Corporate action on climate change: perspectives on time, risk, and value

Thesis

Companies are increasingly under pressure from governments, investors, and consumers to act on climate change by reducing, and ultimately eliminating, carbon emissions (decarbonisation). Yet companies continue to be held accountable for generating strong financial results and safeguard, if not maximise, shareholder value. This raises an important question: How do companies act on climate change in the face of intensifying decarbonisation and ongoing commercial imperatives? This thesis examines corporate action on climate change through three complementary perspectives on time, risk, and value. Drawing on economic geography, organisation and management, and accounting research, the thesis investigates: (1) the relationship between organisational time orientation and cor-porate carbon emissions; (2) how companies reconcile institutional demands to reduce carbon emissions (climate-stewardship logic) with pressures to create shareholder value (market logic); and (3) the determinants and capital market implications of corporate climate risk disclosures.

The thesis finds that (1) long-term oriented companies generate less carbon emissions, (2) companies reconcile market and climate-stewardship logics by transforming the system-level problem of climate change into the managerial – and thus manageable – object of climate risk, and (3) self-reported corporate climate risk exposures are largely not reflected in stock market values. Together, these insights shed light on the antecedents, processes, and consequences of corporate action on climate change, an issue that has received limited attention by economic geographers to date. Overall, this thesis provides evidence on the contours of an emerging carbon economy through the eyes of its central actors – companies in carbon-intensive industries – and highlights the importance and potential of researching the ways in which companies navigate and shape the transition to a low-carbon economy.

Authors: Metzner, M

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-vjrpxk7ay
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: climate change; corporate strategy; climate risk; risk management; accounting
• Subjects: Climate change mitigation; Strategy; Organization; Accounting