In the past decade, several publicized issues have revealed that the environmental and social performance of major automotive companies does not always conform to regulations or expectations. The purpose of this paper is to explore the sustainability behavior of automotive companies. Based on a systematic literature review, it is found that previous studies (a) offer only partial explanations for the behavior of automotive companies related to sustainability issues, and (b) both case studies and survey-based papers use inconsistent measurements. To address these gaps and inconsistencies, we propose a comprehensive theoretical model that describes the behavior of automotive companies along the relationships between “external pressures – strategy – practices – operational performance – financial performance”. To empirically validate our model, we apply structural equation modeling in SmartPLS using data on 142 automotive units from 22 countries. The results of the analysis suggest that pressure from external stakeholders has a positive impact on the inclusion of sustainability in the strategic agenda of automotive companies, which, in turn, increases the effort undertaken by these companies to implement sustainability practices. The implementation of such practices has a positive influence on operational performance in terms of environmental and social sustainability. Surprisingly, however, our findings do not indicate any significant effect on the financial performance of these firms.

在过去的十年中，一些公开的问题表明，主要汽车公司的环境和社会绩效并不总是符合法规或期望。本文的目的是探讨汽车公司的可持续发展行为。根据系统的文献综述，发现以前的研究（a）仅对与可持续发展问题相关的汽车公司的行为提供部分解释，并且（b）案例研究和基于调查的论文均使用不一致的度量。为了解决这些差距和矛盾，我们提出了一个综合的理论模型，该模型描述了汽车公司在“外部压力–战略–实践–运营绩效–财务绩效”之间的行为。为了凭经验验证我们的模型，我们使用来自22个国家/地区的142个汽车单元的数据在SmartPLS中应用了结构方程模型。分析结果表明，来自外部利益相关者的压力对将可持续发展纳入汽车公司的战略议程产生了积极影响，反过来，这也增加了这些公司为实施可持续发展实践而付出的努力。在环境和社会可持续性方面，此类做法的实施对运营绩效具有积极影响。但是，令人惊讶的是，我们的发现并未表明对这些公司的财务业绩有任何重大影响。分析结果表明，来自外部利益相关者的压力对将可持续发展纳入汽车公司的战略议程产生了积极影响，反过来，这也增加了这些公司为实施可持续发展实践而付出的努力。在环境和社会可持续性方面，此类做法的实施对运营绩效具有积极影响。但是，令人惊讶的是，我们的发现并未表明对这些公司的财务业绩有任何重大影响。分析结果表明，来自外部利益相关者的压力对将可持续发展纳入汽车公司的战略议程产生了积极影响，反过来，这也增加了这些公司为实施可持续发展实践而付出的努力。在环境和社会可持续性方面，此类做法的实施对运营绩效具有积极影响。但是，令人惊讶的是，我们的发现并未表明对这些公司的财务业绩有任何重大影响。在环境和社会可持续性方面，此类做法的实施对运营绩效具有积极影响。但是，令人惊讶的是，我们的发现并未表明对这些公司的财务业绩有任何重大影响。在环境和社会可持续性方面，此类做法的实施对运营绩效具有积极影响。但是，令人惊讶的是，我们的发现并未表明对这些公司的财务业绩有任何重大影响。