IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v11y2019i4p1161-d208235.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Do Corporate Carbon Policies Enhance Legitimacy? A Social Media Perspective

Author

Listed:
  • Federico Galán-Valdivieso

    (Mediterranean Research Center of Economy and Sustainable Development (CIMEDES), Department of Economics and Business, University of Almería, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120 Almería, Spain)

  • Laura Saraite-Sariene

    (Mediterranean Research Center of Economy and Sustainable Development (CIMEDES), Department of Economics and Business, University of Almería, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120 Almería, Spain)

  • Juana Alonso-Cañadas

    (Mediterranean Research Center of Economy and Sustainable Development (CIMEDES), Department of Economics and Business, University of Almería, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120 Almería, Spain)

  • María del Carmen Caba-Pérez

    (Mediterranean Research Center of Economy and Sustainable Development (CIMEDES), Department of Economics and Business, University of Almería, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, La Cañada de San Urbano, 04120 Almería, Spain)

Abstract

Stakeholders are increasingly concerned about climate change and companies’ commitment to anticipate future carbon-related risks, and grant or withdraw support depending on their perceptions of firms’ carbon performance. The aim of this research is to analyse which carbon-related factors influence stakeholders with regards to the legitimacy-granting process. The sample in this study includes 146 firms from North America and Europe committed to carbon mitigation, whose legitimacy is measured via social media interactions. Findings show that setting a corporate carbon policy and disclosing an internal price of carbon are positively linked to legitimacy, while other factors are negatively or not related to legitimacy. This study makes theoretical contributions, proposing a metric based on social media stakeholder engagement to measure corporate legitimacy, as well as practical implications, revealing which carbon information shapes stakeholders’ perception of firms’ climate performance, and opening new possibilities for future research.

Suggested Citation

  • Federico Galán-Valdivieso & Laura Saraite-Sariene & Juana Alonso-Cañadas & María del Carmen Caba-Pérez, 2019. "Do Corporate Carbon Policies Enhance Legitimacy? A Social Media Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-23, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:4:p:1161-:d:208235
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/4/1161/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/4/1161/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jan Bebbington & Carlos Larrinaga-Gonzalez, 2008. "Carbon Trading: Accounting and Reporting Issues," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 17(4), pages 697-717.
    2. Lee, Yoon-Joo & Yoon, Hye Jin & O'Donnell, Nicole H., 2018. "The effects of information cues on perceived legitimacy of companies that promote corporate social responsibility initiatives on social networking sites," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 83(C), pages 202-214.
    3. Celeste M. Black, 2013. "Accounting for Carbon Emission Allowances in the European Union: In Search of Consistency," Accounting in Europe, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 10(2), pages 223-239, November.
    4. Alfred Bimha & Godwell Nhamo, 2017. "Sustainable Development, Share Price and Carbon Disclosure Interactions: Evidence From South Africa's JSE 100 Companies," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 25(5), pages 400-413, September.
    5. Samuel Tang & David Demeritt, 2018. "Climate Change and Mandatory Carbon Reporting: Impacts on Business Process and Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 437-455, May.
    6. Jordi Surroca & Josep A. Tribó, 2008. "Managerial Entrenchment and Corporate Social Performance," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(5‐6), pages 748-789, June.
    7. Luo, Le & Tang, Qingliang, 2014. "Does voluntary carbon disclosure reflect underlying carbon performance?," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 10(3), pages 191-205.
    8. Federico Galán-Valdivieso & Elena Villar-Rubio & María-Dolores Huete-Morales, 2018. "The erratic behaviour of the EU ETS on the path towards consolidation and price stability," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 18(5), pages 689-706, October.
    9. 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.
    10. Florence Depoers & Thomas Jeanjean & Tiphaine Jérôme, 2016. "Voluntary Disclosure of Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Contrasting the Carbon Disclosure Project and Corporate Reports," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 134(3), pages 445-461, March.
    11. Andrea Liesen & Andreas G. Hoepner & Dennis M. Patten & Frank Figge, 2015. "Does stakeholder pressure influence corporate GHG emissions reporting? Empirical evidence from Europe," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 28(7), pages 1047-1074, September.
    12. Blanco, Christian & Caro, Felipe & Corbett, Charles J., 2017. "An inside perspective on carbon disclosure," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 60(5), pages 635-646.
    13. Thomas Lyon & A. Montgomery, 2013. "Tweetjacked: The Impact of Social Media on Corporate Greenwash," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 118(4), pages 747-757, December.
    14. David L. Deephouse & Suzanne M. Carter, 2005. "An Examination of Differences Between Organizational Legitimacy and Organizational Reputation," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 42(2), pages 329-360, March.
    15. Diamond, Douglas W & Verrecchia, Robert E, 1991. "Disclosure, Liquidity, and the Cost of Capital," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 46(4), pages 1325-1359, September.
    16. 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.
    17. Soo-Hyun Lee & Su-Yol Lee, 2018. "An Analysis of the Effects of Climate Change Policy, Stakeholder Pressure, and Corporate Carbon Management on Carbon Efficiency on the Korean Petrochemical Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-16, November.
    18. Haque, Faizul, 2017. "The effects of board characteristics and sustainable compensation policy on carbon performance of UK firms," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(3), pages 347-364.
    19. Harish Kumar Jeswani & Walter Wehrmeyer & Yacob Mulugetta, 2008. "How warm is the corporate response to climate change? Evidence from Pakistan and the UK," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 46-60, January.
    20. Meixner, Oliver & Pollhammer, Elisabeth & Haas, Rainer, 2015. "The communication of CSR activities via social media A qualitative approach to identify opportunities and challenges for small and medium-sized enterprises in the agri-food sector," 2015 International European Forum (144th EAAE Seminar), February 9-13, 2015, Innsbruck-Igls, Austria 206248, International European Forum on System Dynamics and Innovation in Food Networks.
    21. Kolk, Ans & Levy, David, 2001. "Winds of Change:: Corporate Strategy, Climate change and Oil Multinationals," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 501-509, October.
    22. Paul A. Griffin & David H. Lont & Estelle Y. Sun, 2017. "The Relevance to Investors of Greenhouse Gas Emission Disclosures," Contemporary Accounting Research, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(2), pages 1265-1297, June.
    23. Itziar Castelló & Michael Etter & Finn Årup Nielsen, 2016. "Strategies of Legitimacy Through Social Media: The Networked Strategy," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 53(3), pages 402-432, May.
    24. Michelon, Giovanna & Pilonato, Silvia & Ricceri, Federica, 2015. "CSR reporting practices and the quality of disclosure: An empirical analysis," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 33(C), pages 59-78.
    25. Peter M. Clarkson & Yue Li & Matthew Pinnuck & Gordon D. Richardson, 2015. "The Valuation Relevance of Greenhouse Gas Emissions under the European Union Carbon Emissions Trading Scheme," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(3), pages 551-580, September.
    26. Elena Villar-Rubio & María-Dolores Huete-Morales, 2017. "Market Instruments for a Sustainable Economy: Environmental Fiscal Policy and Manifest Divergences," Review of Policy Research, Policy Studies Organization, vol. 34(2), pages 255-269, March.
    27. Qian, Wei & Schaltegger, Stefan, 2017. "Revisiting carbon disclosure and performance: Legitimacy and management views," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 49(4), pages 365-379.
    28. Qiu, Yan & Shaukat, Amama & Tharyan, Rajesh, 2016. "Environmental and social disclosures: Link with corporate financial performance," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(1), pages 102-116.
    29. Krishna Udayasankar, 2008. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Firm Size," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 83(2), pages 167-175, December.
    30. Clarkson, Peter M. & Li, Yue & Richardson, Gordon D. & Vasvari, Florin P., 2008. "Revisiting the relation between environmental performance and environmental disclosure: An empirical analysis," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 33(4-5), pages 303-327.
    31. David C Broadstock & Alan Collins & Lester C Hunt & Konstantinos Vergos, 2014. "Voluntary Disclosure, Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Business Performance: Assessing the First Decade of Reporting," Surrey Energy Economics Centre (SEEC), School of Economics Discussion Papers (SEEDS) 149, Surrey Energy Economics Centre (SEEC), School of Economics, University of Surrey.
    32. Guido Palazzo & Andreas Scherer, 2006. "Corporate Legitimacy as Deliberation: A Communicative Framework," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 66(1), pages 71-88, June.
    33. Andrea Liesen & Frank Figge & Andreas Hoepner & Dennis M. Patten, 2017. "Climate Change and Asset Prices: Are Corporate Carbon Disclosure and Performance Priced Appropriately?," Journal of Business Finance & Accounting, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(1-2), pages 35-62, January.
    34. Liao, Lin & Luo, Le & Tang, Qingliang, 2015. "Gender diversity, board independence, environmental committee and greenhouse gas disclosure," The British Accounting Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(4), pages 409-424.
    35. Chin Hee Hahn & Sang-Hyop Lee & Kyoung-Soo Yoon (ed.), 2012. "Responding to Climate Change," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 14709.
    36. Bikki Jaggi & Alessandra Allini & Riccardo Macchioni & Annamaria Zampella, 2018. "Do investors find carbon information useful? Evidence from Italian firms," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 50(4), pages 1031-1056, May.
    37. Rea Wagner & Peter Seele, 2017. "Uncommitted Deliberation? Discussing Regulatory Gaps by Comparing GRI 3.1 to GRI 4.0 in a Political CSR Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 146(2), pages 333-351, December.
    38. Su‐Yol Lee & Yun‐Seon Park & Robert D. Klassen, 2015. "Market Responses to Firms' Voluntary Climate Change Information Disclosure and Carbon Communication," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1), pages 1-12, January.
    39. Reilly, Anne H. & Hynan, Katherine A., 2014. "Corporate communication, sustainability, and social media: It's not easy (really) being green," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 57(6), pages 747-758.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Norton Barros Felix & Priscila Celebrini de Oliveira Campos & Igor Paz & Maria Esther Soares Marques, 2022. "Geoprocessing Applied to the Assessment of Carbon Storage and Sequestration in a Brazilian Medium-Sized City," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-16, July.
    2. Guastella, Gianni & Mazzarano, Matteo & Pareglio, Stefano & Xepapadeas, Anastasios, 2022. "Climate reputation risk and abnormal returns in the stock markets: A focus on large emitters," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).
    3. Sun, Chuanwang & Wu, Boyu, 2024. "Closer economic distance makes positive carbon-related attitude: Evidence from the mechanism of sentiment tendency in worldwide news coverage of India," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 185(C).
    4. Laura Saraite-Sariene & Juana Alonso-Cañadas & Federico Galán-Valdivieso & Carmen Caba-Pérez, 2019. "Non-Financial Information versus Financial as a Key to the Stakeholder Engagement: A Higher Education Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-19, December.
    5. Riedel, Franziska & Gorbach, Gregor & Kost, Christoph, 2021. "Barriers to internal carbon pricing in German companies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    6. Antonio J. Mateo-Márquez & José M. González-González & Constancio Zamora-Ramírez, 2021. "Components of Countries’ Regulative Dimensions and Voluntary Carbon Disclosures," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-22, February.
    7. Julie C. Faure & Kasey M. Faust & Jessica Kaminsky, 2019. "Stakeholder Legitimization of the Provision of Emergency Centralized Accommodations to Displaced Persons," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-26, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rong He & Le Luo & Abul Shamsuddin & Qingliang Tang, 2022. "Corporate carbon accounting: a literature review of carbon accounting research from the Kyoto Protocol to the Paris Agreement," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 62(1), pages 261-298, March.
    2. Zahra Borghei, 2021. "Carbon disclosure: a systematic literature review," Accounting and Finance, Accounting and Finance Association of Australia and New Zealand, vol. 61(4), pages 5255-5280, December.
    3. Siddique, Md Abubakar & Akhtaruzzaman, Md & Rashid, Afzalur & Hammami, Helmi, 2021. "Carbon disclosure, carbon performance and financial performance: International evidence," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 75(C).
    4. Liu, Yang Stephanie & Zhou, Xiaoyan & Yang, Jessica Hong & Hoepner, Andreas G.F. & Kakabadse, Nada, 2023. "Carbon emissions, carbon disclosure and organizational performance," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    5. Mohamed Toukabri & Lamia Kalai, 2024. "How does sustainability leadership improve climate change reporting? The choices associated with a sustainable board- A management perspective," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 29(7), pages 1-48, October.
    6. Mohammed S. Albarrak & Marwa Elnahass & Aly Salama, 2019. "The effect of carbon dissemination on cost of equity," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 1179-1198, September.
    7. Córdova Román, Carmen & Zorio-Grima, Ana & Merello, Paloma, 2021. "Economic development and CSR assurance: Important drivers for carbon reporting… yet inefficient drivers for carbon management?," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 163(C).
    8. Jiang, Yan & Luo, Le & Xu, JianFeng & Shao, XiaoRui, 2021. "The value relevance of corporate voluntary carbon disclosure: Evidence from the United States and BRIC countries," Journal of Contemporary Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 17(3).
    9. Omaima A.G. Hassan & Peter Romilly, 2018. "Relations between corporate economic performance, environmental disclosure and greenhouse gas emissions: New insights," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(7), pages 893-909, November.
    10. Helfaya, Akrum & Aboud, Ahmed & Amin, Essam, 2023. "An examination of corporate environmental goals disclosure, sustainability performance and firm value – An Egyptian evidence," Journal of International Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, Elsevier, vol. 52(C).
    11. Dong Ding & Bin Liu & Millicent Chang, 2023. "Carbon Emissions and TCFD Aligned Climate-Related Information Disclosures," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 182(4), pages 967-1001, February.
    12. Perera, Kasun & Kuruppuarachchi, Duminda & Kumarasinghe, Sriyalatha & Suleman, Muhammad Tahir, 2023. "The impact of carbon disclosure and carbon emissions intensity on firms' idiosyncratic volatility," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 128(C).
    13. 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.
    14. Provaty, Sagira Sultana & Hasan, Mostafa Monzur & Luo, Le, 2024. "Organization capital and GHG emissions," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    15. Tesfaye T. Lemma & Martin Feedman & Mthokozisi Mlilo & Jin Dong Park, 2019. "Corporate carbon risk, voluntary disclosure, and cost of capital: South African evidence," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(1), pages 111-126, January.
    16. Halil Emre Akbaş & Seda Canikli, 2018. "Determinants of Voluntary Greenhouse Gas Emission Disclosure: An Empirical Investigation on Turkish Firms," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-24, December.
    17. Binh Bui & Muhammad Nurul Houqe & Muhammad Kaleem Zahir-ul-Hassan, 2022. "Moderating effect of carbon accounting systems on strategy and carbon performance: a CDP analysis," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 33(4), pages 483-524, December.
    18. Camélia Radu & Samaneh Maram, 2021. "The value relevance of reported carbon emissions," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 25(2), pages 347-377, June.
    19. Yang Stephanie Liu & Xiaoyan Zhou & Jessica Yang & Andreas Hoepner, 2016. "Corporate Carbon Emission and Financial Performance: Does Carbon Disclosure Mediate the Relationship in the UK?," ICMA Centre Discussion Papers in Finance icma-dp2016-03, Henley Business School, University of Reading.
    20. Ardianto Ardianto & Nadia Anridho & Suham Cahyono & Abu Hanifah Md. Noman Alam & Iman Harymawan, 2024. "The role of risk management committee on the relationship between corporate carbon emission disclosure and capital structure," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 2127-2158, May.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:11:y:2019:i:4:p:1161-:d:208235. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.