What does corporate environmental citizenship really mean?

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Corporate environmental citizenship receives little scholarly attention and the definitions remain unclear due to past studies defining corporate environmental citizenship in different perspectives. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to clarify the conceptualization of corporate environmental citizenship. It also proposes a plausible and useful definition for corporate environmental citizenship. METHODS: Previous environmental related studies are selected based on their relevance to the definitions. The selected studies then are examined to propose the new definition of corporate environmental citizenship. The online databases being utilized are ScienceDirect, Emerald, Taylor and Francis and Ebscohost. RESULTS: The new definition of corporate environmental citizenship is proposed: managerial recognition on the importance of environmental issues and integrating the environmental concerns into the organizational process. CONCLUSIONS: This study hopes to provoke more discussions about the definitions of corporate environmental citizenship as corporate environmental citizenship’s definition has attracted very little attention so far. This paper provides useful understanding for managers regarding the roles of corporate environmental citizenship. This is important as they strive to excel in the business performance in the highly competitive market. This in turn facilitates them to focus their business strategies.