Day‐to‐day organizational life and environmental protection: Evidence from Chinese chemical firms

Abstract

Focusing on the issue of environmental protection, we conducted an empirical study testing the relationship between day‐to‐day organizational life and organizational behavior in a culture influenced by Confucianism. We first reviewed the major characteristics of organizational life in this cultural context, based on which we proposed a model focusing on the relationship between organizational life and firms' performance in environmental protection. We then conducted an empirical study using data from Chinese firms. Our findings suggested that in a developing society such as China, the more a firm's organizational life stresses the value of “being a noble man,” the value of zhongyong, the family–state concept, and the higher the firm's dependency on resources from the government, the greater the likelihood that the firm will perform well in environmental protection. However, surprisingly, yin/yang balance in organizational life did not seem to improve firms' environmental performance. We conclude this paper with a discussion of the implications of our findings and make suggestions for future research.