Multinationals In China Climate Initiative Strategy Impact Mechanism Research

While climate change remains a subject of intense debate, it has become increasingly recognized as one of the greatest contemporary threats to the environment and society. For the "Externality" nature of climate change, no country would like to resolve the problem, solely, nor they have the ability to fulfill the target. Globalization has caused increasing attention about firm-level ecological sustainable development. Multinational companies(MNCs)have been known to be the "problem" of climate change, and also the "solution", climate change has imposed a unique challenge to MNCs leveraging global integration and national responsiveness. With the evolving of present research of global strategy from headquarters perspectives to subsidiaries positioning, environment strategy of subsidiaries have attracted great concern, existing academic and pratical literatures have come to contradictory conclusions,making it still unclear what motivates their proactive behaviors in host countries. The overall aim of this research is to critically evaluate, against theoretical and conceptual criteria, how MNCs in China have responded proactively to increasing pressures from government, investors and wider society to address climate change and what is the logic behind the phenomenon. The aim of this study, therefore, was to determine if (and to what extent) there was diversity in MNCs’responses to climate change across the main industry sectors in China, as well as to explain why this is so. The study focused on three specific research questions:what are the underlying drivers (pressures and resources) which motivate and/or inhibit corporate action to address climate change; what are the significant external and internal variables that affect MNCs’responses to climate change; and to what extent are corporate climate responses influenced by institutional pressure/environmental reputation, and resource/ability?Reviewing the research findings analysis, this study raised a theoretical framework of determinants of MNCs climate strategy proactivity, analyzing the influences of coercive isomorphism、normative isomorphism、mimetic isomorphism、environmental reputation and resource/ability, the moderating effect of strategic orientation is also examined. The empirical analysis is carried out by using data collected through questionnaire survey of106 multinational companies located in China; structure equation model and multiple regression analysis are used to test the hypotheses. The findings were explained in ways anticipated by the literature, but in other cases, the results diverged from expected outcomes. Coercive isomorphism、environmental reputation and resource/ability ware the most commonly attributed motivation influencing corporate responses to climate change, normative isomorphism、mimetic isomorphism didn’t act effectively; and strategic orientation didn’t mediate as we expected.The primary contribution in this study is to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework from subsidiaries perspectives, consisting coercive isomorphism、normative isomorphism、mimetic isomorphism、environmental reputation、resource/ability、 strategic orientation factors, by integrating environmental management, institutional theory、 resource-based view、corporate social responsibility, as well as global management literatures, this study offers valuable insights into explanation of MNCs’climate management in developing host countries, filling the gaps between existing environment theories. Beyond the theoretical contribution, structural equation modeling was employed to test the relationships proposed; empirical approach was developed to measure various dimensions related to climate strategy and the determinant factors, which also account for the contributions.This study is subject to several limitations.First,due to the unavailability of all objective measures of climate strategy in China,the analyses are relying on survey and self-report data,which may raise variance,this may result in restricts of the findings. Second,owing to the difficulty of collecting data,and the participated survey includes only primarily large companies operating in china, makes it difficult to generalize the findings.In spite of these limitations.the results highlight several fruitful contributions for future exploration. Since our study focuses on one year data,the present research setting should be extended to three years or even longer time to examine whether the relationships exist. second,the implication can be extended to the other developing countries or emerging countries. future research could provide deeper insights by targeting a range of employees, and materials, by organisation and by industry sector, to reveal a greater complexity of organizational and sector-specific issues associated with climate change. Future research needs to continue to explore how all the key stakeholders in China are responding to climate change science and policy, and what methods will be most effective in encouraging collective behavioral changes.Overall, the insights gained from this study may provide a greater understanding of the concerns of the business community towards climate change and what conditions will be most conductive to encouraging corporate climate change action.The implications for policy-maker is that MNCs may promote proactive environment practices by providing regulatory assistance On environmental protection and,as well as upgrading the capacities of domestic firms to meet tightening environmental standards.It is necessary for environment institutions to provide mechanisms to stimulus climate innovation for the MNCs. For the other Chinese corporations,we advise them to grasp the low-carbon opportunity from climate change,and gain the new green competitive advantage.