دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی مقایسه میان کشوری اقدمات سبز، عملکرد سبز و عملکرد مالی - امرالد 2017

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between green initiatives, green performance, and a firm’s financial performance in the world. The existing literature on environmental initiatives and their impacts is limited to the context of a particular country. This gap points to a lack of clarification of variations in environmental regulation and in economic disparity which may affect the impact of green initiatives on green performance and on financial performance. Design/methodology/approach – Data on the world top 500 publicly traded companies are collected from Compustat, a database of financial, statistical and market information on global companies, and from Newsweek, an information gatekeeper that enables consumers to access a list of environmentally friendly companies. The paper adopts linear regression to test the relationships between variables. Findings – The results show that green initiatives have a positive impact on green performance, which in turn has a positive impact on financial performance. However, the impact of green initiatives varies by country. The study revealed that companies in European countries and Canada lead in the green initiatives and green performance, followed by the USA and Japan. China and Hong Kong lag behind compared to other countries. Research limitations/implications – The small sample size in some of the countries used in this study may impact the validity of the results. Practical implications – This study suggests that companies that seek financial benefits of pursuing green initiatives should have a long-term orientation when implementing these initiatives and should consider the country where they operate. Originality/value – The current study provides a global understanding of the relationship between green initiatives, green performance, and financial performance, and contributes to the literature by highlighting variation among countries and by year.

Conclusion and implication

This study investigated the influence of green initiatives and green performance on financial performance for the top 500 publicly traded companies in the world. The study revealed that companies in European countries and Canada lead in the green initiatives and green performance, followed by the USA and Japan. China and Hong Kong lag behind compared to other countries.

The results show that green initiatives have a positive impact on green performance. However, green initiatives have a weak and negative impact on financial performance. In addition, it is found that green performance has a positive impact on financial performance. Therefore, it can be inferred that the impact of green initiatives on financial performance is not direct. Green initiatives will likely have a direct positive impact on green performance, which in turn has a positive impact on financial performance.

The results also show that the impact of green initiatives on green performance varies by country. The adoption of green initiatives which includes pay link, sustainability themed committee, and audit has the strongest impact on green performance for companies based in the USA and for FGCS countries. The impact of green initiatives on green performance is moderate for companies based in China and Japan and non-existent for companies based in the UK. Among all green initiatives measures, sustainability themed committee and audit were more likely to impact green performance than pay link.