Business Ethics the Environment & Responsibility最新文献

This paper examines the impact of environmental, social and governance (ESG) disclosure scores on the firm value of European listed companies before, during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a two-level model and a unique dataset of 264 multinational firms covering the period 2019–2022, we find a negative relationship between ESG disclosure scores and firm value. Nevertheless, the effect of the social and environmental disclosure scores disappears during the crisis, and returns negative during the recovery period. Almost all empirical studies to date have found the inverse effect, suggesting that even though ESG transparency can improve firm reputation, it can also damage it and reduce firm value. We also show that firm-specific factors remain the biggest source of variability in firm value, even during the crisis. Thus, this paper contributes to the existing literature by suggesting that the impact of ESG disclosure on firm value may vary depending on the economic and financial context in which firms operate. More specifically, it shows that the benefits of ESG disclosure, namely the reduction of agency costs, stakeholder trust, and firm legitimacy, which are expected to increase firm value, may not have the predicted effect in a crisis context. Consequently, these findings provide both an empirical and a theoretical contribution to the existing literature on agency theory, signal theory, and legitimacy theory.

The existing literature has explored the impact of high-speed rail (HSR) opening on macrolevel environmental performance. However, few studies have validated its effects on microlevel corporate environmental responsibility performance. Therefore, on the basis of data from Chinese A-share listed companies from 2011 to 2020, we examine the relationship between HSR opening and corporate environmental responsibility performance, along with the underlying reasons for this relationship. Our research reveals that HSR opening can significantly improve the corporate environmental responsibility performance. Talent aggregation and supervisory pressure constitute the two main channels that explain the positive relationship. Furthermore, the results of heterogeneity tests indicate that this positive effect is more significant in cities with larger populations and administrative centers, as well as in nonpolluting industries and companies certified through ISO14001 environmental management systems. This paper confirms that HSR opening contributes to generating positive externalities for firms and provides valuable insights into improving and understanding corporate environmental responsibility performance.

Previous works have highlighted that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are responsible for approximately 60%–70% of European industrial pollution, which has led scholars to investigate whether owner-managers, the most influential decision-makers in SMEs, actually care about environmental issues. Although existing works have identified various antecedents of owner-managers' environmental concern, limited attention has been paid to understand how they could turn such environmental concern into environmental practices. Therefore, the present research explores how owner-managers' environmental concern influences the environmental practices of SMEs, whereas considering the effects of company size and sector-specific environmental regulations. Relying on interviews with 19 Belgian SME owner-managers, we contribute to the existing literature by providing a typology classifying SMEs' environmental practices according to their owner-managers' environmental concern and considering company size and environmental sectoral regulations. Four profiles emerge from this typology: climate change champions, green opportunists, eco-compliant followers and routine entrepreneurs. This typology highlights the fact that micro-enterprises are more likely to adopt environmental practices when they are mandatory. In contrast, the adoption of environmental practices is more likely to result from owner-managers' environmental concern in small to medium-sized firms.

Do employees respond to a firm's environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance? This study examines the relationship between corporate ESG performance and employee turnover, employing social identity theory and rational action theory. Using data from Chinese A-share nonfinancial listed firms over the period from 2011 to 2020, the results reveal a positive U-shaped relationship. Specifically, moderate levels of ESG performance are associated with reduced employee turnover. And this relationship is more pronounced in the environmental and social pillars. Further analysis shows that employees at high-performing firms are more concerned with ESG performance, and those with high environmental awareness exhibit greater sensitivity to it. Information asymmetry may mediate the relationship between corporate ESG performance and employee turnover. These results contribute valuable insights into the broader implications of ESG performance for employee turnover, clarify the underlying mechanisms, and offer practical guidance for refining corporate ESG strategies.

While theory and research indicate that top management team (TMT) attributes play a crucial role in shaping responsible practices, how and when TMT faultlines affect environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance remains an open question. This study aims to fill this research gap by integrating social categorization theory with the faultline literature. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms over a 12-year period, our findings indicate that TMT faultlines can significantly inhibit ESG performance, and managerial myopia is the primary channel through which the negative effect operates. In addition, our study reveals that negative attainment discrepancy significantly amplifies the inhibitory effect of TMT faultlines on ESG performance. Intriguingly, this inhibitory effect is mitigated in firms with strong Confucian culture. Our study also reveals variations in the impact of TMT faultlines on ESG performance concerning the type of faultlines and the level of industry competition. These findings not only contribute to the literature on TMT faultlines and upper echelons but also provide valuable guidance for managers in adeptly navigating the dynamics of TMT composition.

There seems to be a striking parallel between the features of psychopaths and those of agential groups, including states and corporations. Psychopaths are often thought to lack some of the capacities that are constitutive of moral agency. Two features of psychopaths are commonly identified as grounds for limiting their moral responsibility: (i) their lack of relevant emotional capacities and (ii) their flawed rational capacities. Roughly, the first argument is that the lack of moral emotions such as sympathy, guilt, or shame negatively impacts moral perception and therewith an agent's capacity for moral reasoning. The second argument is that psychopaths are diminished in their agency as such, not just in their moral agency; they are erratic and impulsive and show other significant failures of rationality. Using the 2020 Juukan Gorge disaster in Western Australia as a case study, I conclude that deliberate or reckless corporate irrationality cannot be grounds for diminished corporate moral responsibility. Corporate agents are chiefly responsible for core aspects of their moral agency, including their internal epistemic structures and decision-making processes. They have obligations to establish or maintain internal epistemic integrity and consistency.

The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) underpin a holistic approach to promote global sustainability, sparking the emergence of the “twin transition” concept, which combines environmentally friendly practices and digitalization for a greener future. Taking note of the SDGs, the primary objective of this research is to explore the twin transition within the context of high-tech industries. This study aims to bridge existing knowledge gaps by exploring the indirect impact of information effects and the moderating role of artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure flexibility in the relationship between platform leadership and green sustainable practices. Grounded in the framework of the diffusion of innovation paradigm, our findings are based on a three-wave time-lagged field survey conducted among 437 high-tech SMEs in China. The study's findings uncover a positive relation between platform leadership and green sustainable practices, with information effects, specifically responsiveness and usability, acting as mediating factors. Furthermore, the study demonstrates that AI infrastructure flexibility acts as a moderator in the relationship between platform leadership and information effects, influencing the indirect effect of platform leadership on green sustainable practices through information effects. This research not only contributes to our understanding of the twin transition in high-tech SMEs but also sheds light on the critical role of platform leadership, information effects, and AI infrastructure flexibility in driving green sustainable practices. These findings have significant implications for managers, policymakers, and scholars focused on sustainability and innovation in the high-tech sector.