When Are Voluntary Environmental Programs More Effective? A Meta-Analysis of the Role of Program Governance Quality

Flankova, Svetlana ORCID: 0000-0002-3170-6247, Tashman, Peter ORCID: 0000-0002-5940-1787, Van Essen, Marc and Marano, Valentina (2023) When Are Voluntary Environmental Programs More Effective? A Meta-Analysis of the Role of Program Governance Quality. Business & Society.

Text
VEP effectiveness Accepted.pdf - Author Accepted Manuscript
Download (581kB) | Preview

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/00076503231202018

Abstract

<jats:p> We meta-analyze 103 studies of 23 voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) to assess how their governance quality, or the rigor of their internal institutional mechanisms, drives their ability to improve their participants corporate environmental and financial performance. The goal of VEPs is to incentivize firms to reduce firms’ environmental impacts by bolstering their reputations and helping them learn practices that improve their financial performance. Research on VEP effectiveness, however, is inconclusive, in part, because most studies sampled individual programs, and were unable to analyze how difference in program characteristics drive their effectiveness. We draw on institutional theory to argue that VEP governance quality determines whether they improve participants’ environmental performance, and the natural resource-based view to argue that they improve their financial performance. Results confirm our predictions, and in doing so, help to establish a business case for VEPs with high-quality governance. </jats:p>

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Management
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	07 Nov 2023 08:22
Last Modified:	22 Nov 2023 10:54
DOI:	10.1177/00076503231202018
Related URLs:	Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3176661