Ismail Iyad H M, Khatib Saleh F A, Abbas Alhamzah F, Ali Khan Mohd Noor Azli, Sulimany Hamid Ghazi H, Bazhair Ayman Hassan
School of Business Management, University Utara Malaysia, Kedah 06010, Malaysia.
Faculty of Management, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor 81310, Malaysia.
Heliyon. 2024 Feb 5;10(4):e25673. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e25673. eCollection 2024 Feb 29.
This study investigates the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic crisis on environmental governance decisions within publicly listed European companies. It utilizes a comprehensive analysis of publicly available data regarding these firms and check the environmental governance practices during the pandemic, informed by risk society theory which describes modern societies marked by ongoing risks and uncertainties primarily stemming from technological and scientific advancements. The regression and robustness analysis has been performed on how companies have responded to the crisis, specifically in terms of their approaches to environmental sustainability and governance. Covid-19 has a significantly positive impact on environmental governance (EG), with a coefficient of 18.73 and a p-value of .000. Other variables like human development (HD), size, and free cash flow (FCF) positively affect EG, while corruption (Corrupt) and leverage (Lev) have a negative influence. Robust analysis confirms the negative impact of Covid-19 on EG, with a coefficient of 18.46 and a p-value below .01, consistent across different subsamples. However, it also underscores the challenges companies have encountered in upholding their sustainability efforts amid the crisis. In sum, this research offers valuable insights into how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected environmental governance decisions, with potential implications for policymakers, regulators, and business leaders striving to advance sustainability in the post-pandemic landscape.
本研究调查了新冠疫情危机对欧洲上市公司环境治理决策的影响。它利用了对这些公司公开可用数据的全面分析，并考察了疫情期间的环境治理实践，其依据是风险社会理论，该理论描述了现代社会的特征是持续存在的风险和不确定性，主要源于技术和科学进步。针对公司如何应对危机进行了回归分析和稳健性分析，特别是在其环境可持续性和治理方法方面。新冠疫情对环境治理（EG）有显著的正向影响，系数为18.73，p值为0.000。人类发展（HD）、规模和自由现金流（FCF）等其他变量对环境治理有正向影响，而腐败（Corrupt）和杠杆率（Lev）有负面影响。稳健性分析证实了新冠疫情对环境治理的负面影响，系数为18.46，p值低于0.01，在不同子样本中一致。然而，它也凸显了公司在危机期间维持其可持续发展努力时所面临的挑战。总之，本研究为新冠疫情如何影响环境治理决策提供了有价值的见解，对致力于在疫情后推进可持续发展的政策制定者、监管者和企业领导者具有潜在意义。
