Why do firms engage in environmental management? An empirical study in China

There are increasing pressures being put on firms, from a number of different sources, such as governmental regulation, community participation and market demand, to engage firms in environmental initiatives. These factors play different roles at various development periods. Government regulation was the major pressure, initially. However, community participation and market demand have become more and more important. Thus a better understanding of the determinant factors that play a role in engaging firms to take environmental management initiatives may help policy makers develop more effective environmental policies. Using data collected from 89 firms in Wujin county of Jiangsu Province, China, this paper developed an index system to evaluate the corporate environmental management performance. Furthermore, we used econometric methodology to identify the main factors that probably shape corporate environmental management performance, including both external pressures and firm characteristics. The results showed that pressures from supply chain, customers, and communities played positive roles in engaging firms to improve environmental management performance. However, the pressure from the regulatory system did not implicate positive effect on environmental management performance when basic compliance is not an issue in the region anymore. The results also showed that firms with larger scale will be more active in engaging in environmental management initiatives. Finally, our results suggest that: (a) regulation's stimulation may be reduced as long as firms have complied with requirements of local environmental standards and other environmental laws; (b) policy makers should pay more attention to market and information instruments; (c) more financial and technical support should be provided to encourage small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to improve environmental performance.