A Better Place to Think About Business

Ceremonial Environmental Strategies: A Meta-Analysis of Environmental Strategy and

Implementation at Large Firms

Dr. Frances Bowen

Greening of Industry Network Conference,

Cardiff, July 2006

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Firm Size and Corporate Environmental Strategy

Firm SizeCorporate

Environmental Strategy

OrganisationalVisibility

Resource Base

Economies of Scale

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Environmental Strategy and Implementation at Large Firms

Firm SizeCorporate

Environmental Strategy

Environmental Strategy

Implementation

… at the corporate level

… at the operational level

+ve

??

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Ceremonial Adoption

From institutional theory (Meyer & Rowan, 1983) Firms become isomorphic with the myths of their

institutional environment Firms aim to increase legitimacy, but without internal

changes to co-ordination and control mechanisms

… Do we see a difference between ceremonial adoption (stated policies at the corporate level) and actual changes in environmental co-ordination and control (implementation at the operating level) in large firms?

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Hypotheses H1: There is an overall positive relationship between

organization size and corporate environmental responsiveness

H2: The positive relationship between firm size and corporate environmental strategy is moderated by level of analysis

H3: The positive relationship between firm size and corporate environmental strategy is moderated by the environmental strategy measure

H4: The moderating effects are stronger in the early stages of institutionalisation than in the later stages

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Meta-analysis : “The analysis of analyses”

Use of statistical techniques to cumulate results across studies

38 studies with at least some useful data (1995-2000) Criteria for inclusion:

any empirical paper which reports on the relationship between firm size and any aspect of corporate environmental strategy

Study sources Focus on the “early” institutionalisation stage (H4)

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1995-2000 “Early” Stage Results

Studiesr n K variance

in r across studies

of which, error

variance

variance in r in pop’n

H1: All 0.05 17243 21 0.0094 0.0012 0.0082

Split by level of analysis

H2: Corporate 0.13 7028 13 0.0124 0.0018 0.0106

H2: Operational 0.00 10215 8 0.0006 0.0007 0

Split by measure

H3: Strategy 0.28 5191 6 0.0066 0.0010 0.0056

H3: Implementation -0.01 5511 9 0.0042 0.0016 0.0025

r = mean Pearson correlation coefficient across studiesn = total sample sizeK = number of studies

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… And For the Visual Learners…

All Studiesr = 0.05**n = 17,243

Organisation Levelr = 0.13**n = 7,028

Sub-unit Levelr = 0.00

n = 10,215

Strategy r = 0.28**

n = 5,191

Implementationr = -0.01n = 5,511

** : p < 0.001

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Initial Findings and Future Directions

Size does matter (H1) … sometimes (H2, H3) Ceremonial environmental strategy at large firms Ceremonial adoption important in “Early” stage

Follow up with 2001-2006 time period (H4)

Implications for managers and policy-makers

Finally: A plea for help… I am still compiling the list of recent studies…