Applying stakeholder theory to analyze corporate environmental performance: evidence from Australia's top 100 listed companies

This study uses the stakeholder framework to analyse corporate environmental behaviour by Top 100 Australian listed companies. By adopting Ullmann’s (1985) threedimensional framework comprising of stakeholder power, strategic posture and economic performance the empirical results provides important insights on the determinants of corporate environmental performance. The findings in this study suggest that the level of ownership dispersion (SP), the industry sensitivity characterized by the increased regulatory sanctions (GP) as well as the top management’s conviction on environmental issues (EC) (a measure of strategic posture) are the main significant factors influencing the decision to incorporate superior environmental activities in corporate strategic plans. Measures of past and current economic performance, which consist of three accounting-based measures showed no significant relation with the firms’ environmental performance. Suggestions that size and age of the firms could act as intervening variables are not supported by the results in this study.