Title: Corporate vs. social attitudes toward environmental externalities

Authors: Pornpimol Limprayoon; Fred Y. Phillips

Addresses: Marshall Goldsmith School of Management, Alliant International University, Avenue of Nations, San Diego, California 92131, USA. ' CENTRUM Católica, The Business Center of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Jr. Daniel Alomía Robles 125, Los Alamos de Monterrico, Santiago de Surco, Lima, Perú

Abstract: In this quasi-longitudinal study, 389 US respondents reported their current attitudes and recollections of their attitudes of five years earlier on the same questions. Respondents were separate samples of corporate executives and |ordinary consumers|. A contribution of this study is the clear and separate measurement of (trends in) attitudes on public resources, externalities, and the environment. Results show that executives and consumers alike are more concerned about all three of these dimensions in 2009 than in 2004; that 2009 levels of concern about public resources (|the commons|) and the environment are equal between the two groups; that there is no difference in attitudes between the two industries studied (aerospace and software); and that there is a significant difference in attitude between executives and consumers on the matter of economic/environmental externalities. Implications for policy and for psychographic communication strategies are discussed.

Keywords: environmental attitudes; environmental concerns; corporate social responsibility; CSR; aerospace industry; software industry; environmental trends; public resources; economic externalities; environmental externalities; psychographic communication.

DOI: 10.1504/IJGENVI.2011.043506

International Journal of Global Environmental Issues, 2011 Vol.11 No.2, pp.109 - 138

Received: 16 Jul 2010
Accepted: 25 May 2011
Published online: 23 Oct 2014 *

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