Managerial discretion and corporate commitment to the natural environment

This article considers possible associations between executive discretion and corporate environmental commitment, developing competing hypotheses from two alternative approaches: the "managerial" view and the "inertial" view. Results from a sample of 105 firms showed that their environmental commitment associates with specific executives being responsible for environmental matters. In addition, superior enviromnental commitment appeared to be linked with these executives having high levels of managerial discretion as members of their firms' dominant coalitions. Our research supports the central role of executives in order to improve corporate environmental commitment. (C) 2002 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.