scholarly journals Evaluating Voluntary Environmental Programs with Spillover Effects

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 145-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rong Zhou ◽  
Xiang Bi ◽  
Kathleen Segerson
Keyword(s):  
Spillover Effects ◽  
Environmental Programs ◽  
Voluntary Environmental Programs

Why Do Firms Participate in Voluntary Environmental Programs? A Meta-Analysis of the Role of Institutions, Resources, and Program Stringency

2021 ◽  
pp. 108602662199006
Author(s):  
Peter Tashman ◽  
Svetlana Flankova ◽  
Marc van Essen ◽  
Valentina Marano
Keyword(s):  
Quality Management ◽  
Prior Experience ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Institutional Pressures ◽  
Environmental Programs ◽  
Voluntary Environmental Programs ◽  
Management Standards ◽  
Trade Offs ◽  
The Impact

We meta-analyze research on why firms join voluntary environmental programs (VEPs) to assess the impact of program stringency, or the extent to which they have rigorous, enforceable standards on these decisions. Stringency creates trade-offs for firms by affecting programs’ effectiveness, legitimacy, and adoption costs. Most research considers singular programs and lacks cross program variation needed to analyze program stringency’s impact. Our meta-analysis addresses this by sampling 127 studies and 23 VEPs. We begin by identifying common institutional and resource-based drivers of participation in the literature, and then analyze how program stringency moderates their impacts. Our results suggest that strictly governed VEPs encourage participation among highly visible and profitable firms, and discourage it when informal institutional pressures are higher, and firms have prior experience with other VEPs or quality management standards. We demonstrate that VEP stringency has nuanced effects on firm participation based on the institutional and resource-based factors facing them.

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