IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/ausman/v46y2021i2p248-271.html

Triggering business responses to climate policy in Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Raymond Markey
  • Joseph McIvor

    (Macquarie University, Macquarie Park, NSW, Australia)

  • Martin O’Brien

    (University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia)

  • Chris F Wright

    (The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia)

Abstract

The ‘Porter hypothesis’ predicts that well-designed environmental regulations will stimulate businesses to innovate to reduce their environmental impact for efficiency reasons. This article analyses the impacts and anticipation effects of Australia’s carbon price on firms’ carbon reduction activities, through survey data on 466 medium-to-large Australian businesses. We build upon the Porter hypothesis by demonstrating that the anticipated impact of regulation may be as important as its implementation in triggering environmental innovation, thus developing the notion of a ‘signal’ effect. JEL Classification: D22 and 033

Suggested Citation

  • Raymond Markey & Joseph McIvor & Martin O’Brien & Chris F Wright, 2021. "Triggering business responses to climate policy in Australia," Australian Journal of Management, Australian School of Business, vol. 46(2), pages 248-271, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:ausman:v:46:y:2021:i:2:p:248-271
    DOI: 10.1177/0312896220976750
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0312896220976750
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0312896220976750?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. Unruh, Gregory C., 2002. "Escaping carbon lock-in," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 317-325, March.
    2. Paul Lanoie & Jérémy Laurent‐Lucchetti & Nick Johnstone & Stefan Ambec, 2011. "Environmental Policy, Innovation and Performance: New Insights on the Porter Hypothesis," Journal of Economics & Management Strategy, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(3), pages 803-842, September.
    3. Rodriguez Lopez, Juan Miguel & Sakhel, Alice & Busch, Timo, 2017. "Corporate investments and environmental regulation: The role of regulatory uncertainty, regulation-induced uncertainty, and investment history," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 91-101.
    4. S. Jeff Birchall & Maya Murphy & Markus J. Milne, 2015. "Evolution of the New Zealand Voluntary Carbon Market: An Analysis of CarboNZero Client Disclosures," Social and Environmental Accountability Journal, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 35(3), pages 142-156, December.
    5. Brännlund, Runar & Lundgren, Tommy & Marklund, Per-Olov, 2014. "Carbon intensity in production and the effects of climate policy—Evidence from Swedish industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 844-857.
    6. Adam B. Jaffe & Karen Palmer, 1997. "Environmental Regulation And Innovation: A Panel Data Study," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 79(4), pages 610-619, November.
    7. Tommy Lundgren & Per-Olov Marklund, 2015. "Climate policy, environmental performance, and profits," Journal of Productivity Analysis, Springer, vol. 44(3), pages 225-235, December.
    8. Florence Depoers & Thomas Jeanjean & Tiphaine Jérôme, 2016. "Voluntary Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Contrasting the Carbon Disclosure Project and Corporate Reports," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 445-461, March.
    9. Tim Nelson & Simon Kelley & Fiona Orton & Paul Simshauser, 2010. "Delayed Carbon Policy Certainty and Electricity Prices in Australia," Economic Papers, The Economic Society of Australia, vol. 29(4), pages 446-465, December.
    10. Garnaut,Ross, 2008. "The Garnaut Climate Change Review," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521744447, January.
    11. O'Gorman, Marianna & Jotzo, Frank, 2014. "Impact of the carbon price on Australia’s electricity demand, supply and emissions," Working Papers 249493, Australian National University, Centre for Climate Economics & Policy.
    12. Volker H. Hoffmann & Thomas Trautmann & Jens Hamprecht, 2009. "Regulatory Uncertainty: A Reason to Postpone Investments? Not Necessarily," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(7), pages 1227-1253, November.
    13. Stefan Ambec & Mark A. Cohen & Stewart Elgie & Paul Lanoie, 2013. "The Porter Hypothesis at 20: Can Environmental Regulation Enhance Innovation and Competitiveness?," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 7(1), pages 2-22, January.
    14. Jayanthi Kumarasiri & Christine Jubb, 2016. "Carbon emission risks and management accounting: Australian evidence," Accounting Research Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 29(2), pages 137-153, July.
    15. Nigel James Martin & John Lewis Rice, 2014. "Influencing Clean Energy Laws: an Analysis of Business Stakeholder Engagement," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(7), pages 447-460, November.
    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. Zhengqing Zhou & Hongshan Ai & Jiacheng Liu & Malin Song & Huiyu Yang, 2025. "Auditing the Leader: The Impact of Targeting Local Officials’ Environmental Regulations on Innovation," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 16(1), pages 1258-1290, March.

    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. Jintao Zhang & Zhen Yang & Li Meng & Lu Han, 2022. "Environmental regulations and enterprises innovation performance: the role of R&D investments and political connections," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 4088-4109, March.
    2. Michael Peneder & Spyros Arvanitis & Christian Rammer & Tobias Stucki & Martin Wörter, 2022. "Policy instruments and self-reported impacts of the adoption of energy saving technologies in the DACH region," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 49(2), pages 369-404, May.
    3. Lu, Yunguo & Zhang, Lin, 2022. "National mitigation policy and the competitiveness of Chinese firms," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    4. Spyros Arvanitis & Michael Peneder & Christian Rammer & Tobias Stucki & Martin Wörter, 2016. "Competitiveness and ecological impacts of green energy technologies: firm-level evidence for the DACH region," KOF Working papers 16-420, KOF Swiss Economic Institute, ETH Zurich.
    5. Croce, Annalisa & Toschi, Laura & Ughetto, Elisa & Zanni, Sara, 2024. "Cleantech and policy framework in Europe: A machine learning approach," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 186(C).
    6. Stanley Kam Sing Wong, 2013. "Environmental Requirements, Knowledge Sharing and Green Innovation: Empirical Evidence from the Electronics Industry in China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(5), pages 321-338, July.
    7. Cameron Hepburn & Jacquelyn Pless & David Popp, 2018. "Policy Brief—Encouraging Innovation that Protects Environmental Systems: Five Policy Proposals," Review of Environmental Economics and Policy, Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 12(1), pages 154-169.
    8. Nusrate Aziz & Belayet Hossain & Laura Lamb, 2022. "Does green policy pay dividends?," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 24(2), pages 147-172, April.
    9. Alessandra Colombelli & Jackie Krafft & Francesco Quatraro, 2021. "Firms’ growth, green gazelles and eco-innovation: evidence from a sample of European firms," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 56(4), pages 1721-1738, April.
    10. Caroline Orset, 2014. "Innovation and the precautionary principle," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(8), pages 780-801, November.
    11. Xupeng Zhang & Xinhai Lu & Danling Chen & Chaozheng Zhang & Kun Ge & Bing Kuang & Sui Liu, 2021. "Is environmental regulation a blessing or a curse for China's urban land use efficiency? Evidence from a threshold effect model," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(1), pages 265-282, March.
    12. Bu, Maoliang & Qiao, Zhenzi & Liu, Beibei, 2020. "Voluntary environmental regulation and firm innovation in China," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 10-18.
    13. Flavio Delbono & Luca Lambertini, 2022. "Optimal emission taxation and the Porter hypothesis under Bertrand competition," Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93(3), pages 755-765, September.
    14. Böhringer, Christoph & Moslener, Ulf & Oberndorfer, Ulrich & Ziegler, Andreas, 2012. "Clean and productive? Empirical evidence from the German manufacturing industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(2), pages 442-451.
    15. Rammer, Christian & Gottschalk, Sandra & Peneder, Michael & Wörter, Martin & Stucki, Tobias & Arvanitis, Spyros, 2017. "Does energy policy hurt international competitiveness of firms? A comparative study for Germany, Switzerland and Austria," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 154-180.
    16. Xiang Deng & Li Li, 2020. "Promoting or Inhibiting? The Impact of Environmental Regulation on Corporate Financial Performance—An Empirical Analysis Based on China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-17, May.
    17. Thanh Tam Nguyen-Huu & Khac Minh Nguyen & Quoc Tran-Nam, 2022. "The role of environmental practices and innovation in total factor productivity convergence -Evidence from small-and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises in Vietnam," Post-Print hal-04248191, HAL.
    18. Gao, Yanyan & Zheng, Jianghuai, 2024. "The opposite innovation impacts of air and water pollution regulations: Evidence from the total emissions control policy in China," Journal of Asian Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C).
    19. Marzio Galeotti & Silvia Salini & Elena Verdolini, 2017. "Measuring Environmental Policy Stringency: Approaches, Validity, and Impact on Energy Efficiency," Development Working Papers 412, Centro Studi Luca d'Agliano, University of Milano.
    20. Zhang, Yijun & Song, Yi, 2022. "Tax rebates, technological innovation and sustainable development: Evidence from Chinese micro-level data," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • D22 - Microeconomics - - Production and Organizations - - - Firm Behavior: Empirical Analysis

    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:sae:ausman:v:46:y:2021:i:2:p:248-271. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.agsm.edu.au .

    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.