Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-v9fdk Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T15:26:19.859Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Strategic Responses to Global Climate Change: Conflicting Pressures on Multinationals in the Oil Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

David L. Levy
Affiliation:
Department of Management, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Massachusetts 02125, [email protected]
Ans Kolk
Affiliation:
University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam Graduate Business School, The Netherlands, [email protected]

Abstract

MNCs are increasingly facing global environmental issues demanding coordinated market and non-market strategic responses. The home country institutional context and individual company histories can create divergent pressures on strategy for MNCs based in different countries; however, the location of MNCs in global industries and their participation in ‘global issues arenas’ create issue-level fields within which strategic convergence might also be expected. This paper analyzes the responses of oil MNCs to climate change and finds that local context influenced initial corporate reactions, but that convergent pressures predominate as the issue matures.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © V.K. Aggarwal 2002 and published under exclusive license to Cambridge University Press 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abernathy, William J. and Clark, Kim B. 1985. “Innovation: Mapping the Winds of Creative Destruction.” Research Policy 14: 322.Google Scholar
Baron, David P. 1997. “Integrated Strategy, Trade Policy, and Global Competition.” California Management Review 39: 145169.Google Scholar
Baron, David P. 1995. “Integrated Strategy: Market and Nonmarket Components.” California Management Review 37: 4765.Google Scholar
Bartlett, Christopher and Ghoshal, Sumantra. 1986. “Tap your subsidiaries for global reach.” Harvard Business Review 64: 8794.Google Scholar
Bartlett, Christopher and Ghoshal, Sumantra. 1989. Managing Across Borders: The Transnational Solution. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Bartmess, Andrew and Cerny, Keith. 1993. “Building Competitive Advantage Through a Global Network of Capabilities.” California Management Review 35: 78103.Google Scholar
Bartsch, Ulrich and Muller, Benito. 2000. Fossil Fuels in a Changing Climate: Impacts of the Kyoto Protocol. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Bijker, W. E. et al. 1987. The Social Construction of Technological Systems. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Callon, Michel. 1998. The Laws of the Markets. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Chen, Ming-Jer and MacMillan, Ian C. 1992. “Non-response and Delayed Response to Competitive Moves: The Roles of Competitor Dependence and Action Irreversibility.” Academy of Management Journal 35: 539570.Google Scholar
Chen, Ming-Jer and Miller, Daniel. 1994. “Competitive Attack, Retaliation and Performance: An Expectancy-valence Framework.” Strategic Management Journal 15: 85102.Google Scholar
DeSombre, Elizabeth R. 2000. Domestic Sources of International Environmental Policy: Industry, Environmentalists, and U.S. Power. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul J. and Powell, Walter W. 1983. “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational fields.” American Sociological Review 48: 147160.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul and eds, Walter Powell. 1991. The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Economist. 1999. “Fuel Cells Meet Big Business.” The Economist.Google Scholar
Ernst, David and Steinhubl, Andrew M. J. 1999. “Petroleum: After the Megamergers.” The McKinsey Quarterly (2): 4957.Google Scholar
Ernst, Dieter and Ravenhill, John. 1999. “Globalization, Convergence, and the Transformation of International Production Networks in Electronics in East Asia.” Business and Politics 1: 3562.Google Scholar
Fligstein, Neil. 1996. “Markets as Politics: A Political Cultural Approach to Market Institutions.” American Sociological Review 61: 656673.Google Scholar
Gladwin, Thomas N. and Walter, Ingo. 1980. “How Multinationals Can Manage Social and Political Forces.” Journal of Business Strategy: 5468.Google Scholar
Gooderham, Paul N. et al. 1999. “Institutional and Rational Determinants of Organizational Practices: Human Resource Management in European Firms.” Administrative Science Quarterly 44: 507531.Google Scholar
Grant, Robert M. and Cibin, Renato. 1996. “Strategy, Structure, and Market Turbulence: The International Oil Majors, 1970–1991.” Scandinavian Journal of Management 12: 165188.Google Scholar
Haas, Peter M. et al., eds. 1993. Institutions for the Earth: Sources of Effective International Environmental Protection. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Hajer, Maarten A. 1995. The Politics of Environmental Discourse: Ecological Modernization and the Policy Process. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Hansen, Wendy L. and Mitchell, Neil J. 2001. “Globalization or National Capitalism: Large Firms, National Strategies, and Political Activities.” Business and Politics 3: 519.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Andrew J. and Ventresca, Marc J. 1999. “The Institutional Framing of Policy Debates: Economics versus the Environment.” American Behavioral Scientist 42: 13681392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hunt, Christopher B. and Auster, Ellen R. 1990. “Proactive Environmental Management: Avoiding The Toxic Trap.” Sloan Management Review 31: 718.Google Scholar
Huo, Y. Paul and McKinley, William. 1992. “Nation as a Context for Strategy: The Effects of National Characteristics on Business-Level Strategies.” Management International Review 32: 103113.Google Scholar
Jasanoff, Sheila. 1990. The Fifth Branch. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kempton, Willett and Craig, Paul P. 1993. “European Perspectives on Global Climate Change.” Environment 35: 1745.Google Scholar
Knickerbocker, Frederick T. 1973Oligopolistic Reaction and Multinational Enterprise.” DBA Thesis, Harvard Business School, Division of Research.Google Scholar
Kostova, Tatiana. 1999. “Transnational Transfer of Strategic Organizational Practices: A Contextual Perspective.” Academy of Management Review 24: 308324.Google Scholar
Levy, David L. and Newell, Peter. 2000. “Oceans Apart? Business Responses to the Environment in Europe and North America.” Environment 42: 820.Google Scholar
Levy, David L. and Rothenberg, Sandra. 2002. “Heterogeneity and change in environmental strategy: technological and political responses to climate change in the automobile industry.” In Hoffman, Andrew and Ventresca, Marc. eds. Organizations, Policy and the Natural Environment: Institutional and Strategic Perspectives. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Lin, Kun Chin. 2001. “Finding the Right Chemistry: The U.S. Chemical Industry in Asia.” Business and Politics 3: 185203.Google Scholar
Livesey, Sharon M. 2001. “Eco-identity as Discursive Struggle: Royal Dutch Shell, Brent Spar, and Nigeria.” The Journal of Business Communication 38: 5891.Google Scholar
Logsdon, Jeanne. M. 1985. “Organizational Responses to Environmental Issues: Oil Refining Companies and Air Pollution.” In Preston, Lee E. ed. Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy Vol. 7. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Manning, Peter K. 1982. “Analytic Induction.” In Manning, Peter K. and Smith, Robert B. eds. A Handbook of Social Science Methods. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.Google Scholar
Miller, Clark and Edwards, Paul N. eds. 2001. Changing the Atmosphere: Expert Knowledge and Environmental Governance. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Murtha, Thomas P. et al. 1998. “Global Mind-sets and Cognitive Shifts in a Complex Multinational Corporation.” Strategic Management Journal 19: 97114.Google Scholar
Murtha, Thomas P. and Lenway, Stephanie Ann. 1994. “Country Capabilities and the Strategic State: How National Political Institutions Affect Multinational Corporations’ Strategies.” Strategic Management Journal 15: 113129.Google Scholar
Nauss, Donald W. 1999. “Auto Makers are Finding it's Not Easy Being ‘Green’.” Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Ohmae, Kenichi. 1995. The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Oliver, Christine. 1991. “Strategic Responses to Institutional Processes.” Academy of Management Review 16: 145179.Google Scholar
Parson, Edward A. 1993. “Protecting the Ozone Layer.” In Haas, Peter M., Keohane, O., Levy, Robert and Marc A. eds. Institutions for the Earth: Sources of Effective International Environmental Protection. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Pauly, Louis W. and Reich, Simon. 1997. “National Structures and Multinational Corporate Behavior: Enduring Differences in an Age of Globalization.” International Organization 51: 130.Google Scholar
Porter, Michael E. 1990. The Competitive Advantage of Nations. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Porter, Michael E. and van der Linde, C. 1995. “Green and Competitive.” Harvard Business Review: 120134.Google Scholar
Prahalad, C. K. and Doz, Yves L. 1987. The Multinational Mission: Balancing Local Demands and Global Vision. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Reich, Robert. 1991. The Work of Nations: Preparing Ourselves for 21st-Century Capitalism. New York: Knopf.Google Scholar
Reinhardt, Forest L. 1998. Market Failure and the Environmental Strategies of Firms: The Micro-economic Roots of Corporate Environmental Policy. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Reinhardt, Forest L. 2000. “Global Climate Change and BP Amoco.” Harvard Business School Case Study.Google Scholar
Reinhardt, Forest L. 2000. Down to Earth: Applying Business Principles to Environmental Management. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.Google Scholar
Rosenzweig, Philip M. and Singh, Jitendra V. 1991. “Organizational Environments and the Multinational Enterprise.” Academy of Management Review 16: 340361.Google Scholar
Roth, Kendall and Morrison, Allen J. 1992. “Implementing Global Strategy: Characteristics of Global Subsidiary Mandates.” Journal of International Business Studies 23: 715735.Google Scholar
Rowlands, Ian H. 2000. “Beauty and the Beast? BP's and Exxon's Positions on Global Climate Change.” Environment and Planning 18: 339354.Google Scholar
Russo, Michael V. and Fouts, Paul A. 1997. “A Resource-based Perspective on Corporate Environmental Performance and Profitability.” Academy of Management Journal 40: 534559.Google Scholar
Schneider, Susan C. and de Meyer, Arnoud. 1991. “Interpreting and Responding to Strategic Issues: The Impact of National Culture.” Strategic Management Journal 12: 307320.Google Scholar
Scott, W. Richard and Meyer, John W. eds. 1994. Institutional Environments and Organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Sethi, S. Prakash and Elango, B. 1999. “The Influence of “Country of Origin” on Multinational Corporation Global Strategy: A Conceptual Framework.” Journal of International Management 5: 285298.Google Scholar
Shaffer, Brian. 1992. “Regulation, Competition, and Strategy: The Case of Automobile Fuel Economy Standards 1974–1991.” In Post, James. ed. Research in Corporate Social Performance and Policy. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Sharma, Sanjay. 2000. “Managerial Interpretations and Organizational Context as Predictors of Corporate Choice of Environmental Strategy.” Academy of Management Journal 43: 681702.Google Scholar
Solvell, Orjan and Zander, Ivo. 1995. “Organization of the Dynamic Multinational Enterprise: The Home-based and the Heterarchical MNE.” International Studies of Management & Organization 25: 1738.Google Scholar
Steger, Ulrich. 1993. “The Greening of the Board Room: How German Companies are Dealing with Environmental Issues.” In Fischer, Kurt and Schot, Johan. eds. Environmental Strategies for Industry. Washington DC: Island Press.Google Scholar
Stonham, Paul. 2000. “BP Amoco: Integrating Competitive and Financial Strategy.” European Management Journal 18: 411419.Google Scholar
Vernon, Ray. 1979. “The Product Cycle Hypothesis in a New International Environment.” Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics 41: 255267.Google Scholar
Vogel, David. 1978. “Why Businessmen Distrust Their State: The Political Consciousness of American Corporate Executives.” British Journal of Political Science 8: 4578.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wernerfelt, Birger. 1984. “A Resource-based View of the Firm.” Strategic Management Journal 5: 171180.Google Scholar
Westney, Eleanor. 1993. “Institutionalization Theory and the Multinational Corporation.” In Ghoshal, Sumantra and Westney, Eleanor. eds. Organization Theory and the Multinational Corporation. New York: St. Martin's Press.Google Scholar
Yergin, Daniel. 1991. The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power. New York: Touchstone.Google Scholar
Yin, Robert K. 1989. Case Study Research: Design and Methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Young, Oran R. 1994. International Governance: Protecting the Environment in a Stateless Society. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar