1. A Better Place to Think About Business Ceremonial Environmental Strategies: A Meta-Analysis of Environmental Strategy and Implementation at Large Firms Dr. Frances Bowen Greening of Industry Network Conference, Cardiff, July 2006

2. A Better Place to Think About Business Firm Size and Corporate Environmental Strategy Firm Size Corporate Environmental Strategy Organisational Visibility Resource Base Economies of Scale

3. A Better Place to Think About Business Environmental Strategy and Implementation at Large Firms Firm Size Corporate Environmental Strategy Environmental Strategy Implementation … at the corporate level … at the operational level +ve ? ?

4. A Better Place to Think About Business Ceremonial Adoption  From institutional theory (Meyer & Rowan, 1983)  Firms become isomorphic with the myths of their institutional environment  Firms aim to increase legitimacy, but without internal changes to co-ordination and control mechanisms  … Do we see a difference between ceremonial adoption (stated policies at the corporate level) and actual changes in environmental co-ordination and control (implementation at the operating level) in large firms?

5. A Better Place to Think About Business Hypotheses  H1: There is an overall positive relationship between organization size and corporate environmental responsiveness  H2: The positive relationship between firm size and corporate environmental strategy is moderated by level of analysis  H3: The positive relationship between firm size and corporate environmental strategy is moderated by the environmental strategy measure  H4: The moderating effects are stronger in the early stages of institutionalisation than in the later stages

6. A Better Place to Think About Business Meta-analysis : “The analysis of analyses”  Use of statistical techniques to cumulate results across studies  38 studies with at least some useful data (1995-2000)  Criteria for inclusion:  any empirical paper which reports on the relationship between firm size and any aspect of corporate environmental strategy  Study sources  Focus on the “early” institutionalisation stage (H4)

7. A Better Place to Think About Business 1995-2000 “Early” Stage Results Studies rnKvariance in r across studies of which, error variance variance in r in pop’n H1: All0.0517243210.00940.00120.0082 Split by level of analysis H2: Corporate0.137028130.01240.00180.0106 H2: Operational0.001021580.00060.00070 Split by measure H3: Strategy0.28519160.00660.00100.0056 H3: Implementation-0.01551190.00420.00160.0025 r = mean Pearson correlation coefficient across studies n = total sample size K = number of studies

8. A Better Place to Think About Business … And For the Visual Learners…

9. A Better Place to Think About Business Initial Findings and Future Directions  Size does matter (H1)  … sometimes (H2, H3)  Ceremonial environmental strategy at large firms  Ceremonial adoption important in “Early” stage  Follow up with 2001-2006 time period (H4)  Implications for managers and policy-makers  Finally: A plea for help… I am still compiling the list of recent studies…