Does competitive pressure drive effective corporate environmental actions?
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Cenci, Simone
Asgharian, Hossein
Liu, Lu
Rei, Marek
Zollo, Maurizio
Type
Journal Article
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.
Date Issued
2025-06-15
Date Acceptance
2025-04-23
Citation
Journal of Cleaner Production, 2025, 511
ISSN
0959-6526
Publisher
Elsevier
Journal / Book Title
Journal of Cleaner Production
Volume
511
Copyright Statement
© 2025 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
License URL
Identifier
10.7910/DVN/IV
Publication Status
Published
Article Number
145585
Date Publish Online
2025-05-06