Businesses and researchers are increasingly seeking to understand the drivers of sustainability. Several recent studies have highlighted the effects of cultural factors when assessing environmental practices. While there is considerable research on the topic, we aim to provide additional evidence on the effects of cultural factors on environmental performance across countries. We propose that cultural factors affect sustainability strategies, although they depend on specific environmental issues. Little attention has been paid to the individual performance indicators forming the well-known global Environmental Performance Indicator (EPI) score when evaluating environmental performance. We use those individual indicators to identify specific environmental country-strategies depending on cultural and economic factors. The empirical analysis uses a sample of 31 European countries belonging to the European Environmental Agency, as they present common and aligned environmental strategies. The results show that despite common European objectives, country-specific environmental policies differ depending on Hofstede’s cultural dimensions. We also confirm that economic and innovation factors play an important role in the implementation of countries’ environmental policies in areas such as Ecosystem Vitality, Environmental Health, and water and sanitation.

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民族文化能否影响共同可持续政策的实施？欧洲的回应

企业和研究人员越来越多地寻求了解可持续发展的驱动因素。最近的几项研究强调了在评估环境实践时文化因素的影响。尽管对该主题进行了大量研究，但我们的目标是提供关于文化因素对各国环境绩效影响的更多证据。我们建议文化因素会影响可持续性战略，尽管它们取决于特定的环境问题。在评估环境绩效时，很少关注形成著名的全球环境绩效指标 (EPI) 分数的单个绩效指标。我们使用这些单独的指标来确定具体的环境国家战略，具体取决于文化和经济因素。实证分析使用了属于欧洲环境署的 31 个欧洲国家的样本，因为它们提出了共同且一致的环境战略。结果表明，尽管欧洲有着共同的目标，但具体国家的环境政策因霍夫斯泰德的文化维度而异。我们还确认，经济和创新因素在生态系统活力、环境健康以及水和卫生等领域的国家环境政策的实施中发挥着重要作用。