The impact of organizational compliance culture and green culture on environmental behavior: The moderating effect of environmental commitment

Abstract

In this research, we aim to examine the moderating effect of environmental commitment on the relationships between organizational compliance culture and green culture on environmental behavior, under the theoretical stream of the Resource Based Theory (RBT) of the firm, and the Value-Belief-Norm theory (VBN). The research used a quantitative research approach, with a non-experimental transactional design. The sample consisted of 148 Mexican companies with a corporate value system that has implemented environmental sustainability practices, most of them incorporating the GRI guidelines, the SDGs and the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact into their strategies, policies, procedures, and initiatives. This study contributes to the literature in the field of environmental sustainability, with a first theoretical PLS-SEM model that studies moderating and control variables, through organizational compliance on environmental behavior. Our proposed PLS model is a complex hierarchical component model that brings together and simultaneously maps a higher-order construct combined with three lower-order constructs, with moderation effects, multi-group analysis and predictive performance assessment. The major research findings are both the positive impacts between the proposed higher-order construct, organizational compliance culture, and green culture, on environmental behavior, and the moderating effect of environmental commitment on the relationship between green culture and environmental behavior. The insights obtained enhance the understanding of the factors that determine the environmental behavior through organizational compliance culture and green culture, with the moderating effect of environmental commitment, and help senior management in making strategic decisions to align their environmental objectives in compliance with the 2030 agenda in the area of environmental sustainability. This study highlights the need for companies to strengthen the role of environmental commitment to improve the environmental sustainability and it mentions practical implications both for managers of organizations that are responsible for meeting the objectives of sustainable development, specifically in the environmental field, and for policymakers and authorities that guide environmental policies.