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Can Social Science Explain Organizational Noncompliance with Environmental Law?
Author(s) -
DiMento Joseph F.
Publication year - 1989
Publication title -
journal of social issues
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.618
H-Index - 122
eISSN - 1540-4560
pISSN - 0022-4537
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-4560.1989.tb01535.x
Subject(s) - compliance (psychology) , variety (cybernetics) , enforcement , bivariate analysis , perspective (graphical) , law enforcement , empirical research , business , public relations , field (mathematics) , public economics , psychology , political science , social psychology , economics , law , computer science , philosophy , mathematics , epistemology , artificial intelligence , machine learning , pure mathematics
Noncompliance with environmental law is an immense problem whether evaluated from its incidence or its consequences. Noncompliance often results from the activities of large corporations and agencies and their interactions. This paper presents a theoretical perspective on organizational compliance in the environmental field. It first reviews and analyzes the leading bivariate relationships between compliance and independent variables, including communication of regulations, enforcement, and characteristics of actors in the compliance event. Single factors can be influential in promoting compliance; however, only in rare cases will one psychological, organizational, or economic factor explain business response. Since regulatory systems attain compliance through a variety of routes, a multivariate perspective is offered that integrates several literatures and empirical studies.