Wang & Kerui Du, 2023. "How do environmental regulations influence resource misallocation in China? The role of investment flows," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 538-550, January.
    19. Zhihua Tian & Yanfang Tian & Yang Chen & Shuai Shao, 2020. "The economic consequences of environmental regulation in China: From a perspective of the environmental protection admonishing talk policy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(4), pages 1723-1733, May.
    20. LaPlue, Lawrence D., 2022. "Environmental consequences of natural gas wellhead pricing deregulation," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    21. Daron Acemoglu & Amy Finkelstein, 2008. "Input and Technology Choices in Regulated Industries: Evidence from the Health Care Sector," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 116(5), pages 837-880, October.
    22. McLaughlin, Patrick & Potts, Jason, 2019. "RegData: Australia," Working Papers 10062, George Mason University, Mercatus Center.

    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:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:11:p:8605-:d:1155719. 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.