International audienceThis paper examines the relationship between turnover among chief executive officers (CEOs) and corporate sustainability performance (CSP) by identifying the influence of two major types of succession to the top job (internal or external promotion) and the reasons for change. Our model also integrates the firm’s past prioritization of CSP and the impact of a company’s participation in the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). Upper echelons theory and agency theory frameworks are adopted to understand CSP. Using an analysis of panel data for 88 public companies across 13 years in France, we find that a change of chief executive has a positive and significant effect on CSP five years after the change. This positive effect is stronger when the new CEO is recruited from outside the firm. The impact on CSP is invariably positive and significant, except for voluntary departures. The arrival of a new CEO affects CSP less when the firm has already achieved a high standard of CSP and participates in the GRI. These results are obtained after controlling CSP determinants already validated in the literature (financial performance, size, profitability, etc.).The findings show that expectations of CEOs are not solely economic and financial but also concern CSP. In terms of governance, they should prompt shareholders looking to strengthen CSP to choose new CEOs from outside the firm and to encourage the firm to participate in the GRI
International audienceTo encourage sustainable consumer practices, public policy makers introduce new ecological measures, including mandatory programmes that require companies to provide environmental information about their products, even if the information is not flattering. Few academic studies consider the potential impacts of such mandatory eco-labels on consumer behaviour; the purpose of this paper is to seek to identify conditions in which a generalized eco-label in stores might modify consumers’ purchase choice
This research project investigates consumers’ willingness to adopt online pro-environmental behaviors. First, we conducted an exploratory qualitative study that revealed respondents’ low awareness of the environmental impact of Internet usage and reluctance to change their online behaviors. Consumers tend to decline all responsibility and expect companies and public authorities to take the necessary measures. Moreover, they are led by contradictory motives: not harming the environment on the one hand and continuing to use the Internet the way they currently do on the other. Based on these findings, two quantitative studies were conducted to investigate the determinants of consumers’ self-attribution of responsibility to reduce the digital footprint of their online activity (e.g., using an eco-friendly search engine). Our conceptual model emphasizes the mechanisms of cognitive dissonance and highlights the crucial role of skepticism toward pro-environmental solutions. Implications for IT companies and public policy makers are discussed.
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