The model of corporate environmentalism : The effects of perceived market and regulation uncertainties upon marketing, social and environmental performance

Abstract

Based on the marketing strategy formulation perspective, the current research incorporates external factors of firms, the perceived uncertainty of environmental market and environmental regulation, together with the internal resources and capabilities of firms, relationship with external organizations, shared vision, and technological capability into three proposed models. The proposed models investigate the influence of external and internal antecedents on corporate environmentalism, which is thought of as a strategy. The proposed models also examine three performance outcomes of corporate environmentalism, namely marketing, social, and environmental performance. The three proposed models consist of the direct effect, the moderating effect, and the simultaneous effect models. Each model differs in the different effects of the perceived uncertainty of environmental market and regulation. The direct effect model studies the direct effect of the two perceived uncertainties on corporate environmentalism. The moderating effect model, which resembles a moderated mediation model, investigates the effect of perceived uncertainty on three associations between internal resources and capabilities and corporate environmentalism. Finally, the simultaneous effect model investigates the direct effect and the moderating effect of the perceived uncertainty simultaneously. To test the models, a data set of 772 observations was collected, through a mail survey, from manufacturing firms in food, automotive and parts, electrical and electronics, and garment and textile industries. Multiple group analysis by structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to analyze the data, particularly the moderating effect of the perceived uncertainty. The analysis was done using SPSS 17.0 and LISREL 8.53 statistical programs. The results reveal that perceived market uncertainty statistically negatively influences corporate environmentalism while perceived regulation uncertainty moderates the association between relationship with external organizations and corporate environmentalism. Although, perceived market uncertainty negatively affects corporate environmentalism, the coefficient of the effect is so small that it may not have a practical significance. Shared vision and technological capability are found to positively affect corporate environmentalism whereas relationship with external organizations does not have an influence on corporate environmentalism. Corporate environmentalism improves the marketing, social, and environmental performance of firms.