The Effects of Mandatory and Voluntary Regulatory Pressures on Firms’ Environmental Strategies: A Review and Recommendations for Future Research
Top Cited Papers
- 1 January 2020
- journal article
- review article
- Published by Academy of Management in Academy of Management Annals
- Vol. 14 (1), 339-365
- https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2018.0014
Abstract
This paper presents an in-depth review of scholarship on how mandatory and voluntary regulatory pressures on firms affect their environmental strategies and performance. While mandatory regulation typically has a strong and positive influence on firms’ environmental performance, studies of the effects of voluntary pressures demonstrate that by themselves they are unlikely to bring about significant improvement in environmental outcomes. Accordingly, future research should focus on the complementary impacts of mandatory and voluntary programs on organizations’ environmental strategies and performance rather than analyzing their separate influence. Scholars should examine i) more than a single environmental pressure at a given time, ii) more than one response to the regulatory context, iii) the synergy between mandatory and voluntary pressures, iv) the impact of imperfect enforcement, and v) the political influence corporations exert on the mandatory and voluntary pressures that affect them. This essay argues that managers react to environmental regulations in different ways depending on how they understand the multiple pressures that they confront and their opportunities to influence the outcomes.Keywords
This publication has 115 references indexed in Scilit:
- Strategic rationale for responding to extra-jurisdictional regulation: Evidence from firm adoption of renewable power in the USStrategic Management Journal, 2013
- United Nations Global Compact: The Promise–Performance GapJournal of Business Ethics, 2013
- Institutional Complexity and Organizational ResponsesAcademy of Management Annals, 2011
- Corporate Governance and the Environment: What Type of Governance Creates Greener Companies?Journal of Management Studies, 2011
- Expression profiling of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded primary breast tumors using cancer-specific and whole genome gene panels on the DASL®platformBMC Medical Genomics, 2010
- Adopting Proactive Environmental Strategy: The Influence of Stakeholders and Firm SizeJournal of Management Studies, 2010
- Regulatory Uncertainty: A Reason to Postpone Investments? Not NecessarilyJournal of Management Studies, 2009
- Covenants with weak swords: ISO 14001 and facilities' environmental performanceJournal of Policy Analysis and Management, 2005
- The Dynamic Between Firms’ Environmental Strategies and Institutional Constraints in Emerging Economies: Evidence from China and Taiwan*Journal of Management Studies, 2005
- Seeing the Need for ISO 14001Journal of Management Studies, 2003