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Boards and Sustainability: the Contingent Influence of Director Interlocks on Corporate Environmental Performance
Author(s) -
OrtizdeMandojatalia,
AragonCorrea Juan Alberto
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
business strategy and the environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.123
H-Index - 105
eISSN - 1099-0836
pISSN - 0964-4733
DOI - 10.1002/bse.1833
Subject(s) - interlock , contingency , business , sustainability , resource dependence theory , resource (disambiguation) , contingency theory , social capital , resource based view , perspective (graphical) , corporate social responsibility , corporate governance , industrial organization , corporate sustainability , marketing , capital (architecture) , accounting , competitive advantage , economics , public relations , management , finance , sociology , computer science , social science , philosophy , artificial intelligence , history , ecology , computer network , linguistics , archaeology , engineering , biology , political science , electrical engineering
This paper highlights the importance of a firm's board with respect to sustainability issues by analysing the relationship between director interlocks, i.e. directors who simultaneously belong to the boards of directors of several companies, and a firm's environmental performance. The previous literature has focused on the influence of firm‐level resources on corporate environmental performance. This study utilizes insights from a resource‐based view and research on social capital to demonstrate that the environmental performance of a firm is also influenced by the difficult‐to‐imitate capabilities that are embedded in the network relationships of its directors. Our results support a contingency perspective of the social capital theory that finds that director interlocks are positively connected with the environmental performance of a firm in two specific situations: (1) when the firm is linked to a larger parent company and (2) in cases of low and high levels of interlock diversity. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.