We investigate the relationship between business strategies and corporate carbon (CO2) emissions. Using a sample of US publicly listed firms, we document that firms following a prospector-type business strategy emit significantly less CO2 than those adopting a defender-type strategy. We also find that this relationship holds for Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions. This connection is more evident in firms with greater board gender diversity, those operating in environmentally sensitive industries, and those headquartered in regions with high social capital. Our mechanism analysis demonstrates that the innovation culture of prospector firms plays a crucial role in reducing CO2 emissions. We conduct a series of robustness tests, including two-stage least-squares and difference-in-differences, and show that our findings are not influenced by endogeneity issues. Further analysis reveals that higher CO2 emissions by prospectors result in a decline in firm value. Overall, our results underscore the importance of strategic alignment with environmental objectives for both environmental sustainability and firm performance.

中文翻译：

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商业战略和碳排放


我们研究业务战略与企业碳 （CO2） 排放之间的关系。使用美国上市公司的样本，我们记录了遵循勘探者型商业战略的公司比采用防御型战略的公司排放的二氧化碳要少得多。我们还发现，这种关系适用于范围 1、范围 2 和范围 3 排放。这种联系在董事会性别多元化程度较高的公司、在环境敏感行业运营的公司以及总部设在高社会资本地区的公司中更为明显。我们的机制分析表明，勘探公司的创新文化在减少二氧化碳排放方面起着至关重要的作用。我们进行了一系列稳健性测试，包括两阶段最小二乘法和双重差分法，并表明我们的研究结果不受内生性问题的影响。进一步的分析表明，探矿者更高的二氧化碳排放会导致公司价值下降。总体而言，我们的结果强调了与环境目标的战略一致性对于环境可持续性和公司绩效的重要性。