National culture and corporate carbon performance

This study investigates the effects of cultural, institutional and natural ecosystems on corporate response to climate change. We find that national cultural tendencies towards future orientation, uncertainty avoidance, gender egalitarianism and humane orientation strengthen corporate performance, whereas certain other cultural dimensions, such as in-group collectivism, pose barriers to optimal carbon performance. We suggest that culture provides an incremental explanation for corporate climate behaviours beyond socioeconomic or regulatory determinants. Our study contributes to the carbon literature by comprehensively examining the role of a country’s national culture in determining corporate carbon performance, and its findings may help in the implementation of international climate accords (such as the Paris Agreement of 2015) in countries with heterogeneous cultural values and natural environmental contexts.