Summary

Companies increasingly face pressures to contribute towards a sustainable future, while simultaneously providing shareholder value. In a recent Nature Climate Change contribution, Makov and Newman reported a series of experiments showing that people respond negatively to corporate initiatives that benefit the environment, if these also bring corporations financial gains (‘win-win’ initiatives). They suggested that a crucial moderator of this effect is whether market or communal relationship norms are made salient when communicating win-win initiatives to the public. We report five studies that suggest an alternative interpretation of their findings: companies might be evaluated negatively when their actions differ from those implied by their stated pro-environmental policy.

Details: SSRN Working Paper

Authors:   Despoina Alempaki, Andrea Isoni, Yuri Kato, Daniel Read and Hao Wei