ABSTRACT
In the past few decades, corporations in the West have been called upon by multiple stakeholders – governments, shareholders, employees, the public, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and others – to uphold responsibilities beyond profit-making alone. One important way that corporations are able to demonstrate their responsiveness to these calls is through the adoption of environmental management (EM) programs that not only improve practices but also communicate to knowledgeable stakeholders about their commitment to corporate responsibilities (Gonzalez-Benito and Gonzalez-Benito, 2006). From the ecological modernization perspective, effective environmental protection (EP) cannot be achieved by relying only on government regulation and enforcement; instead, various environmental interests must be institutionalized within existing political, social, and economic systems (Weidner and Janicke, 2002; Mol, 2006). A set of mutually reinforcing factors that motivates corporations’ commitment to effective EM is an inevitable part of ecological modernization.
