Hostname: page-component-f554764f5-nt87m Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-20T19:31:56.162Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

When Social Norms and Pressures Are Not Enough: Environmental Performance in the Trucking Industry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2024

Dorothy Thornton ,
Robert A. Kagan  and
Neil Gunningham
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Why do some business firms and not others work hard to advance regulatory values such as environmental protection and comply with regulations? Previous research indicates that business firms are influenced in that regard by a number of variables—not merely the perceived likelihood of legal punishment but also the risk of negative reactions by societal actors (which we call “social license pressures”) and the intensity of managers' commitment to norms of law-abidingness and environmentalism. This article reports on a study of control of diesel emissions in the trucking industry, a highly competitive market with many small firms, mobile pollution sources, expensive “best control technologies,” and weak regulatory demands. In contrast to findings in studies of large firms, we found that social license pressures on small trucking firms are minimal. Trucking companies' environmental performance—good and bad—flows from managers' economic choices, which are influenced by their particular market niche. In such highly competitive, small-firm market contexts, these findings imply, significant improvement in environmental performance is not likely without strong direct regulatory pressures.

Type
Articles
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 43 , Issue 2 , June 2009 , pp. 405 - 435
Copyright
© 2009 Law and Society Association.

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.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

Thanks are due to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency STAR-Grant Program for financial support and also to the Center for the Study of Law & Society, University of California, Berkeley. Invaluable research assistance was provided by Matt Hartley. Anonymous reviewers for the Law & Society Review provided very constructive comments. Special thanks are due to the study participants and regulatory informants without whom this work could not have been completed.

References

References

American Trucking Association (2005) 12 Standard Trucking and Transportation Statistics 2.Google Scholar
Ayres, Ian, & Braithwaite, John (1992) Responsive Regulation. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Bardach, Eugene, & Kagan, Robert A. (2002) Going by the Book: The Problem of Regulatory Unreasonableness, 2d ed. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Borck, Jonathan C., & Coglianese, Cary (2008) “Explaining Business Participation in Voluntary Environmental Programs.” Paper presented at Virtues and Vices of Legalism: A Conference to Honor the Work of Robert A. Kagan, Berkeley, CA, 25 Aug.Google Scholar
Braithwaite, John, & Makkai, Toni (1991) “Testing an Expected Utility Model of Corporate Deterrence,” 25 Law & Society Rev. 7–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
CARB (2008) Proposed Regulation to Reduce Emissions from In-Use On-Road Diesel Vehicles, California Air Resources Board, December, http://www.arb.ca.gov/msprog/onrdiesel/documents/truckruleoverview.pdf.Google Scholar
Coglianese, Cary, & Lazer, David (2003) “Management-Based Regulation: Prescribing Private Management to Achieve Public Goals,” 37 Law & Society Rev. 691–730.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Easterbrook, Gregg (1999) “America the O.K.,” The New Republic 19–22 (4 and 11 Jan.).Google Scholar
Edelman, Murray (1964) The Symbolic Uses of Politics. Urbana, IL: Univ. of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Environmental Defense Fund (2008) “The Problem with Diesel,” http://www.edf.org/page.cfm?tagID=51.Google Scholar
Eisinger, Douglas, & Niemeier, Debbie A. (2004) “Transportation Control Measures: Federal Requirements and State Implementation Plan Development Considerations,” Transportation Research Record: J. of the Transportation Research Board 59–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Friedman, Lawrence M. (1974) A History of American Law. New York: Simon & Schuster.Google Scholar
Grabowski, David C., & Morrisey, Michael A. (2002) “The Effect of State Regulations on Motor Vehicle Fatalities for Younger and Older Drivers: A Review and Analysis,” 79 Milbank Q. 517–45.Google Scholar
Gray, Wayne B., & Scholz, John T. (1993) “Does Regulatory Enforcement Work? A Panel Analysis of OSHA Enforcement,” 27 Law & Society Rev. 177–213.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, Wayne B., & Shadbegian, Ronald J. (2005) “When and Why Do Plants Comply? Paper Mills in the 1980s,” 27 Law & Policy 238–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunningham, Neil, Kagan, Robert A., & Thornton, Dorothy (2003) Shades of Green: Regulation, Business, Environment. Stanford, CA: Stanford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Gunningham, Neil, Kagan, Robert A., & Thornton, Dorothy (2004) “Social License and Environmental Protection: Why Businesses Go Beyond Compliance,” 29 Law and Social Inquiry 307–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gunningham, Neil, Thornton, Dorothy, & Kagan, Robert A. (2005) “Motivating Management: Corporate Compliance in Environmental Protection,” 27 Law & Policy 289.Google Scholar
Harrison, Katherine (1995) “Is Cooperation the Answer? Canadian Environmental Enforcement in Comparative Context,” 14 J. of Policy Analysis and Management 221–316.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Howard-Grenville, Jennifer, et al. (2008) “Constructing the License to Operate: Internal Factors and Their Influence on Corporate Environmental Decisions,” 30 Law & Policy 73–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Johnston, Jason Scott (2006) “The Promise and Limits of Voluntary Management-Based Regulatory Reform: An Analysis of EPA's Strategic Goals Program,” in Coglianese, C. & Nash, J., eds., Leveraging the Private Sector: Management-Based Strategies for Improving Environmental Performance. Washington, DC: Resources for the Future.Google Scholar
Kagan, Robert A. (1994) “Regulatory Enforcement,” in Rosenbloom, D. & Schwartz, R., eds., Handbook of Regulation and Administrative Law. New York: Marcel Dekker.Google Scholar
Kagan, Robert A., & Skolnick, Jerome (1993) “Banning Smoking: Compliance Without Enforcement,” in Rabin, R. & Sugarman, S., eds., Smoking Policy: Law, Politics and Culture. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Kagan, Robert A., et al. (2003) “Explaining Corporate Environmental Performance: How Does Regulation Matter? 37 Law & Society Rev. 51–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lewis-Beck, Michael, & Alford, John R. (1980) “Can Government Regulate Safety? The Coal Mine Example,” 74 American Political Science Rev. 745–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
May, Peter J. (2005) “Compliance Motivations: Perspectives for Farmers, Homebuilders and Marine Facilities,” 27 Law & Policy 317–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mehta, Alex, & Hawkins, Keith (1998) “Integrated Pollution Control and Its Impact: Perspectives from Industry,” 10 J. of Environmental Law 61–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meng, Ying-Ying, et al. (2006) Living Near Heavy Traffic Increases Asthma Severity. UCLA Health Policy Research Briefs, August.Google ScholarPubMed
Miller, Kristin A., et al. (2007) “Long-Term Exposure to Air Pollution and Incidence of Cardiovascular Events in Women,” 356 New England J. of Medicine 447–58.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Porter, Michael E., & Van Der Linde, Claas (1995) “Green and Competitive: Ending the Stalemate,” Harvard Business Review 120–134 (September–October).Google Scholar
Prakash, Aseem (2000) Greening the Firm: The Politics of Corporate Environmentalism. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scruggs, Lyle A. (1999) “Institutions and Environmental Performance in Seventeen Western Democracies,” 29 British J. of Political Science 1–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scholz, John T. (1984) “Cooperation, Deterrence, and the Ecology of Regulatory Enforcement,” 18 Law and Society Rev. 179–224.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scholz, John T., & Gray, Wayne B. (1990) “OSHA Enforcement and Workplace Injuries: A Behavioral Approach to Risk Assessment,” 3 J. of Risk and Uncertainty 283–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shover, Neil, et al. (1984) “Regional Variation in Regulatory Law Enforcement: The Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act,” in Hawkins, K. & Thomas, J., eds., Enforcing Regulation. Boston: Kluwer-Nijhoff.Google Scholar
Sumner, William Graham (1906) Folkways. Boston: Ginn.Google Scholar
Thornton, Dorothy, et al. (2005) “General Deterrence and Corporate Environmental Behavior,” 27 Law & Policy 262.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thornton, Dorothy (2008) “Compliance Costs, Regulation, and Environmental Performance: Controlling Truck Emissions in the US,” 2 Regulation & Governance 275–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
United Parcel Service (2007) UPS Corporate Sustainability Report, 2006 Executive Summary, July.Google Scholar
Vandenbergh, Michael (2003) “Beyond Elegance: A Testable Typology of Social Norms in Corporate Environmental Compliance,” 22 Stanford Environmental Law J. 55–144.Google Scholar
Vogel, David (2005) The Market for Virtue: The Potential and Limits of Corporate Social Responsibility. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.Google Scholar

Statutes Cited

U.S. Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C., Secs. 7401–7671 (1970).Google Scholar
1970 Amendments, Pub. L. No. 91-604, 84 Stat. 1676.Google Scholar
1977 Amendments, Pub. L. No, 95-95, 91 Stat. 1676.Google Scholar
1990 Amendments, Pub. L. No. 101-549, 104 Stat. 2399.Google Scholar