Sustainable governance levers and environmental innovation: Evidence from French SBF 120 companies

Abstract

By developing a theoretical framework combining the shareholder, stakeholder, and cognitive approaches to governance, our article examines the influence of sustainable governance levers on environmental innovation. This study focuses on French companies listed on the SBF 120 index from 2002 to 2021 in an institutional context deemed conducive to corporate social responsibility (CSR), particularly in the environmental field. Thanks to a methodology adapted to the longitudinal nature of the Refinitiv Eikon database, we found that CSR governance mechanisms (i.e. CSR committee and CSR incentive mechanism) foster environmental and sustainable innovation, whereas the shareholder governance mechanism examined (i.e. financial incentive mechanism) has an adverse effect. Our findings will help regulators to encourage and recommend CSR governance systems. They provide results that could guide the setting of corporate governance standards in a context where governance codes are currently integrating responsibility concerns, particularly in France.