Environmentally Sustainable Development through Stakeholder Engagement in Developed and Emerging Countries

Abstract

This cross-country study investigates the antecedents and outcomes of corporate environmental responsibility (CER) practices in developed and emerging countries. Based on stakeholder and institutional theory, we conducted an empirical study among firms in Germany, USA, India and China. We found support for a significant positive relationship between regulatory, market and social stakeholder influences, CER practices and business outcomes in the total and individual country samples. Regarding country differences, our data reveal significant similarities and differences between developed and emerging countries. Market stakeholder influences are stronger in developed countries, whereas regulatory and social stakeholder influences do not differ significantly between the two country groups. The relationship between CER practices and positive business outcomes is stronger in emerging than in developed countries. Implications for institutional theory and organizations are outlined.

Analyzing Consumers’ Awareness towards CSR, Focusing on Environmental Management

“…Carroll, 1991, European Commission, 2001. Within this context studies support that CSR has its theoretical roots in the stakeholder theory (Campbell, 2007;O'Connor & Spangenberg, 2008;Asif et al, 2013;Dögl & Behnam, 2014;Lu & Abeysekera, 2014). New challenges for businesses in the reformed global marketplace have been created due to growing competition which is mainly based on efficiency, cost reduction and consumers' satisfaction (Asif et al, 2013;O'Connor & Spangenberg, 2008).…”

“…Environmental practices may include green technologies, recycling programs, carbon emissions reduction programs, waste management, auditing, green technologies, etc. (Mazurkiewicz, 2004;Montiel, 2008;Gunningham, 2009;Dögl & Behnam, 2014). Several empirical studies have been conducted to measure consumers' awareness toward a company's CSR actions and stressed the importance of communication strategies for consumer decions making process (Singh et al, 2008;Lee & Shin, 2010;Maignan, 2001;Mohr et al, 2001;Rahim et al, 2011;Gupta & Hodges, 2012).…”

“…According to the authors' knowledge, this current research differs from prior studies in this field, as it analyzes the profile of consumers that are aware of companies that adopt CER activities. We focus on firms' CER because the environment was found to be the most important concern for stakeholders in a company's CSR efforts (Kassinis & Vafeas, 2006;Welford et al, 2007), Companies seek to implement CER practices in order to meet the growing stakeholders' demand for environmental responsibility (Dögl & Behnam, 2014). Awareness of the company's activities is a major target of a company's communication strategy since stakeholders might use the information to assist their decision-making process (Bernam et al, 1999).…”

Implementing Environmental Management Systems (EMS) In Sarawak: Adoption Factors

“…Besides, the high adoption rate is also because of some German companies demanded their suppliers to have certified management systems. Based on an empirical study among organizations in Germany, USA, India and China (Dögl, 2015), regulatory, social stakeholder and market influences positively towards the organizations' corporate environmental responsibility practices. The study also pointed out that environmentally responsible behaviour which are increasing being by organizations' stakeholders are such as green technologies, products, communication as well as strategies.…”

Unification of Economic Systems in the Global Economy: Barriers and Preconditions

“…There is also research into the possibilities of developing countries' economic growth; reasons and perspectives of overcoming the gap between them; structure of their economic systems; level of their involvement in integration and globalizing processes in modern global economy; the relationship between state and business structures; methods for attracting investments; and approaches to diversifying an economy (Chen & Chen, 2015;Dowlah, 2015;Dögl & Behnam, 2015;Kuruppu & Willie, 2015;Regmi, 2015). Many developing countries possess huge natural and human resources, which creates conditions for their successful development (Sarmiento Espinel, Silva Arias & Van Gameren, 2015).…”