Abstract
Driving enterprises to implement carbon emission reduction actions and reduce carbon emissions is a crucial research topic in achieving the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. As a significant external environment factor influencing corporate behavior, can institutional pressures effectively promote enterprises to reduce carbon emissions? This study aims to probe into the impact and mechanism of three institutional pressures, namely coercive, mimetic, and normative, on corporate carbon emissions, taking Chinese-listed companies as the research object. The results indicate that coercive pressure is positively associated with corporate carbon reduction, while normative pressure has no significant impact. Furthermore, mimetic pressure impedes corporate carbon emissions. The mechanism test shows that carbon reduction is a mediator in the influence exerted by three institutional pressures on corporate carbon emissions. In response to coercive pressure and mimetic pressure, enterprises tend to reduce their carbon emissions by cultivating concepts related to carbon emission reduction. Concepts related to carbon reduction play a more dominant role than carbon reduction actions when both are mediators, with the former even replacing the latter. This research provides a new perspective for improving corporate environmental performance and corporate sustainability.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
Notes
Carbon emissions data for Scope 1 and Scope 2 can be traced back to 2006 and 2008, respectively. The rates of carbon emissions were compared to the previous year, and only samples from 2010 onwards were utilized for consistency purposes with total carbon emissions data during the given years. This methodology resulted in a slight reduction of four observations for Scope 1 and 2 observations for Scope 2. Nonetheless, this did not significantly impact the samples and results.
References
Acciarini C, Cappa F, Boccardelli P, Oriani R (2023) How can organizations leverage big data to innovate their business models? A systematic literature review. Technovation 123:102713. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2023.102713
Ajzen I (1991) The theory of planned behavior. Organ Behav Hum Decis 50(2):179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-T
Aldrich H (1979) Organizations and environments. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ
Amui LBL, Jabbour CJC, Jabbour ABLD, Kannan D (2017) Sustainability as a dynamic organizational capability: a systematic review and a future agenda toward a sustainable transition. J Clean Prod 142:308–322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.07.103
Bag S, Pretorius JHC, Gupta S, Dwivedi YK (2021) Role of institutional pressures and resources in the adoption of big data analytics powered artificial intelligence, sustainable manufacturing practices and circular economy capabilities. Technol Forecast Soc 163:120420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2020.120420
Berrone P, Fosfuri A, Gelabert L, Gomez-Mejia LR (2013) Necessity as the mother of ‘green’ inventions: institutional pressures and environmental innovations. Strateg Manag J 34(8):891–909. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.2041
Bolton P, Kacperczyk M (2020) Do investors care about carbon risk? J Financ Econ 142(2):517–549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2021.05.008
Campbell JL (2007) Why would corporations behave in socially responsible ways? An institutional theory of corporate social responsibility. Acad Manage Rev 32(3):946–967. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2007.25275684
Chen SJ, Mao H, Sun JQ (2022) Low-carbon city construction and corporate carbon reduction performance: evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in China. J Bus Ethics 180(1):125–143. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-021-04886-1
D’Souza C, Ahmed T, Khashru MA, Ahmed R, Ratten V, Jayaratne M (2022) The complexity of stakeholder pressures and their influence on social and environmental responsibilities. J Clean Prod 358:132038. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132038
Delmas MA, Burbano VC (2011) The drivers of greenwashing. Calif Manag Rev 54(1):64–87. https://doi.org/10.1525/cmr.2011.54.1.64
DiMaggio PJ, Powell WW (1983) The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. Am Sociol Rev 48(2):147–160. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101
Dong YH, Zhao YT, Zhang J, Liu P (2022a) Development of a framework of carbon accounting and management on the township level in China. J Environ Manag 318:115609. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.115609
Dong ZYZ, Xia CY, Fang K, Zhang WW (2022b) Effect of the carbon emissions trading policy on the co-benefits of carbon emissions reduction and air pollution control. Energy Policy 165:112998. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2022.112998
Dou YJ, Zhu QH, Sarkis J (2015) Integrating strategic carbon management into formal evaluation of environmental supplier development programs. Bus Strateg Environ 24(8):873–891. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.1851
Dowling J, Pfeffer J (1975) Organizational legitimacy: social values and organizational behavior. Pac Sociol Rev 18(1):122–136. https://doi.org/10.2307/1388226
Fang J, Zhang MQ, Qiu HZ (2012) Mediation analysis and effect size measurement: retrospect and prospect. Psychol Dev Educ 28(1):105–111. https://doi.org/10.16187/j.cnki.issn1001-4918.2012.01.015
Ghosh R, Wolf S (2021) Hybrid governance and performances of environmental accounting. J Environ Manag 284:111995. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.111995
Goldthau A, Hughes L (2020) Protect global supply chains for low-carbon technologies. Nature 585(7823):28–30. https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-02499-8
Hahn R, Reimsbach D, Schiemann F (2015) Organizations, climate change, and transparency: reviewing the literature on carbon disclosure. Organ Environ 28(1):80–102. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026615575542
Haney AB (2017) Threat interpretation and innovation in the context of climate change: an ethical perspective. J Bus Ethics 143:261–276. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2591-7
Institute of Corporate High-quality Development in the New Era, Jia M, Yang Q et al (2022) Institute of high-quality corporate development, carbon neutrality strategy of Chinese firms: theory and practice. Foreign Econ Manag 44(2):3–20. https://doi.org/10.16538/j.cnki.fem.20211215.101
Israeli O (2007) A Shapley-based decomposition of the R-square of a linear regression. J Econ Inequal 5:199–212. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10888-006-9036-6
Jain NK, Panda A, Choudhary P (2020) Institutional pressures and circular economy performance: the role of environmental management system and organizational flexibility in oil and gas sector. Bus Strateg Environ 29(8):3509–3525. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2593
Jiang T (2022) Mediating effects and moderating effects in causal inference. China Ind Econ 5:100–120. https://doi.org/10.19581/j.cnki.ciejournal.2022.05.005
Jiang YG, Zhang J, Asante D, Yang Y (2019) Dynamic evaluation of low-carbon competitiveness(LCC) based on improved technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) method: a case study of Chinese steelworks. J Clean Prod 217(1):484–492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.054
Jiang YG, Dennis A, Zhang J, Cao MJ (2020) The effects of environmental factors on low-carbon innovation strategy: a study of the executive environmental leadership in China. J Clean Prod 266:121998. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121998
Kanter R (1972) Commitment and community: communes and utopias in sociological perspective. Harvard University Press, Cambridge
Kolk A, Pinkse J (2005) Business responses to climate change: identifying emergent strategies. Calif Manag Rev 47(3):6–20. https://doi.org/10.2307/41166304
Konadu R, Ahinful GS, Boakye DJ, Elbardan H (2022) Board gender diversity, environmental innovation and corporate carbon emissions. Technol Forecast Soc 174:121279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121279
Lau RS, Cheung GW (2012) Estimating and comparing specific mediation effects in complex latent variable models. Organ Res Methods 15(1):3–16. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428110391673
Li ZG, Wang J (2022) The dynamic impact of digital economy on carbon emission reduction: evidence city-level empirical data in China. J Clean Prod 351:131570. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.131570
Li ZZ, Li ZB (2023) Research on the peer effect of enterprise ESG information disclosure. Nankai Bus Rev 26(5):126–136. https://link.cnki.net/urlid/12.1288.F.20230911.1941
Li XT, Song C, Guo XM (2017) Enterprise-value effect of carbon disclosure. Manag Rev 29(12):175–184. https://doi.org/10.14120/j.cnki.cn11-5057/f.2017.12.016
Liu JJ, Feng YT, Zhu QH, Sarkis J (2018a) Green supply chain management and the circular economy: reviewing theory for advancement of both fields. Int J Phys Distr Log 48(8):794–817. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPDLM-01-2017-0049
Liu Y, Wang N, Zhao JJ (2018b) Relationships between isomorphic pressures and carbon management imitation behavior of firms. Resour Conserv Recy 138:24–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.06.025
Locke EA (1968) Toward a theory of task motivation and incentives. Organ Behav Hum Perform 3(2):157–189. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(68)90004-4
Lu MF (2021) Green concept and low-carbon transformation: strategic thinking of commercial banks building low-carbon banks in the new stage: one is based on the perspective of the century-old green development thought. Financ Theory Pract (5):1–11. https://link.cnki.net/urlid/41.1078.F.20210512.1434.002
Luan SZ, Hussain M, Ali S, Rahim S (2022) China’s investment in energy industry to neutralize carbon emissions: evidence from provincial data. Environ Sci Pollut R 29(26):39375–39383. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-18141-7
Luchman JN (2021) Determining relative importance in Stata using dominance analysis: domin and domme. Stata J 21(2):510–538. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536867X211025837
Lyon TP, Montgomery AW (2015) The means and end of greenwash. Organ Environ 28(2):223–249. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026615575332
Ma L, Liang JQ (2018) The effects of firm ownership and affiliation on government’s target setting on energy conservation in China. J Clean Prod 199:459–465. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.170
Machado MC, Correa VS, de Queiroz MM, Costa GC (2023) Can Global Reporting Initiative reports reveal companies’ green supply chain management practices? J Clean Prod 383:135554. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.135554
Mazzoni F (2020) Circular economy and eco-innovation in Italian industrial clusters. Best practices from Prato textile cluster. Insights Reg Dev 2(3):661–676. https://doi.org/10.9770/IRD.2020.2.3(4)
Moussa T, Allam A, Elbanna S, Bani-Mustafa A (2020) Can board environmental orientation improve US firms’ carbon performance? The mediating role of carbon strategy. Bus Strateg Environ 29(1):72–86. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2351
Ni J, Kong LW (2016) Environmental information disclosure, bank credit decisions and debt financing cost: evidence from the listed company in heavy polluting industries of A-shares in Shanghai stock market and Shenzhen stock market. Econo Rev (1):147–156+160. https://doi.org/10.19361/j.er.2016.01.012
Niu ZW, Xu CX, Wu Y (2023) Business environment optimization, human capital effect and firm labor productivity. J Manag World 39(2):83–100. https://doi.org/10.19744/j.cnki.11-1235/f.2023.0028
Nordhaus W (2018) Projections and uncertainties about climate change in an era of minimal climate policies. Am Econ J Econ Pol 10(3):333–360. https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.20170046
Nuber C, Velte P (2021) Board gender diversity and carbon emissions: European evidence on curvilinear relationships and critical mass. Bus Strateg Environ 30(4):1958–1992. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2727
Oyewo B (2023) Corporate governance and carbon emissions performance: international evidence on curvilinear relationships. J Environ Manag 334:117474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117474
Oyewo B, Tawiah V, Hussain ST (2022) Drivers of environmental and social sustainability accounting practices in Nigeria: a corporate governance perspective. Corp Gov 23(2):397–421. https://doi.org/10.1108/CG-09-2021-0336
Pan AE, Yu LX, Guo QS (2019) Does institutional pressure inhibit corporate environmental information “Greenwashing”: based on evidence from the a-share market?. Finance Account Monthly (22):105–114. https://doi.org/10.19641/j.cnki.42-1290/f.2019.22.014
Pieters R (2017) Meaningful mediation analysis: plausible causal inference and informative communication. J Consum Res 44(3):692–716. https://doi.org/10.1093/jcr/ucx081
Prechel H, Morris T (2010) The effects of organizational and political embeddedness on financial malfeasance in the largest US corporations: dependence, incentives, and opportunities. Am Sociol Rev 75(3):331–354. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122410372229
Roulet TJ, Touboul S (2015) The intentions with which the road is paved: attitudes to liberalism as determinants of greenwashing. J Bus Ethics 128(2):305–320. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-014-2097-8
Song XH, Jiang X, Han JJ, Zhao CP, Guo YW, Yu ZF (2019) Research on the value effect of enterprise carbon information disclosure - based on the adjustment of public pressure. Account Res 12:78–84
Su TY, Meng L, Zhang JT (2022) China’s carbon market pilot and enterprise green transition: an analysis of effects and mechanism. R&D Manag 34(4):81–96. https://doi.org/10.13581/j.cnki.rdm.20211882
Su M, Pang Q, Kim W, Yao J, Fang M (2023) Consumer participation in reusable resource allocation schemes: a theoretical conceptualization and empirical examination of Korean consumers. Resour Conserv Recy 189:106747. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106747
Suchman MC (1995) Managing legitimacy: strategic and institutional approaches. Acad Manag Rev 20(3):571–610. https://doi.org/10.2307/258788
Sun LL, Cui HJ, Ge QS (2022) Will China achieve its 2060 carbon neutral commitment from the provincial perspective? Adv Clim Chang Res 13(2):169–178. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.accre.2022.02.002
Takacs F, Brunner D, Frankenberger K (2022) Barriers to a circular economy in small- and medium-sized enterprises and their integration in a sustainable strategic management framework. J Clean Prod 362:132227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132227
Tian H, Jiang YF (2014) Dynamic mechanism of corporate social responsibility practice. J Audit Econ 29(6):65–74. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1004-4833.2014.06.008
Tingbani I, Chithambo L, Tauringana V, Papanikolaou N (2020) Board gender diversity, environmental committee and greenhouse gas voluntary disclosures. Bus Strateg Environ 29(6):2194–2210. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2495
Villena VH, Dhanorkar S (2020) How institutional pressures and managerial incentives elicit carbon transparency in global supply chains. J Oper Manag 66(6):697–734. https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1088
Wang MZ, Hussainey K (2013) Voluntary forward-looking statements driven by corporate governance and their value relevance. J Account Public Pol 32(3):26–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaccpubpol.2013.02.009
Wang G, He QH, Yang DL, Yu T (2018) Institutional pressures, organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment and environment management performance: evidences from China’s Megaprojects. J Syst Manag 27(1):118–128
Wang H, Liu JZ, Zhang LH (2022) Carbon emissions and assets pricing - evidence from Chinese listed firms. China J Econ 9(2):28–75. https://doi.org/10.16513/j.cnki.cje.2022.02.003
Wen ZL, Ye BJ (2014) Analyses of mediating effects: the development of methods and models. Adv Psychol Sci 22(5):731–745. https://doi.org/10.3724/SP.J.1042.2014.00731
Wu QS, Miao LL (2022) Carbon emission reduction, carbon trading and financialization of real enterprises. Finance Account Monthly (23):39–48. https://doi.org/10.19641/j.cnki.42-1290/f.2022.23.005
Xia MY, Cai HH (2023) The driving factors of corporate carbon emissions: an application of the LASSO model with survey data. Environ Sci Pollut R 30(19):56484–56512. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26081-7
Xiao H, Zhang GQ, Li JF (2016) Institutional pressures, characteristics of senior management and corporate environmental disclosure. Bus Manag J 38(3):168–180. https://doi.org/10.19616/j.cnki.bmj.2016.03.016
Xu JZ, Jia J, Lin Y (2017) Institutional pressures, top managers’ environmental awareness and environmental innovation practices: an institutional theory and upper echelons theory perspective. Manag Rev (9):72–83. https://doi.org/10.14120/j.cnki.cn11-5057/f.2017.09.007
Xu P, Ye PH, Jahanger A, Huang SW, Zhao F (2023) Can green credit policy reduce corporate carbon emission intensity: evidence from China’s listed firms. Corp Soc Resp Env Ma 30(5):2623–2638. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.2506
Zhang XD (2022) Understanding and grasping the systematic planning and overall deployment of China’s carbon peak and neutralization goals: the interpretation of the party central committee’s statement and thoughts on the “Double carbon goals” in the new development stage. Shanghai J Econ (2):14–33. https://doi.org/10.19626/j.cnki.cn31-1163/f.2022.02.002
Zhong YH, Yang ZJ (2021) Are state-owned enterprises more willing to carry out green technological innovation? An empirical study from listed companies in manufacturing industry. J Yunnan Univ Finance Econ 37(5):88–98. https://doi.org/10.16537/j.cnki.jynufe.000697
Zhang F, Zhang HN, Bell G (2021) Corporate religiosity and individual decision on conducting entrepreneurial activity: the contingent effects of institutional environments in China. Asia Pac J Manag 38(3):955–978. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10490-019-09691-z
Zhang AX, Deng RR, Wu YF (2022a) Does the green credit policy reduce the carbon emission intensity of heavily polluting industries? -Evidence from China’s industrial sectors. J Environ Manag 311:114815. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.114815
Zhang YQ, Qi LL, Lin XY, Pan HR, Sharp B (2022b) Synergistic effect of carbon ETS and carbon tax under China’s peak emission target: a dynamic CGE analysis. Sci Total Environ 825:154076. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154076
Funding
The study is partially funded by the Jiangsu Social Science Foundation Project (22GLD003), the Jiangsu University Philosophy and Social Science Research Fund Project (2018SJA1128), and the Soft Science Research Plan Project in Henan Province (232400411136).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Kanghong Li: conceptualization and writing which included review and editing. Tong Wu: writing of original draft and data curation. Peng Zhang: validation. Yuanqiang Lian: supervision. Changbao Zhou: writing including review and editing. Yuyan Xiang: methodology.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethical approval and consent to participate
This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. Consent to participate is not applicable.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Responsible Editor: Ilhan Ozturk
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Li, K., Wu, T., Zhang, P. et al. Can institutional pressures serve as an efficacious catalyst for mitigating corporate carbon emissions?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 31, 21380–21398 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32374-2
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32374-2