Arguments can be made on both sides of the question of whether a stringent global corporate environmental standard represents a competitive asset or liability for multinational enterprises (MNEs) investing in emerging and developing markets. Analyzing the global environmental standards of a sample of U.S.-based MNEs in relation to their stock market performance, we find that firms adopting a single stringent global environmental standard have much higher market values, as measured by Tobin’s q, than firms defaulting to less stringent, or poorly enforced host country standards. Thus, developing countries that use lax environmental regulations to attract foreign direct investment may end up attracting poorer quality, and perhaps less competitive, firms. Our results also suggest that externalities are incorporated to a significant extent in firm valuation. We discuss plausible reasons for this observation.

and holistic perspectives on corporate sustainability*

Ratings of corporations ’ environmental activities and capabilities influence billions of dollars of “socially responsible ” investments as well as some consumers, activists, and potential employees. In one of the first studies to assess these ratings, we examine how well the most widely used ratings— those of Kinder, Lydenberg, Domini Research & Analytics (KLD)—provide transparency about past and likely future environmental performance. We find KLD “concern ” ratings to be fairly good summaries of past environmental performance. In addition, firms with more KLD concerns have slightly, but statistically significantly, more pollution and regulatory compliance violations in later years. KLD environmental strengths, in contrast, do not accurately predict pollution levels or compliance violations. Moreover, we find evidence that KLD’s ratings are not optimally using publicly available data. We discuss the implications of our findings for advocates and skeptics of corporate social

We know from earlier studies that corporate environmental management is a young discipline, not yet integrated in general management and organization studies, but that researchers take an increasing part in the ongoing scientific conversation. However, the underlying knowledge interests characterizing the field of corporate environmental management is yet empirically unsubstantiated. One way to find out what elements make up the field is to analyse the contents of the most influential writings in the field. The present article identifies the 10 most cited works in Business Strategy and the Environment in 1992–2000 and explores the content of these texts. We conceptualise a typology for analysing corporate environmental management theory and formulate a characterization of the dominating knowledge interests. Our findings show that the theoretical fundament of corporate environmental management lacks a hermeneutic knowledge interest. Copyright © 2001

julkisesti tarkastettavaksi yliopiston vanhassa juhlasalissa (S212)

Research on environmental uncertainty typically distinguishes between different sources of uncertainty according to the different environments that a company interacts with. The regulatory environment and associated uncertainties become especially important when investigating the subject of pollution reduction. Many researchers have started to investigate the effects of environmental regulation on innovation, however, only little is known about the role of regulatory uncertainty in this context. We provide a taxonomy of regulatory uncertainties by building on the Miles and Snow scale of environmental uncertainty. We test this taxonomy by applying it to the Clean Development Mechanism, representing a flexible mechanism for the implementation of the Kyoto-Protocol. Our application follows a combined approach of literature review and interviews. Our results show that the investigated flexible instrument creates uncertainties in all categories of our taxonomy and suggest further research for deeper understanding the effects of different regulatory uncertainties on companies ' business decisions. 1 T. Trautmann, V.H. Hoffmann, M. Schneider Accepted for IFSAM VIII th World Congress 2006

articles Abstract. This paper provides a critical exploration of the journey metaphor promoted in much business discourse on sustainability—in corporate reports and advertisements, and in commentaries by business and professional associations. The portrayal of ‘sustainability as a journey’ evokes images of organizational adaptation, learning, progress, and a movement away from business-as-usual practices. The journey metaphor, however, masks the issue of towards what it is that businesses are actually, or even supposedly, moving. It is argued that in constructing ‘sustainability as a journey’, business commentators and other purveyors of corporate rhetoric can avoid becoming embroiled in debates about future desirable and sustainable states of affairs—states of affairs, perhaps, which would question the very raison d’être for some organizations and their outputs. ‘Sustainability as a journey ’ invokes a subtle and powerful use of language that appears to seriously engage with elements

The present paper focuses on the perceived quality of information exchange between government and business (G2B) in the field of environmental reporting in the Dutch agri-food industry. It seems most important for environmental performance enhancement (a concept that includes the quality of information given to stakeholders in our view) that companies are entangled in a network of intermediary institutions (branch organizations, covenants, existence of chain leaders etc.). It seems that that these mediating institutions are very instrumental in `translating' the governmental `message' to the companies. The companies choose the (related to the development of internal care) improvement of electronic reporting as the most promising innovation for the G2B communication. This shows that the companies still have a long way to go towards chain oriented care systems.

Abstract — This is a conceptual paper on the application of open innovation in three case examples of Apple, Nintendo, and Nokia. Utilizing key concepts from research into managerial and organizational cognition, we describe how each company overcame barriers to utilizing open innovation strategy in R&D and commercialization projects. We identify three levels of barriers: cognitive, behavioral, and institutional, and describe the companies balanced between internal and external resources to launch products that were instrumental in companies reinventing themselves in mature markets. Keywords—managerial cognition, open innovation. I.

A recent survey by U.S. Green Building Council shows that many of its members believe sustainable building design will become a more common practice once the human benefits are identified, primarily the productivity gains believed to be associated with the provision of high quality interior environments (USGBC, 1999). However, there is little understanding of how such benefits might accrue. That is, what are the key green building features and attributes? How do these physical elements affect the physiological, psychological, cognitive, and social functioning of building occupants? Just as important from a business perspective: can green buildings affect high-level organizational outcomes, such as profitability, customer satisfaction, and innovation? If so, what are the linkages? A full understanding of the human and organizational benefits of green buildings demands a broader perspective that links building design, organizational performance, and human factors research. Recent research on the biophysical foundations of organizations also suggests that a better understanding of business-society-nature links could provide beneficial insights about green buildings and business strategy (Gladwin et