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Boards and Sustainability: the Contingent Influence of Director Interlocks on Corporate Environmental Performance

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  • Natalia Ortiz‐de‐Mandojana
  • Juan Alberto Aragon‐Correa

Abstract

This paper highlights the importance of a firm's board with respect to sustainability issues by analysing the relationship between director interlocks, i.e. directors who simultaneously belong to the boards of directors of several companies, and a firm's environmental performance. The previous literature has focused on the influence of firm‐level resources on corporate environmental performance. This study utilizes insights from a resource‐based view and research on social capital to demonstrate that the environmental performance of a firm is also influenced by the difficult‐to‐imitate capabilities that are embedded in the network relationships of its directors. Our results support a contingency perspective of the social capital theory that finds that director interlocks are positively connected with the environmental performance of a firm in two specific situations: (1) when the firm is linked to a larger parent company and (2) in cases of low and high levels of interlock diversity. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

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  • Natalia Ortiz‐de‐Mandojana & Juan Alberto Aragon‐Correa, 2015. "Boards and Sustainability: the Contingent Influence of Director Interlocks on Corporate Environmental Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(6), pages 499-517, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:24:y:2015:i:6:p:499-517
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.1833
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    7. Bolourian, Soudabeh & Alinaghian, Leila & Angus, Andrew, 2023. "Exploring the role of board-level corporate social responsibility committees in corporate social responsibility performance: A configurational approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
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    9. Isabel-María García-Sánchez & Nicola Raimo & Víctor Amor-Esteban & Filippo Vitolla, 2023. "Board committees and non-financial information assurance services," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(1), pages 1-42, March.
    10. Hailiang Zou & Xuemei Xie & Guoyou Qi & Mengyu Yang, 2019. "The heterogeneous relationship between board social ties and corporate environmental responsibility in an emerging economy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 40-52, January.
    11. Wenhao Qi & Zhixiong Huang & Hasan Dinçer & Renata Korsakienė & Serhat Yüksel, 2020. "Corporate Governance-Based Strategic Approach to Sustainability in Energy Industry of Emerging Economies with a Novel Interval-Valued Intuitionistic Fuzzy Hybrid Decision Making Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-19, April.
    12. James J. Cordeiro & Giorgia Profumo & Ilaria Tutore, 2020. "Board gender diversity and corporate environmental performance: The moderating role of family and dual‐class majority ownership structures," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1127-1144, March.
    13. Carolina Villamil & Sophie Hallstedt, 2021. "Sustainabilty integration in product portfolio for sustainable development: Findings from the industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 388-403, January.
    14. Jing Lu & Dongning Yu & Fereshteh Mahmoudian & Jamal A. Nazari & Irene M. Herremans, 2021. "Board interlocks and greenhouse gas emissions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 92-108, January.
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    17. Kim Beasy & Fred Gale, 2020. "Disrupting the Status-Quo of Organisational Board Composition to Improve Sustainability Outcomes: Reviewing the Evidence," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-18, February.
    18. Karen Maas & Sanne Rosendaal, 2016. "Sustainability Targets in Executive Remuneration: Targets, Time Frame, Country and Sector Specification," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 25(6), pages 390-401, September.

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