Abstract
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Keywords
Issam Laguir, Magalie Marais, Jamal El Baz and Rebecca Stekelorum
The banking industry plays a key role in society because of its role as a financial intermediary. Today’s banks are being asked to endorse environmental objectives, and recent…
Abstract
Purpose
The banking industry plays a key role in society because of its role as a financial intermediary. Today’s banks are being asked to endorse environmental objectives, and recent studies have shown that large banks with strong financial performance are more likely to engage in environmental actions. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between corporate financial performance (CFP) and corporate environmental performance (CEP).
Design/methodology/approach
The authors focused on the French banking sector, using the data from a sample consisting of 191 observations covering 68 banks from 2008 to 2011. The environmental scores from the Vigeo database were the proxy measures for the extent to which banks engage in environmental actions. A panel regression model was employed for this study.
Findings
The findings show that high CFP was associated with high CEP. The findings also reveal that CFP and CEP may strengthen each other, suggesting a complex bidirectional relationship.
Originality/value
While many studies have examined whether it pays to be green, thus focusing on the causal relationship from CEP to CFP, few have considered that the causal direction might be reversed, from CFP to CEP. Furthermore, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is the first to analyze the CFP-CEP relationship using French bank data.
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Franck Brulhart, Sandrine Gherra and Magalie Marais
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between proactive environmental strategies (PES) and economic performance from a resource-based view. The authors…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between proactive environmental strategies (PES) and economic performance from a resource-based view. The authors determine the nature of this relationship and the processes and conditions that are involved. The mediating role of natural competences is a major focus, particularly the effect of their simultaneous development on economic performance.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use structural equation modeling on a sample of 188 companies from the food-processing and household products industries in France.
Findings
The results confirm the positive impact of PES on economic performance. Unlike the natural competences individually, the simultaneous development of these competences mediates the relationship. The results also highlight the influence of conventional competences on economic performance and the impact of organizational and procedural competences on the level of simultaneously developed competences.
Practical implications
The study demonstrates the economic benefits of PES to practitioners. Moreover, it provides them the information on the key role of natural competences and how they can be developed to make PES profitable.
Originality/value
The findings support a “win-win” view of the PES-economic performance relationship, whereas prior studies showed contrasting evidence. The main contribution lies in the consideration of natural competences in this relationship and in their operationalization.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore CEO corporate social responsibility (CSR) rhetorical choices in response to stakeholder pressures. CEOs often search for legitimacy through…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore CEO corporate social responsibility (CSR) rhetorical choices in response to stakeholder pressures. CEOs often search for legitimacy through CSR rhetoric. It contributes to maintaining or developing pragmatic, moral and cognitive legitimacy in a post‐crisis world where CSR concerns are gaining in importance.
Design/methodology/approach
A content analysis of various CEO discourses is performed. Press articles are analyzed to identify the nature of stakeholder pressures. Covariance analyses are conducted to study how CEO CSR rhetorical strategies vary between communication channels dedicated to specific stakeholders. Regression analyses are conducted between stakeholder pressures and rhetorical strategies.
Findings
The paper identifies three types of CEO CSR rhetorical categories: values rhetoric to develop moral legitimacy, normative rhetoric to improve cognitive legitimacy, and instrumental rhetoric to enhance pragmatic legitimacy. Values CSR rhetoric is used most often with employees or societal stakeholders. It increases when stakeholders' satisfaction is already quite high regarding financial performance, strategy, and products and services. Normative CSR rhetoric is rarely used. It is only devoted to societal stakeholders and it increases with stakeholder satisfaction with the quality of management, leadership and governance. Instrumental CSR rhetoric is mainly used with boards of directors, financial investors and shareholders. Its importance increases with stakeholder satisfaction with CSR but decreases with stakeholder satisfaction with financial performance and corporate vision/strategy.
Originality/value
The paper provides key contributions for CEOs on how to communicate on CSR. The empirical design based on qualitative and quantitative analyses innovates in operationalizing CSR rhetorical categories and stakeholder pressures.