Can institutional pressures serve as an efficacious catalyst for mitigating corporate carbon emissions?

Driving enterprises to implement carbon emission reduction actions and reduce carbon emissions is a crucial research topic in achieving the carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals. As a significant external environment factor influencing corporate behavior, can institutional pressures effectively promote enterprises to reduce carbon emissions? This study aims to probe into the impact and mechanism of three institutional pressures, namely coercive, mimetic, and normative, on corporate carbon emissions, taking Chinese-listed companies as the research object. The results indicate that coercive pressure is positively associated with corporate carbon reduction, while normative pressure has no significant impact. Furthermore, mimetic pressure impedes corporate carbon emissions. The mechanism test shows that carbon reduction is a mediator in the influence exerted by three institutional pressures on corporate carbon emissions. In response to coercive pressure and mimetic pressure, enterprises tend to reduce their carbon emissions by cultivating concepts related to carbon emission reduction. Concepts related to carbon reduction play a more dominant role than carbon reduction actions when both are mediators, with the former even replacing the latter. This research provides a new perspective for improving corporate environmental performance and corporate sustainability.