National culture's influence on environmental performance of countries: A study of direct and indirect effects

Abstract

The effect of national culture on country environmental performance has received attention during the past few years. However, previous studies considered a subset of cultural dimensions, focused on diverse environmental performance measures, provided contrasting results, and did not adequately investigated the mediating effects of socioeconomic variables. In this study, we investigate the impact of all cultural dimensions (power distance, individualism, masculinity, uncertainty avoidance, long-term orientation, indulgence) on three environmental performance measures at the country level: the environmental performance index and its two main overarching objectives. Both direct and indirect effects, through three socioeconomic variables (population growth, education, income), are tested using a sample of 62 countries. Results show that the effect of cultural dimensions may vary based on the specific cultural dimension and the type of environmental performance measure considered. Masculinity and indulgence directly impact on environmental performance. Power distance has no influence on environmental performance measures. The other dimensions affect environmental performance through the mediating effect of socioeconomic variables.

Which are the determinants of green purchase behaviour? A study of Italian consumers

“…This study has some limitations that should be acknowledged. Green purchase behaviour has been investigated among a sample of Italian consumers; this limits the generalizability of results, because cultural factors may influence environmental behaviours (R. M. Dangelico et al, 2020). Further, some variables that could influence the willingness to pay a premium price or the purchase frequency, such as those related to brand or store (Anselmsson et al, 2014; F. Testa et al, 2015), have not been included.…”

A Reexamination of How National Culture Influences Environmental Performance: Based on Neo-Configurational Perspective

“…Speci cally, the most consistent and positive relationships with environmental performance were found for low power distance and high individualism (Peng & Lin, 2009; Vachon, 2010; Lahuerta-Otero & González-Bravo, 2018; Kumar et al, 2019). The effect of uncertainty avoidance is ambiguous, including positive (Peng & Lin, 2009; Onel & Mukherjee, 2014), negative (Vachon, 2010), and non-signi cant (Lahuerta-Otero & González-Bravo, 2018; Dangelico et al, 2020). Moreover, the in uence of masculinity on environmental performance is mixed, with most of them suggesting no relationships whether it is in the country sample or the company sample (Vachon, 2010).…”

“…Countries having comparatively large power distance are characterized by a well-de ned hierarchy, where subordinates are expected to take orders from their superiors without questioning and have strong respect to the authority (Williams & Zinkin, 2008). Dangelico et al (2020) stress that the key pillars of societies of the high level of power distance is centralization of power, hierarchy, and resistance to the change of power distribution. In this kind of society, the subordinates in high authoritarian would rather receive orders from their leaders than participate in the decision-making process.…”

“…For example, people within collectivistic or uncertainty avoidance contexts would present more ethically oriented environmental behaviors (Petruzzella et al, 2017). So, many studies have provided valuable research conclusions about the relationship between national culture and environmental performance, including Husted (2005), Park et al (2007), Peng and Lin (2009), Vachon (2010), Onel and Mukherjee (2014), Lahuerta-Otera and González-Bravo (2018), Kumar et al (2019), and Dangelico et al (2020). The relevant conclusions are shown in Table 1.…”

How environmental reputation and ethical behavior impact the relationship between environmental regulatory enforcement and environmental performance

“…Third, the use of self-reported and perceptual measures of environmental performance has the potential to introduce respondent bias to the sample. While the environmental performance measure used in the current study is widely adopted in management research (Dangelico et al, 2020;Latan et al, 2018;Wijethilake, 2017), we encourage additional research that make use of secondary sources of financial information.…”