CEOs’ religiosity and corporate green initiatives

The purpose of this study is to determine the ways in which the religiosity of a firm’s CEO affects his/her firm’s green initiatives. Previous research on corporate green initiatives offers limited insights into the micro-foundations of such behaviors. From an upper echelon perspective, we argue that CEOs with religiosity are more likely to engage in corporate green initiatives, because they hold higher perceptions about being monitored to fulfill religious role expectations, driving individuals to maintain public goods. Furthermore, this positive impact of CEOs’ religiosity is weaker when he/she uses participative decision-making processes. We examine a sample of 1184 small- and medium-sized manufacturers in the Tokyo metropolitan area. Using latent class modeling, we classify respondent CEOs’ religious belief systems into eight classes and find general support for the hypothesized relationships. Our findings contribute to the upper echelon and corporate social responsibility literature by revealing the missing link between a CEO’s religiosity and his/her firm’s corporate green initiatives.