Do environmental policy statements accurately represent corporate commitment to environmental sustainability? Because companies are not required by law to publish environmental policy statements or to verify that these statements are true using independent third parties, external stakeholders often wonder when a published commitment to a policy translates into actual policy implementation. The authors analyzed two independent databases to predict the circumstances under which large, leading-edge corporations in industry sectors will commit to and/or implement proactive corporate environmental policies and when it is unlikely they will do so. The authors found that commitment to specific environmental policies does not vary greatly between industry sectors; however, policy implementation does.
Ackerman, R. W. (1973). How companies respond to social demands. Harvard Business Review, 51(4), 88-98.
2.
Bansal, P., & Roth, K. (2000). Why companies go green: A model of ecological responsiveness. Academy of Management Journal, 43, 717-747.
3.
Bauer, R. A. (1978). The corporate response process. In L. E. Preston (Ed.), Research in corporate social performance and policy (pp. 99-122). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
4.
Berry, M. A., & Rondinelli, D. A. (1998). Proactive corporate environmental management: A new industrial revolution. Academy of Management Executive, 12(2), 38-51.
5.
Brophy, M. (1996). The essential characteristics of an environmental policy. In R. Welford (Ed.), Corporate environmental management: Systems and strategies (pp. 92-103). London: Earthscan.
6.
Carroll, A. B. (1979). A three-dimensional conceptual model of corporate performance. Academy of Management Review, 4, 497-505.
7.
Carroll, A. B. (1999). Corporate social responsibility: Evolution of a definitional construct. Business & Society, 38, 268-295.
8.
Carson, R. (1962). Silent spring. Cambridge, MA: Riverside Press.
9.
Colburn, T., Dumanoski, D., & Myers, J. P. (1996). Our stolen future. New York: Penguin-Dutton.
10.
DiMaggio, P. W., & Powell, W. W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48, 147-160.
11.
European Commission. (2001). Strategy for a future chemicals policy. White paper. Brussels: Commission of the European Community.
12.
Festinger, L. (1957). A theory of cognitive dissonance. New York: Row, Peterson and Company.
13.
Friedman, F. B. (1992). Practical guide to environmental management. Washington, DC: Environmental Law Institute.
14.
Graham, J. W., & Havlick, W. C. (1999). Corporate environmental policies. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press.
15.
Henriques, I., & Sadorsky, P. (1996). The determinants of an environmentally responsive firm: An empirical approach. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 30, 381-395.
16.
Hoffman, A. J. (1997). From heresy to dogma. San Francisco: New Lexington Press.
17.
Hoffman, A. J. (2001). From heresy to dogma (Expanded ed.). Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
18.
Holliday, C. O., & Pepper, J. (2001). Sustainability through the market: Seven keys to success. Geneva: World Business Council for Sustainable Development.
19.
Holliday, C. O., Schmidheiny, S., & Watts, P. (2002). Walking the talk: The business case for sustainable development. Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf.
20.
Howard, J., Nash, J., & Ehrenfeld, J. (1999). Industry codes as agents of change: Responsible care adoption by U.S. chemical companies. Business Strategy and the Environment, 8, 281-295.
21.
International Organization for Standardization. (1996). ISO 14001: Environmental management systems. Geneva: Author.
22.
Kaufman, L. (1999). Selling green: What managers and marketers need to know about consumer environmental attitudes. Environmental Quality Management, 8(4), 11-18.
23.
Ketola, T. (1993). The seven sisters: Snow Whites, dwarfs or evil queens? A comparison of the official environmental policies of the largest oil corporations in the world. Business Strategy and the Environment, 2(3), 22-33.
24.
King, A. A., & Lenox, M. (2000). Industry self-regulation without sanctions: The chemical industry’s responsible care program. Academy of Management Journal, 43, 698-716.
25.
Kolk, A. (1999). Evaluating corporate environmental reporting. Business Strategy and the Environment, 8, 225-237.
26.
Kolk, A. (2003). Trends in sustainability reporting by the Fortune global 250. Business Strategy and the Environment, 12, 279-291.
27.
Kolk, A., Walhain, S., & van de Wateringen, S. (2001). Environmental reporting by the Fortune 250: Exploring the influence of nationality and sector. Business Strategy and the Environment, 10, 15-28.
28.
KPMG. (2002). KPMG international survey of corporate sustainability reporting. The Netherlands: KPMG/WIMM
29.
KPMG. (2002). International survey of corporate sustainability reporting. June.
30.
Lawrence, A. T., & Morell, D. (1995). Leading-edge environmental management: Motivation, opportunity, resources, and processes. In D. Collins & M. Starik (Eds.), Research in corporate social performance and policy—Sustaining the natural environment: Empirical studies on the interface between nature and organizations (pp. 99-126). Greenwood, CT: JAI.
31.
Logsdon, J. M. (1985). Organizational responses to environmental issues: Oil refining companies and air pollution. In L. E. Preston (Ed.), Research in corporate social performance and policy (Vol. 7, pp. 47-71). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
32.
Lowenthal, M. (2001). Don’t be fooled. Retrieved September 13, 2003, from http://www.ecopledge.com
33.
Miles, R. A. (1987). Managing the corporate social environment. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
34.
Mitchell, R. K., Agle, B. R., & Wood, D. J. (1997). Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really counts. Academy of Management Review, 22, 853-887.
35.
Morhardt, J. E., Baird, S., & Freeman, K. (2002). Scoring corporate environmental and sustainability reports using GRI 2000, ISO 14031 and other criteria. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 9, 215-233.
Polonsky, M. J., Zeffane, R. M., & Medley, P. (1992). Corporate environmental commitment in Australia: A sectorial approach. Business Strategy and the Environment, 1(2), 25-40.
38.
Ramus, C. A. (2001). Organizational support for employees: Encouraging creative ideas for environmental sustainability. California Management Review, 43(3), 85-105.
39.
Ramus, C. A. (2002). Encouraging innovative environmental actions: What companies and managers must do. Journal of World Business, 37, 151-164.
40.
Ramus, C. A. (2003). Employee environmental innovation in firms: Organizational and managerial factors. Hampshire, England: Ashgate.
41.
Ramus, C. A., & Steger, U. (2000). The roles of supervisory support behaviors and environmental policy in employee ecoinitiatives at leading edge European companies. Academy of Management Journal, 43, 605-626.
42.
Reinhardt, F. L. (1999a). Bringing the environment down to Earth. Harvard Business Review, 77(4), 149-157.
43.
Reinhardt, F. L. (1999b). Economic rationales for “beyond compliance” behavior. Journal of Industrial Ecology, 3(1), 9-21.
44.
Reinhardt, F. L. (2000). Down to earth: Applying business principles to environmental management. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
45.
Robert, K., Aloisi de Larderel, J., Basile, G., Jansen, J. L., Kuehr, R., Thomas, P. P., et al. (2002). Strategic sustainable development—Selection, design and synergies of applied tools. Journal of Cleaner Production, 10, 197-214.
46.
Russel, T. (Ed.).(1998). Greener purchasing: Opportunities and innovations. Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf.
47.
Sadgrove, K. (1992). The green manager’s handbook. Hants, UK: Gower Publishing.
48.
Sarkis, J. (Ed.). (2001). Greener manufacturing and operations: From design to delivery and back. Sheffield, UK: Greenleaf.
49.
Schmidheiny, S. (1992). Changing course. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
50.
Scott, W. R. (1995). Institutions and organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
51.
Sethi, S. P. (1979). A conceptual framework for environmental analysis of social issues and evaluation of business response patterns. Academy of Management Review, 4, 63-74.
52.
Sharfman, M. P., Shaft, T. M., & Tihanyi, L. (2004). A model of the global and institutional antecedents of high-level corporate environmental performance. Business & Society, 43, 6-36.
53.
Sharma, S. (2000). Managerial interpretations and organizational context as predictors of corporate choice of environmental strategy. Academy of Management Journal, 43, 681-697.
54.
Sharma, S., Pablo, A. L., & Vredenburg, H. (1999). Corporate environmental responsiveness strategies: The importance of issue interpretation and organizational context. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 35, 87-108.
55.
Shimell, P. (1991). Corporate environmental policy in practice. Long Range Planning, 24(3), 10-17.
56.
Stead, E., & Stead, J. (1995). An empirical investigation of sustainability strategy implementation in industrial organizations. In D. Collins & M. Starik (Eds.), Research in corporate social performance and policy—Sustaining the natural environment: Empirical studies on the interface between nature and organizations (pp. 43-66). Greenwich, CT: JAI.
57.
Stoll, M. L. (2002). The ethics of marketing good corporate conduct. Journal of Business Ethics, 41, 121-129.
58.
Tolbert, P., & Zucker, L. (1983). Institutional sources of change in the formal structure of organizations: The diffusion of civil service reform, 1880-1935. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, 22-39.
59.
Wartick, S. L., & Cochran, P. L. (1985). The evolution of the corporate social performance model. Academy of Management Review, 10, 758-769.
60.
Winn, M. I., & Angell, L. C. (2000). Towards a process model of corporate greening. Organization Studies, 21, 1119-1147.
61.
Wulfson, M. (2001). The ethics of corporate social responsibility and philanthropic ventures. Journal of Business Ethics, 29, 135-145.
62.
Zenisek, T. J. (1979). Corporate social responsibility: A conceptualization based on organizational literature. Academy of Management Review, 4, 359-368.
