A New Measurement and Its Determinants for Corporate Environmental Management: An Empirical Study in Vietnam

This study examines the environmental performance of firms in Vietnam and its determinants. The contribution of the paper is on both theoretical and empirical aspects. On the theoretical matter, the research proposes a new index measuring environmental management at the firm level, namely the Environmental Management Index with a clear illustration for the case of Vietnam. On the empirical matter, the study points out and estimates determinants of the corporate environmental performance of Vietnamese firms measured by the newly proposed index. Due to data availability and the impossibility of getting more updated data, the empirical analysis covers only the period from 2004-2009. However, findings are still meaningful because, on the one hand, it provides some evidence for Vietnamese policymakers; on the other hand, with the robust methodology proposed, when more recent data are available, researchers can easily replicate the estimation for more insights. Empirical results show that factors having positive impacts on the environmental performance of Vietnamese firms are profit, capital stock, and interestingly public pressure proxied by the population of the province where the firm is located. Firm ownership does also matter in explaining the corporate environmental performance of Vietnam.