A Literature Review of the Factors Affecting the Compliance Costs of Environmental Regulation and Companies’ Productivity

Purpose: The aim of the paper is to identify potential factors that influence the relative size of environmental compliance costs through a literature review and propose a conceptual holistic model of the indirect impact of these factors on companies’ productivity levels. In the literature, the con...

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Main Authors: Lenart Milan Lah, Žiga Kotnik
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Ljubljana Press (Založba Univerze v Ljubljani) 2022-11-01
Series:Central European Public Administration Review
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.uni-lj.si/CEPAR/article/view/20605
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author Lenart Milan Lah
Žiga Kotnik
author_facet Lenart Milan Lah
Žiga Kotnik
author_sort Lenart Milan Lah
collection DOAJ
description Purpose: The aim of the paper is to identify potential factors that influence the relative size of environmental compliance costs through a literature review and propose a conceptual holistic model of the indirect impact of these factors on companies’ productivity levels. In the literature, the connection between costs associated with environmental regulation and companies’ productivity has been thoroughly tested within what is known as the Porter hypothesis, or simply PH. Design/methodology/approach: The paper applies the methods of integrative review of scientific literature and qualitative research with a document study. Findings: The results point to several key findings. First, the identified potential factors can be divided into two main categories, namely internal factors (size, sector, age, environmental awareness, etc.) and external factors (relevance of environmental regulation for businesses, environmental stimulus measures, quality of institutions, etc.). Second, the wide use of compliance costs within the indicators of stringency of environmental regulation suggests that the relative size of environmental compliance costs is likely to affect companies’ productivity. Practical Implications: The identification of factors affecting the size of compliance costs provides valuable insights to policy makers for the implementation of environmental regulation and making it more effective while not being discriminatory in terms of presenting an excessive burden to certain types of companies. Originality/significance: There has been a gap in the literature on environmental regulation compliance costs, as so far no study has comprehensively addressed all the potential factors influencing the relative size of environmental compliance costs for companies.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2591-2240
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publishDate 2022-11-01
publisher University of Ljubljana Press (Založba Univerze v Ljubljani)
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spelling doaj-art-ea98e93994c348debdae37417664efb32025-01-22T10:50:24ZengUniversity of Ljubljana Press (Založba Univerze v Ljubljani)Central European Public Administration Review2591-22402591-22592022-11-0120210.17573/cepar.2022.2.03A Literature Review of the Factors Affecting the Compliance Costs of Environmental Regulation and Companies’ ProductivityLenart Milan Lah0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1720-9201Žiga Kotnik1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2723-9364University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Public Administration, SloveniaUniversity of Ljubljana, Faculty of Public Administration, Slovenia Purpose: The aim of the paper is to identify potential factors that influence the relative size of environmental compliance costs through a literature review and propose a conceptual holistic model of the indirect impact of these factors on companies’ productivity levels. In the literature, the connection between costs associated with environmental regulation and companies’ productivity has been thoroughly tested within what is known as the Porter hypothesis, or simply PH. Design/methodology/approach: The paper applies the methods of integrative review of scientific literature and qualitative research with a document study. Findings: The results point to several key findings. First, the identified potential factors can be divided into two main categories, namely internal factors (size, sector, age, environmental awareness, etc.) and external factors (relevance of environmental regulation for businesses, environmental stimulus measures, quality of institutions, etc.). Second, the wide use of compliance costs within the indicators of stringency of environmental regulation suggests that the relative size of environmental compliance costs is likely to affect companies’ productivity. Practical Implications: The identification of factors affecting the size of compliance costs provides valuable insights to policy makers for the implementation of environmental regulation and making it more effective while not being discriminatory in terms of presenting an excessive burden to certain types of companies. Originality/significance: There has been a gap in the literature on environmental regulation compliance costs, as so far no study has comprehensively addressed all the potential factors influencing the relative size of environmental compliance costs for companies. https://journals.uni-lj.si/CEPAR/article/view/20605compliance costs, environmental regulation, productivity, Porter hypothesis, digital maturity
spellingShingle Lenart Milan Lah
Žiga Kotnik
A Literature Review of the Factors Affecting the Compliance Costs of Environmental Regulation and Companies’ Productivity
Central European Public Administration Review
compliance costs, environmental regulation, productivity, Porter hypothesis, digital maturity
title A Literature Review of the Factors Affecting the Compliance Costs of Environmental Regulation and Companies’ Productivity
title_full A Literature Review of the Factors Affecting the Compliance Costs of Environmental Regulation and Companies’ Productivity
title_fullStr A Literature Review of the Factors Affecting the Compliance Costs of Environmental Regulation and Companies’ Productivity
title_full_unstemmed A Literature Review of the Factors Affecting the Compliance Costs of Environmental Regulation and Companies’ Productivity
title_short A Literature Review of the Factors Affecting the Compliance Costs of Environmental Regulation and Companies’ Productivity
title_sort literature review of the factors affecting the compliance costs of environmental regulation and companies productivity
topic compliance costs, environmental regulation, productivity, Porter hypothesis, digital maturity
url https://journals.uni-lj.si/CEPAR/article/view/20605
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AT lenartmilanlah literaturereviewofthefactorsaffectingthecompliancecostsofenvironmentalregulationandcompaniesproductivity
AT zigakotnik literaturereviewofthefactorsaffectingthecompliancecostsofenvironmentalregulationandcompaniesproductivity