Abstract
This chapter examines the link between environmental performance, corporate social performance and innovativeness for consumer and industrial firms, using company data on R&D, environmental and corporate social performance from the Kinder, Lydenberg and Domini (KLD) database for US-based firms. We find empirically that during the period from 1999 to 2008, there has been an increase in environmental action, especially since 2004. A positive correlation is found to exist between environmental and non-environmental social performance in many dimensions and a positive but weak link between environmental performance and R&D per employee or unit of sales. This chapter shows that there is a difference between consumer and industrial firms in terms of the evolution of eco-activities and environmental impact. Contrary to what we expected, industrial firms undertook more product-related eco-activities than consumer firms. Industrial firms also showed a greater increase in process-related eco-activity. The increase in eco-activity went with an increase in eco-impact in both company types, suggesting that environmental action did not arrest environmental degradation overall.
Keywords
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
By improved eco-impact, we mean that the level of pollution and hazardous waste is reduced.
- 2.
Here, innovativeness is R&D expenditure per employee. For R&D expenditure per turnover, the numbers vary, but the underlying result remains the same.
- 3.
Outliers were excluded in order to have a Mahalanobis distance below 13.82 (Pallant 2007). We also checked for multicollinearity in the explanatory variables and the normal distribution of the errors.
References
Bansal, P., & Roth, K. (2000). Why companies go green: A model of ecological responsiveness. Academy of Management Journal, 43(4), 717–736.
Chatterji, A. K., Levine, D. I., & Toffel, M. W. (2009). How well do social ratings actually measure corporate social responsibility? Journal of Economics & Management Studies, 18(1), 125–169.
Dow, K., & Downing, T. E. (2006). The atlas of climate change- mapping the world's largest challenge. London: Earthscan.
Financial Trend Forecaster. (2010). www.inflationdata.com. Retrieved April 16, 2010 from www.inflationdata.com: www.inflationdata.com
Fineman, S., & Clarke, K. (1996). Green stakeholders: Industry interpretation and response. Journal of Management Studies, 33(6), 0022–2380.
Florida, R. (1996). Lean and green: The more to a environmentally conscious manufacturing. California Management Review, 39(1), 80–105.
Gladwin, T. N., Kennelly, J. J., & Krause, T. S. (1995). Shifting paradigms for sustainable development: Implications for management theory and research. Academy of Management Review, 20(4), 874–907.
Graves, S. B., & Waddock, S. A. (1994). Institutional owners and corporate social performance. Academy of Management Journal, 37(4), 1034–1046.
Hagedoorn, J., & Cloodt, M. (2003). Measuring innovative performance: Is there an advantage in using multiple indicators? Research Policy, 32, 1365–1379.
Hall, J., & Vredenburg, H. (2003). The challenges of innovation for sustainable development. MIT Sloan Management Review, 45(1 Fall), 61–68.
Harrison, J. S., & Freeman, R. E. (1999). Stakeholders, social responsibility, and performance: Empirical evidence and theoretical perspective. Academy of Management Journal, 42(5), 479–485.
Hart, S. L. (1995). A natural-resource-based view of the firm. Academy of Management Journal, 20(4), 986–1014.
Hart, S. L. (2007). Capitalism at the crossroads. Upper Saddle River: Wharton School Publishing.
Hillman, A. J., & Keim, G. D. (2001). Shareholder value, stakeholder management, and social issues: What’s the bottom line? Strategic Management Journal, 22, 125–139.
KLD. (2007). www.kld.com. Abgerufen am 4 October 2009 von Guide to Sustainability Analysis Organisations.
KLD Research, & Analytics, Inc. (2010). Latest EPA toxic emissions data added to socrates profiles. Abgerufen am 23 March 2010. http://www.kld.com/newsletter/Newsline/0705Newsline/0705KLDResearch_client.html
Kleinknecht, A., van Montfort, K., & Brouwer, E. (2002). The non-trivial choice between innovation indicators. Economics of Innovation and New Technologies, 11(2), 109–121.
Liston-Heyes, C., & Ceton, G. (2008). An investigation of real versus perceived csp in S&P-500 firms. Journal of Business Ethics, 89, 283–296.
Pallant, J. (2007). SPSS- survival manual. New York, USA: McGraw-Hill Education.
Porter, M. E., & van der Linde, C. (1995). Green and competitive. Harvard Business Review, 73(5), 120–134.
Senge, P., Smith, B., Kruschwitz, N., Laur, J., & Schley, S. (2008). The necessary revolution– How individuals and organizations are working together to create a sustainable world. New York: The Double Day Publishing Group.
Shane, S., & Toby, S. (2002). Organizational endowments and performance of university start-ups. Management Science, 48(1), 154–170.
Sharfman, M. (1996). The construct validity of the Kinder, Lydenberg & Domini social performance rating data. Journal of Business Ethics, 15, 287–296.
Sharfman, M. P., & Fernando, C. S. (2008). Environmental risk management and the cost of capital. Strategic Management Journal, 29, 569–592.
Shrivastava, P. (1995). The role of corporations in achieving ecological sustainability. Academy of Management Review, 20(4), 936–960.
Stead, W. E., & Stead, J. G. (1994). Can humankind change the economic myth? Paradigm shift necessary for ecologically sustainable business. Journal of Organizational Change, 7(4), 15–31.
Turban, D. B., & Greening, D. W. (1996). Corporate social performance and organizational attractiveness to prospective employees. Academy of Management Journal, 40(3), 658–672.
Waddock, S. A., & Graves, S. B. (1997). The corporate social performance- financial performance link. Strategic Management Journal, 18(4), 303–319.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendices
Appendix A
Appendix B
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2012 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Oehme, N., Kemp, R. (2012). Eco-Activity and Innovativeness: What Is Their Relation to Environmental Performance in Consumer Firms and Industrial Firms?. In: Costantini, V., Mazzanti, M. (eds) The Dynamics of Environmental and Economic Systems. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5089-0_7
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5089-0_7
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-5088-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-5089-0
eBook Packages: Business and EconomicsEconomics and Finance (R0)