Factors that influence corporate environmental behavior: empirical analysis based on panel data in China

In general, it is recognized that both external pressures and individual corporate characteristics drive enterprises to adopt active environmental behavior. However, few empirical studies have attempted to determine the relative importance of these different sources of external pressure and individual corporate characteristics. Using panel data for 30 provinces and municipalities in China between 2004 and 2013, we tested the relationships between these different factors and corporate environmental behavior by building panel models for the national sample and subsamples from the three regions of China. The results showed that pressures from governmental environmental regulation, consumers, and shareholders, as well as individual corporation characteristics had significant positive driving effects on corporate environmental behavior, where government environmental regulation had the most important effect. However, our results did not confirm that social pressure is a statistically significant source of change. We propose a series of policy implications based on these test results, which may encourage enterprises to implement better environmental behavior.