National Culture and Corporate Responses to Climate Change

This book analyzes the impact of national culture on a range of corporate carbon practices in major economies since the Paris Agreement. It does so by exploring the interaction between hard institutions such as carbon policies and regulation and soft institutions such as national culture.

The book focuses on national culture as a key factor in corporate decarbonization practices, one traditionally overlooked by analytical frameworks rooted in economic development, laws and regulation. It argues that fighting climate change requires collaboration from organisations in countries with diverse cultures. Managers and various stakeholders who exert significant influence over climate actions are likely to respond to a climate threat in accordance with their cultural prescriptions towards risk, regulation, environmental stewardship and stakeholder engagement. Analysing a large, cross-country dataset covering firms from both developing and emerging companies, the book analyses firm-level decisions, behaviours, strategies and outcomes related to decarbonization. It finds that corporate decisions to decarbonize are influenced not just by formal institutions such as macrolevel regulations, climate standards and policies, but softer institutions such as national culture which either facilitate or constrain a firm’s ability to adopt effective climate strategies. The book highlights the importance of context-sensitive climate governance and closes by outlining areas of future research.

Sitting at the intersection of cultural studies and corporate environmental governance, this book will interest researchers and policy makers working on sustainability, accounting and environmental management.

Le Luo is an Associate Professor in the Department of Accounting and Corporate Governance and Co-Director of the Nature Positive Finance and Business Research Centre at Macquarie University. She specializes in corporate sustainability and carbon accounting. Her recent research projects focus on how businesses and capital market participants adapt to emerging environmental regulations and standards, with particular attention to carbon disclosure, assurance, management, and performance. She has authored one book, two book chapters and over 50 academic papers in prestigious journals. From 2021 to 2024, she has been consistently recognized in the world’s top 2% of researchers by Stanford University’s global ranking of scientists.

Qingliang Tang is a Professor in accounting, School of Business, Western Sydney University (WSU), Australia. Dr. Tang’s research interests include carbon accounting, reporting and sustainability, Blockchain in climate change management, etc. Dr. Tang has had over 100 publications in his career so far (Link to profile and publications). He is the team Leader of Carbon Accounting & Sustainability Research Group (CASR) in WSU which is in a leading position in carbon accounting research in the world (https: //casr.group/). In addition, Dr. Tang is a pioneer researcher in corporate water management and reporting and made publication of research in leading academic journals.