Impact of blue accounting on corporate environmental performance: Panel data analysis of South African JSE-listed marine-sensitive companies

The problems of pollution, global warming, and environmental damage are currently relevant and vital challenges for corporations, governments, and society. The implementation of green accounting is one of the responses of corporations to overcome sustainability issues. This study aims to examine the impact of green accounting on the level of environmental performance and the impact of environmental performance on corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure. This study also tests the role of environmental performance as a mediating variable in the relationship between green accounting and CSR disclosure. The sample consists of 95 listed Indonesian firms during the period 2017–2021. The results show that the adoption of green accounting positively affects environmental performance (coefficient is 0.291 and p-value < 0.01). Meanwhile, environmental performance positively affects CSR disclosure with a coefficient of 0.296 and a p-value < 0.01. The empirical evidence also shows that environmental performance has a critical role as a mediating variable in the effect of green accounting on CSR disclosure.

By focusing on environmental management accounting in SMEs, the study helps SME managers to effectively understand and find better ways of improving environmental management. The paper investigates environmental management accounting applications in manufacturing small and medium enterprises in Gauteng province. Small and medium enterprises were chosen based on their exclusion from the mainstream research on environmental management accounting (EMA). To achieve the main aim of the study, 24 in-depth interviews were undertaken among SMEs’ managers, accountants, chief executive officers, and owners. The study found that physical EMA is more common in SMEs than monetary EMA. 77% of SMEs’ respondents confirm using physical environmental information in their operations. Therefore, SMEs prefer EMA practices with little cost or no cost attached and practices that can effectively generate returns in the short term. In addition, the avoidance of monetary EMA is anchored on the premise of avoiding costly projects with no immediate material financial returns. Therefore, EMA is critical for SMEs to achieve sustainability.

Green human resource management (GHRM) is bringing positive transformations in business and society, as well as challenges for hotels. Drawing from social cognitive theory (SCT), this study examined green HRM with environmental and social performance. Significantly, this paper also used organizational green culture as a mediation variable. This empirical study employed a quantitative research method. Data were collected from 155 employees working in Pakistan’s hotels. The results demonstrate that green HRM (t-statistic value = 9.676, p-value = 0.000) is positively related to organizational green culture. In addition, organizational green culture (t-statistic value = 11.254, p-value = 0.000, t-statistic value = 16.882, p-value = 0.000) has a significant effect on environmental and social performance. Moreover, organizational green culture fully mediated the relationship between green HRM and environmental performance (t-statistic value = 5.444, p-value = 0.000). Finally, organizational green culture fully mediated the relationship between green HRM and social performance (t-statistic value = 7.218, p-value = 0.000).

Acknowledgment
This work is partially funded under FaME TBU No. IGA/FaME/2023/012 “Closed and open innovations: role of human resource, servant leadership, digitalisation, and uncertainty.” Authors would like to thank Prof. Rasa Smaliukienė for partially funding this research. This work also acknowledged Grant No.FSR-FORD 5-6/2022-23/FaME/006 “Linking stakeholder pressure, green HRM application and competitive advantage in the hotel industry.”