Research Article

Do environmental social controls matter to Australian capital investment decision-making?

  1. Donald G. Ross1,*,
  2. Dorothy Wood2

Article first published online: 10 JUL 2008

DOI: 10.1002/bse.622

Issue

Business Strategy and the Environment

Business Strategy and the Environment

Special Issue: Sustainable Social and Ecosystem Stewardship

Volume 17, Issue 5, pages 294–303, July 2008

Additional Information

How to Cite

Ross, D. G. and Wood, D. (2008), Do environmental social controls matter to Australian capital investment decision-making?. Bus. Strat. Env., 17: 294–303. doi: 10.1002/bse.622

Author Information

  1. 1

    Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, New South Wales, Australia

  2. 2

    School of Accounting and Business Information Systems, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

*Associate Professor of Management (Finance), Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University, NSW 2109, Australia

Publication History

  1. Issue published online: 10 JUL 2008
  2. Article first published online: 10 JUL 2008
  3. Manuscript Accepted: 8 FEB 2008
  4. Manuscript Revised: 18 DEC 2007
  5. Manuscript Received: 18 JUN 2007

SEARCH

SEARCH BY CITATION

ARTICLE TOOLS

Get PDF (85K)

Keywords:

  • environmental social controls;
  • capital investments

Abstract

This paper looks at how environmental social controls (ESCs), namely mandatory disclosure, regulation, subsidies and stakeholder opinion, are perceived in terms of their relative importance by Australian capital investment managers. We find that regulation and stakeholder opinion are the most important ESCs. Subsidies generally have less influence, while mandatory disclosure has almost no impact on capital investment decisions. However, even the more important ESCs have much less than impact than mainstream financial and strategic factors. Policy makers seeking to influence capital investment managers will have to increase the power levels of the various ESCs if they are to change behaviour. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Get PDF (85K)