{"title":"The Impact of Population Size on Climate Performance Measurement Practices","authors":"Leah Feor, Amelia Clarke, Jeffrey Wilson","doi":"10.1002/csr.70074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.70074","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Canadian municipalities influence approximately 50% of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions and play a critical role in decarbonization. Performance measurement serves as an essential process for a municipality to analyze progress toward achieving strategic objectives, including net-zero. This paper examined the performance measurement practices of 31 Canadian municipalities using a qualitative descriptive approach and a contingency theory lens. Data were collected through interviews and supplementary documents. Data were analyzed using manual deductive and inductive coding in NVivo 14, followed by a comparative analysis to explore the influence of population size on the performance measurement process. Results show that municipalities with large population sizes have a greater number of themes prioritized for measurement, a larger number of indicator selection criteria, and report more frequently. Municipal population size does not appear to influence the involvement of stakeholders in indicator selection and data analysis strategies.</p>","PeriodicalId":48334,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management","volume":"32 5","pages":"7006-7027"},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/csr.70074","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144990715","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sustainability Standards and Decertification: A Bayesian Analysis of SA8000","authors":"Teresa Turzo, Cecilia Chirieleison, Alessandro Montrone, Luca Scrucca","doi":"10.1002/csr.70069","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.70069","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Social Accountability 8000 (SA8000) is widely recognized as the leading certification-based standard for social sustainability. The common assumption is that the number of certified companies increases steadily over time. However, this prevailing narrative lacks empirical support owing to the absence of comprehensive studies on SA8000 decertification. Using a beta-binomial model estimated within a Bayesian approach to inference, we analyze a 25-year dataset of SA8000-certified companies. Our findings indicate that growth in certifications may not reflect a stable, long-term commitment to the standard. Instead, a significant proportion of companies discontinue certification, often after the initial three-year period. This study reveals that decertification rates are higher among companies with fewer certification renewals and vary considerably by industry. These insights contribute to a refined understanding of the certification and decertification patterns and highlight the need to further explore the long-term maintenance of social accountability standards across different industries and contexts.</p>","PeriodicalId":48334,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management","volume":"32 5","pages":"6951-6965"},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/csr.70069","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144990673","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Impact of Organizational Support and Individual Green Values on Pro-Environmental Behavior in the Workplace","authors":"Paula Marie Schlapp, Céline Rojon, Stefan Schwarz","doi":"10.1002/csr.70060","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.70060","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Employees who voluntarily behave pro-environmentally are highly valuable for companies seeking to reduce their environmental footprint. This study investigates whether employees are more inclined to show organizational citizenship behavior directed toward the environment (OCB-E) when either perceiving organizational support toward the environment (POS-E) (hypothesis 1) or when scoring high on individual green values (IGV) (hypothesis 2). Furthermore, and this is the main focus of the paper, it is examined whether the relationship between POS-E and OCB-E is moderated by employees' individual green values (IGV) (hypothesis 3). Findings from a quantitative online survey (<i>N</i> = 380) measuring OCB-E, POS-E, and IGV confirmed that POS-E and IGV significantly, positively influence OCB-E, supporting the hypothesized relationships. Conversely, the hypothesized moderation effect could not be supported by the data. These insights contribute to the extant discourse on pro-environmental behavior within organizations by emphasizing the importance of organizational support in promoting OCB-E. We further offer practical implications for managers and organizations, such as implementing green recruitment and selection processes and offering training courses or development programs for fostering OCB-E for both regular employees as well as those with leadership responsibilities.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":48334,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management","volume":"32 5","pages":"6897-6911"},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144990671","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Doing Good While Doing Well? ESG Management as an Obstacle to Impact-Oriented Sustainable Finance in Large Spanish Banks","authors":"Clara García, Fabio Casalegno","doi":"10.1002/csr.70068","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.70068","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Addressing environmental and social sustainability challenges demands significant private financing. In response, financial institutions globally—including major Spanish banks—have increasingly adopted sustainable finance (SF). However, persistent greenwashing concerns question whether these practices meaningfully advance sustainability objectives. This thematic analysis identifies institutional obstacles preventing Spanish banks from translating SF commitments into tangible outcomes. It investigates both implementation practices and the influence of inter-organizational relationships. The findings reveal successful SF institutionalization at the organizational level, yet constrained within ESG management frameworks. This approach emphasizes financial materiality while neglecting impact materiality, creating barriers to genuine impact-oriented SF that requires double-materiality integration. Ultimately, this ESG-focused institutionalization enables financial institutions to “do well” (financially) while presuming they “do good”—despite inadequate impact accountability. Consequently, current SF commitments and practices may fail to drive substantial sustainability progress.</p>","PeriodicalId":48334,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management","volume":"32 5","pages":"6937-6950"},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/csr.70068","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144990672","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Responsible Sourcing in the Agri-Food Companies: Advancing Sustainability Through Inter-Organizational Collaboration","authors":"Samuel Eric Kamgang, Olivier Boiral","doi":"10.1002/csr.70072","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.70072","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study examines how agri-food companies integrate social and environmental issues into their sourcing practices through inter-organizational collaboration. Applying the relational view theory, it maps best practices and key relational mechanisms. A content analysis of 130 sustainability reports highlights that these companies prioritize knowledge-sharing routines and effective governance mechanisms to ensure compliance, risk management, and transparency. However, their limited use of complementary resources and relation-specific assets hinders long-term sustainability synergies. The study showcases innovative collaboration initiatives that enhance responsible sourcing practices, particularly in addressing working conditions, biodiversity conservation, and eco-responsible products. Findings emphasize the need to move beyond transactional relationships and toward strategic partnerships that create shared value and sustainable competitive advantages. The article discusses its contributions, practical implications, and future research directions.</p>","PeriodicalId":48334,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management","volume":"32 5","pages":"6984-7005"},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/csr.70072","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144990675","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Sustainable Finance in Space: How Bank Agglomeration Shapes Corporate ESG Performance","authors":"Weijie Tan, Wanting Sun, Xihui Haviour Chen","doi":"10.1002/csr.70071","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.70071","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>While prior research has examined the role of the banking sector in corporate ESG transformation, the internal financial mechanisms and external driving forces involved remain underexplored. Drawing on multi-source big data, this study constructs an ESG financial cooperation index for Chinese listed companies and identifies ESG-related news from over 10 million media texts. It investigates the relationship between bank agglomeration and corporate ESG performance. The findings suggest that bank agglomeration enhances corporate ESG outcomes primarily by fostering ESG financial cooperation, with media attention to ESG issues further amplifying this effect. Heterogeneity analysis reveals that the impact is more pronounced among private firms, non-recessionary enterprises, and downstream firms in the supply chain. Additionally, bank entry and exit contribute to reshaping the spatial distribution of credit resources, with bank entry significantly encouraging corporate ESG practices. State-owned bank agglomeration predominantly improves environmental performance, joint-stock banks focus on social responsibility and governance, and foreign banks drive comprehensive ESG development. This paper proposes a novel pathway for sustainable financial cooperation to empower corporate ESG transformation and expands the theoretical perspective by highlighting the role of media ESG attention, offering valuable insights for the transition of emerging economies.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":48334,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management","volume":"32 5","pages":"6966-6983"},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144990674","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"How Does Corporate Social Responsibility Affect Corporate Climate Change Risks? The Moderating Role of CEOs Green Experience","authors":"Yanzhao Liu, Chee-Wooi Hooy, Yunbiao Xiong","doi":"10.1002/csr.70052","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.70052","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Despite a growing body of research on corporate social responsibility (CSR) as the subject, little is known about how CSR can affect firms' climate change risks. This paper investigates whether CSR helps companies mitigate corporate climate change risks (CCR) using a large sample of China firm-year observations from 2010 to 2022. Data were analyzed using the OLS baseline regression. Additionally, this study examines the influence of CEOs green experience in moderating the association between CSR and CCR. These findings reveal that CSR has a direct positive impact on mitigating CCR, suggesting that companies could allocate more resources to CSR activities to address these risks effectively. Furthermore, this study provides evidence that CEOs green experience positively moderates the impact of CSR on CCR. This suggests that firms interested in environmental responsibility may be more inclined to hire CEOs with green experience. The baseline results are robust to a set of econometric validation tests, such as PSM and GMM tests. The study offers theoretical and practical insights to assist regulators and corporations in mitigating CCR to promote sustainable development.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":48334,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management","volume":"32 5","pages":"6864-6878"},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144990713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Lock-In Effect on ESG and Business Performance Relationship: A Critical Examination and Meta-Analysis","authors":"Jéssica Alessandra Mendonça, Fabíola Renata Alves Roberto, Dalton Alexandre Kai, Guilherme Brittes Benitez","doi":"10.1002/csr.70062","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.70062","url":null,"abstract":"<p>This study investigates whether the issues previously addressed in the literature regarding business performance persist when applying ESG practices. A literature review identified 252 effects, followed by a meta-analysis with subgroup analysis. The lock-in theory and corporate reputation were employed to understand this relationship. The lock-in view allows a deeper assessment of the authors' decisions on measuring ESG practices. On the other hand, corporate reputation focuses on the importance of positive stakeholder perception when adopting ESG practices. The analysis revealed a statistically significant relationship between ESG practices and business performance, demonstrating a weak effect size. Subgroup analysis showed that social and governance practices have positive effects, highlighting that many studies still use corporate social responsibility (CSR) as a proxy for ESG. We confirm this assumption when we find that financial performance did not show significance, which is the same problem that past literature discussed regarding the trade-off between CSR and financial performance. In addition, we confirm previous assumptions that despite having no significant effect on financial performance, environmental, ESG risk, and innovation performance are improved. Other outcomes show that moderators such as the country's economy and company size influenced the results. These findings proved that academics currently face a lock-in effect on ESG empirical research because they measure CSR and ESG as synonyms in their studies. We showed that most of the effects in this study are like past CSR literature, making authors still find no positive association in financial performance and weak relationships between other performance indicators and ESG practices in their empirical research.</p>","PeriodicalId":48334,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management","volume":"32 5","pages":"6912-6936"},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/csr.70062","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144990712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Beyond Values: Business Orientation as a Driver of Small Business Social Responsibility","authors":"Barbara Tomasella, Elaine Conway","doi":"10.1002/csr.70054","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.70054","url":null,"abstract":"<p>Small businesses differ from larger corporations in their approach to corporate social responsibility (CSR) due to their unique reliance on the personal values of owner/managers. This study employs an abductive research methodology to explore the depth and relative influence of these personal values, in contrast to business motivations, on their social responsibility, through 38 semi-structured interviews with owner-managers of small businesses. Our key finding lies in demonstrating that transcending the purely economic-focused responsibilities toward broader social change requires self-transcendent values embedded in business orientation; otherwise, such values informing small business social responsibility (SBSR) might be traded off against other business motivations. This work expands SBSR theory, highlighting policy strategies and practical implications for small businesses, which can inform proactive SBSR that goes beyond compliance and economic responsibility.</p>","PeriodicalId":48334,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management","volume":"32 5","pages":"6879-6896"},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/csr.70054","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144990714","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Stock Market Liberalization and Corporate Greenwashing: Empirical Evidence From the Shanghai- (Shenzhen-) Hong Kong Connect","authors":"Hui Huang, Zongyi Zhang, Cheng Xiang","doi":"10.1002/csr.70066","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.70066","url":null,"abstract":"<div>\u0000 \u0000 <p>Utilizing the Shanghai- (Shenzhen-) Hong Kong Connect (hereafter, the Connects) as exogenous shocks to the liberalization of China's A-share stock market, we explore how stock market liberalization shapes local firms' greenwashing behaviors. The staggered difference-in-differences (DID) regressions reveal that Chinese public firms' greenwashing levels significantly decrease after they are accessible to foreign investors via the Connects. This finding remains valid in a broad battery of robustness tests, including those addressing concerns about the heterogeneous treatment effects in regular staggered DID estimations. Mechanism tests suggest that the Connects curb greenwashing by improving eligible firms' information transparency, but not by alleviating their financing constraints nor improving green preferences. Moreover, the impact of the Connects is greater for firms with higher ownership by foreign investors, more intensive external monitoring, or larger greenwashing incentives. These results indicate that stock market liberalization, exemplified by the Connects in our study, exerts external governance influences on local firms, thereby reducing their greenwashing propensity.</p>\u0000 </div>","PeriodicalId":48334,"journal":{"name":"Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management","volume":"32 5","pages":"6843-6863"},"PeriodicalIF":9.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144990731","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"管理学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}