Abstract
After the publication of the Environmental Code of Conduct in Spain and the modification of the Penal Code, this study aims to analyse the influence of these documents on Spanish companies. This influence is measured from three perspectives: the effect of legal regulations on the environmental awareness of companies, the influence of imposing compliance with these regulations on environmental companies, and cooperation regulations as a form of control to avoid sanctions. 407 companies have participated in the research. The data has been processed from the PLS version 3.29. The statistical results show that the new code improves the awareness of environmental companies towards nature. Although, the cooperation norms are the best evaluated by the companies that have the greatest effect.
© 2022 Rafael Robina Ramírez.
Peer-review under responsibility of the Kaunas University of Technology, Panevėžys Faculty of Technologies and Business.
Keywords: Corporate compliance; Companies; Control, Cooperation.
- Introduction
Environmental policies have tightened in recent years due to the increase in environmental crimes [1] Although, the legal consequences for its non-compliance are ineffective in dissuading its commission [2]. In addition, they present other drawbacks such as the lack of understanding of the laws due to their constant renewals [3], the redundancy in their wording, the slight monetary fines and the few inspections [4]. Given the concern of perpetuating the environmental degradation caused by business development, some companies committed to confronting it emerged [5]. Sustainability in the field of entrepreneurship has become a useful tool to achieve this [6]. Likewise, these companies minimize the environmental damage they cause [7] and apply organizational changes to implement sustainability throughout their structure [8]. In addition to these business changes, laws have been tightened to protect nature [9]. Although companies receive benefits by taking into account the protection of nature in their operations [10], it does not really influence their ethical commitment [11].
In Spain, with the change in the Penal Code regarding environmental criminal sanctions and the [12] Corporate Governance Code 1/2015, of March 31, 2015 (New Modification of the Penal Code, Organic Law 1/2015), which modifies the previous [13] Organic Law 10/1995, of November 23 (Criminal Code 10/1995), the possibility of blaming companies for the damage they cause was established. The requirement was imposed to have an internal monitoring and evaluation system in the company to avoid criminal sanctions and better protect nature [14].
With this approval of the Penal Code and the scarcity of empirical studies that deal with this matter, we consider the influence that this legal modification has had on the improvement of attitudes towards nature by companies. The aim is to ensure the proper use of natural resources, taking into account environmental regulations or carrying out organizational changes framed in the Spanish Corporate Governance Code [15].
The purpose of this research has two dimensions. First, to study the willingness of environmental companies to implement structural environmental measures in their organization. Second, to evaluate the effect that legal norms have on the predisposition of environmental companies towards nature contextualized in the Corporate Governance Code. The statistical study of this research using SmartPLS [16] and carried out on 407 environmental companies has contributed to knowing the benefits of the Corporate Governance Code on companies for compliance with current laws. These discoveries can be useful for environmental authorities by having useful tools that prevent crimes. After this introductory section, the variables that influence the improvement of nature protection by environmental companies are detailed. Then, the data obtained from the information provided in the questionnaires are presented to finally explain the results of the data analysis and the conclusions.
