A Study On The Relationship Between Environmental Attitudes, External Perception Differences And Performance Of Overseas Subsidiaries Of Multinational Corporations

In21st century, responses to climate change and protection of ecological environment have become the common goals of all worldwide countries. The issues of environment are not limited to one research category since its initial stage. On one hand, it is due to synthesis of research fields. Environment issues impact greatly on almost domains of human beings, including politics, economics and culture etc. On the other hand, it is due to the synthesis of geographic regions of research. No country or state can resolve or investigate environmental issues on its own efforts without cooperation with other countries. More and more international cooperation appears on the environmental issues. Thus, responses to environmental appeal and adoption of environmental behavior have been the strategic problems for corporations, especially for multinational enterprises (MNEs).As the main important identities in the economic globalization, MNEs’ internationalization process is necessarily impacted by the environmental norms and limitations, especially in the decisions making process when they start to establish overseas subsidiaries. Environmental regulations and market demands from home market and host market will influence MNEs’responses to environmental issues, and consequently the internationalization performance.Under the context of economic globalization and prevalence of green economy, this article synthesizes the existent research and builds the corporate environmental attitude model of interaction among institutional, industrial and corporate level factors, from the perspective of macro, middle, micro views. Basing on the green-washing practices of many subsidiaries of MNEs in China, this article analyzes the strategic driven factors of corporate environmental attitude of MNEs’ overseas subsidiaries, and discusses the origins and forming mechanism of differences between corporates and external perceptions, as well as the impacting factors.Basing on the comprehensive review of theories of environmental attitudes of MNEs’ overseas subsidiaries, this article initials a theoretical model of environmental attitudes influences on corporate performance. This study uses a sample of MNEs subsidiaries in China and Chinese MNEs overseas subsidiaries in foreign markets, and conducts a questionnaire survey of them to collect data for the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) and hierarchical regressions analysis. The empirical results suggest that:1. Environmental attitudes of MNEs’ overseas subsidiaries will positively promote the corporate performance in the host markets. To be specific:there is a positive and significant relationship between defensive environmental attitude and corporate performance; there is a positive and significant relationship between protective environmental attitude and corporate performance; there is a positive and significant relationship between enthusiastic environmental attitude and corporate performance; there is a positive and significant relationship between environmental attitude upgrading perception and corporate performance; there is a negative and significant relationship between environmental attitude degrading perception and corporate performance.2. Environmental legitimacy of MNEs’ overseas subsidiaries mediates the relationship between environmental attitudes and corporate performance. To be specific:environmental legitimacy partially mediates the relationship between defensive environmental attitude and corporate performance; environmental legitimacy partially mediates the relationship between protective environmental attitude and corporate performance; environmental legitimacy fully mediates the relationship between enthusiastic environmental attitude and corporate performance; environmental legitimacy partially mediates the relationship between environmental attitude upgrading perception and corporate performance; environmental legitimacy doesn’t mediate the relationship between environmental attitude degrading perception and corporate performance.3. Intangible assets of MNEs’ overseas subsidiaries mediate the relationship between environmental attitudes and corporate performance. To be specific: intangible assets don’t mediate the relationship between defensive environmental attitude and corporate performance; intangible assets partially mediate the relationship between protective environmental attitude and corporate performance; intangible assets fully mediate the relationship between enthusiastic environmental attitude and corporate performance; intangible assets partially mediate the relationship between environmental attitude upgrading perception and corporate performance; intangible assets don’t mediate the relationship between environmental attitude degrading perception and corporate performance.4. Resource slack of MNEs’ overseas subsidiaries moderates the relationship between environmental attitudes and corporate performance. To be specific:resource slack doesn’t moderate the relationship between defensive environmental attitude and corporate performance; resource slack moderates the relationship between protective environmental attitude and corporate performance; resource slack moderates the relationship between enthusiastic environmental attitude and corporate performance; resource slack moderates the relationship between environmental attitude upgrading perception and corporate performance; resource slack doesn’t moderate the relationship between environmental attitude degrading perception and corporate performance.5. Absorptive capability of MNEs’ overseas subsidiaries moderates the relationship between environmental attitudes and corporate performance. To be specific: assimilation capability doesn’t moderate the relationship between defensive environmental attitude and corporate performance; assimilation capability moderates the relationship between protective environmental attitude and corporate performance; assimilation capability moderates the relationship between enthusiastic environmental attitude and corporate performance; assimilation capability moderates the relationship between environmental attitude upgrading perception and corporate performance; assimilation capability doesn’t moderate the relationship between environmental attitude degrading perception and corporate performance. Transfer capability doesn’t moderate the relationship between defensive environmental attitude and corporate performance; transfer capability doesn’t moderate the relationship between protective environmental attitude and corporate performance; transfer capability moderates the relationship between enthusiastic environmental attitude and corporate performance; transfer capability moderates the relationship between environmental attitude upgrading perception and corporate performance; transfer capability doesn’t moderate the relationship between environmental attitude degrading perception and corporate performance. Apply capability moderates the relationship between defensive environmental attitude and corporate performance; apply capability moderates the relationship between protective environmental attitude and corporate performance; apply capability moderates the relationship between enthusiastic environmental attitude and corporate performance; apply capability doesn’t moderate the relationship between environmental attitude upgrading perception and corporate performance; apply capability doesn’t moderate the relationship between environmental attitude degrading perception and corporate performance.The main possible innovations and theoretical contributions are as follows: First, this study builds the corporate environmental attitude model of interaction among institutional, industrial and corporate level factors, which perfects the traditional theories of corporate environmental attitudes and behaviors. Second, existent literature focuses on the corporate environmental attitudes, but doesn’t pay much attention to external, especially that of consumers’, perception differences in corporate environmental attitudes. This study enriches the connotation of environmental attitudes of MNEs’ overseas subsidiaries and external perception differences, and analyzes the origins and forming mechanism of external perception differences. Finally, this study incorporates the external perception differences as one of the independent variables in the environmental attitude model, which constructs the analytical framework for connection and interaction between corporates and consumers.This study is not without limitations. Due to my own academic capability and the practical conditions of doing research, this study lists the limitations of this study and important issues needing to be further studied in the future at the end.