Does competitive pressure drive effective corporate environmental actions?
(2025) In Journal of Cleaner Production 511(145585).- Abstract
- Competitive pressure is an important driving factor of corporate behavioural changes. Yet, it is still unclear how it influences corporate attitudes towards environmental challenges. In this study, we systematically analyse the sustainability behaviour of a global sample of publicly traded firms to examine if and how competitive pressure pushes them to implement effective behavioural changes to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Our results suggest that competitive pressure induces firms to diversify investments across a broad spectrum of environmental initiatives. Importantly, diversification results from a decreased relative investment in risk mitigation and stakeholder engagement activities counterbalanced by an increased relative... (More)
- Competitive pressure is an important driving factor of corporate behavioural changes. Yet, it is still unclear how it influences corporate attitudes towards environmental challenges. In this study, we systematically analyse the sustainability behaviour of a global sample of publicly traded firms to examine if and how competitive pressure pushes them to implement effective behavioural changes to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Our results suggest that competitive pressure induces firms to diversify investments across a broad spectrum of environmental initiatives. Importantly, diversification results from a decreased relative investment in risk mitigation and stakeholder engagement activities counterbalanced by an increased relative investment in innovation capabilities, and it is associated with a positive abatement potential. Effects are modest in size but significant and robust against multiple alternative specifications. Overall, our analysis suggests that competitive pressures can be a driving force of effective corporate mitigation actions that integrate response diversity mechanisms to address environmental challenges. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/85530308-8ac8-42f5-8cb0-ab2859f660b5
- author
- Cenci, Simone ; Asgharian, Hossein LU ; Liu, Lu ; Rei, Marek and Zollo, Maurizio
- organization
- publishing date
- 2025-06-15
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Competitive pressure, Sustainability behaviour, Diversification
- in
- Journal of Cleaner Production
- volume
- 511
- issue
- 145585
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105004642501
- ISSN
- 0959-6526
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.145585
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- 85530308-8ac8-42f5-8cb0-ab2859f660b5
- date added to LUP
- 2025-06-04 09:50:01
- date last changed
- 2025-06-05 11:17:13
@article{85530308-8ac8-42f5-8cb0-ab2859f660b5,
abstract = {{Competitive pressure is an important driving factor of corporate behavioural changes. Yet, it is still unclear how it influences corporate attitudes towards environmental challenges. In this study, we systematically analyse the sustainability behaviour of a global sample of publicly traded firms to examine if and how competitive pressure pushes them to implement effective behavioural changes to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Our results suggest that competitive pressure induces firms to diversify investments across a broad spectrum of environmental initiatives. Importantly, diversification results from a decreased relative investment in risk mitigation and stakeholder engagement activities counterbalanced by an increased relative investment in innovation capabilities, and it is associated with a positive abatement potential. Effects are modest in size but significant and robust against multiple alternative specifications. Overall, our analysis suggests that competitive pressures can be a driving force of effective corporate mitigation actions that integrate response diversity mechanisms to address environmental challenges.}},
author = {{Cenci, Simone and Asgharian, Hossein and Liu, Lu and Rei, Marek and Zollo, Maurizio}},
issn = {{0959-6526}},
keywords = {{Competitive pressure; Sustainability behaviour; Diversification}},
language = {{eng}},
month = {{06}},
number = {{145585}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Journal of Cleaner Production}},
title = {{Does competitive pressure drive effective corporate environmental actions?}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.145585}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.jclepro.2025.145585}},
volume = {{511}},
year = {{2025}},
}