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Firm strategy and the Canadian Voluntary Climate Challenge and Registry (VCR)

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  • Keith Brouhle
  • Donna Ramirez Harrington

Abstract

The Canadian VCR is a climate change mitigation program that relies on firms' desire to signal environmental responsibility to external stakeholders through voluntary information disclosure. We analyze indicators of strategic behavior through three measures of engagement with the VCR program (annual participation behavior, quality of action plans and repeat participation), and test for differences in these measures among firms subjected to different regulatory climates that arise over time, across provinces and across economic sectors. Our findings suggest an increased perception of a regulatory threat in later years, as evidenced by an increase in participation rates, higher quality of action plans and higher rates of repeat participation. We also find higher levels of engagement with the VCR program in provinces with large petroleum (Alberta) and manufacturing (Ontario) industries and that have established provincial level greenhouse gas reporting mechanisms, and in certain sectors such as petroleum, electric utilities and to some extent services. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

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  • Keith Brouhle & Donna Ramirez Harrington, 2009. "Firm strategy and the Canadian Voluntary Climate Challenge and Registry (VCR)," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(6), pages 360-379, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:18:y:2009:i:6:p:360-379
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.604
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    2. Baran Doda & Caterina Gennaioli & Andy Gouldson & David Grover & Rory Sullivan, 2016. "Are Corporate Carbon Management Practices Reducing Corporate Carbon Emissions?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 23(5), pages 257-270, September.
    3. Dechezleprêtre, Antoine & Gennaioli, Caterina & Martin, Ralf & Muûls, Mirabelle & Stoerk, Thomas, 2022. "Searching for carbon leaks in multinational companies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    4. Elizabeth Stanny, 2013. "Voluntary Disclosures of Emissions by US Firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 145-158, March.
    5. Georg Weinhofer & Timo Busch, 2013. "Corporate Strategies for Managing Climate Risks," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(2), pages 121-144, February.
    6. Juliano Almeida Faria & José Célio Silveira Andrade & Sônia Maria Silva Gomes, 2018. "The determinants mostly disclosed by companies that are members of the Carbon Disclosure Project," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 23(7), pages 995-1018, October.
    7. Tiberio Daddi & Niccolò Maria Todaro & Maria Rosa De Giacomo & Marco Frey, 2018. "A Systematic Review of the Use of Organization and Management Theories in Climate Change Studies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 456-474, May.
    8. Jennifer DeBoer & Rajat Panwar & Jorge Rivera, 2017. "Toward A Place‐Based Understanding of Business Sustainability: The Role of Green Competitors and Green Locales in Firms' Voluntary Environmental Engagement," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(7), pages 940-955, November.
    9. Sanjay Patnaik, 2020. "Emissions permit allocation and strategic firm behavior: Evidence from the oil sector in the European Union emissions trading scheme," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 976-995, March.
    10. Konstantinos Evangelinos & Ioannis Nikolaou & Walter Leal Filho, 2015. "The Effects of Climate Change Policy on the Business Community: A Corporate Environmental Accounting Perspective," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(5), pages 257-270, September.
    11. David Christopher Sprengel & Timo Busch, 2011. "Stakeholder engagement and environmental strategy – the case of climate change," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(6), pages 351-364, September.
    12. Melloni, Gaia, 2020. "Climate change reporting: a commentary on key issues," Die Unternehmung - Swiss Journal of Business Research and Practice, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 74(3), pages 312-323.
    13. Zhanna A. Mingaleva & Yurii V. Starkov, 2020. "The System of Emission Taxation Analyzed: An Institutional Approach," Finansovyj žhurnal — Financial Journal, Financial Research Institute, Moscow 125375, Russia, issue 2, pages 25-38, April.
    14. Olivier Boiral & Jean‐François Henri & David Talbot, 2012. "Modeling the Impacts of Corporate Commitment on Climate Change," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(8), pages 495-516, December.
    15. Alina Averchenkova & Florence Crick & Adriana Kocornik-Mina & Hayley Leck & Swenja Surminski, 2015. "Multinational corporations and climate adaptation – Are we asking the right questions? A review of current knowledge and a new research perspective," GRI Working Papers 183, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.
    16. Nigel James Martin & John Lewis Rice, 2014. "Influencing Clean Energy Laws: an Analysis of Business Stakeholder Engagement," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(7), pages 447-460, November.

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