Turning Up the Heat: A Multilevel Review on the Role of Corporate Governance in Climate Change

Challenges of climate change have become one of the most critical problems for society. Governance scholars show increasing interest in understanding how internal and external corporate governance actors shape firm-level environmental sustainability. Moreover, effects of corporate governance actors at multiple levels such as the individual, team, firm and supra-firm level are critical in shaping firm-level environmental sustainability. We review the literature over the period from 1992 to 2021 to identify corporate governance actors’ motivation, expertise and power required to shape firm-level environmental sustainability. Doing so, we highlight the theoretical mechanisms suggested in the extant stock of literature to examine the interfaces between levels in a multilevel synthesis. On the basis of this synthesis, we identify strengths and shortcomings in current knowledge. We present a future research agenda that identifies relevant gaps at single levels and calls for integrative research focusing on how internal and external corporate governance actors influence one another. Therefore, this study provides a conceptual basis for combining existing knowledge of corporate governance actors’ multi-level effects in shaping firm-level environmental sustainability.