We developed an overarching multi-level mediation model using 199 responses from 53 companies from the industrial sector in Jordan to examine (1) the mediation effect of firm-level environmental climate on the relationship between formal regulatory institutions and firm-level strategic environmental actions, and (2) the role that informal institutions conveyed via political, normative, and business connections plays on the environment-related cognitions of top managers. At the ‘within’ level, our results indicate that top managers with strong political connections develop negative environment-related cognitions while those with strong normative and business connections develop positive environment-related cognitions. At the firm-level, our results reveal that firm-level environmental climate – as an aggregated measure of the ‘within’ level environmental cognitions of top managers – fully mediates the relationship between formal regulatory institutions and firm-level strategic environmental actions. This study demonstrates how multilevel research is used to enrich understanding of firm-level strategic environmental actions, with implications beyond Jordan.

我们使用来自约旦工业部门的 53 家公司的 199 份回复开发了一个总体的多层次调解模型，以检验 (1) 公司层面环境气候对正式监管机构和公司层面战略环境行动之间关系的中介作用， (2) 非正式制度通过政治、规范和商业联系传达的作用对高层管理者的环境相关认知所起的作用。在“内部”层面，我们的结果表明，具有强烈政治联系的高层管理人员会产生负面的环境相关认知，而那些具有强大规范和商业联系的高层管理人员会产生积极的环境相关认知。在公司层面，我们的研究结果表明，公司层面的环境气候——作为高层管理人员“内部”层面环境认知的综合衡量标准——完全调节了正式监管机构与公司层面战略环境行动之间的关系。本研究展示了如何使用多层次研究来丰富对公司层面战略环境行动的理解，其影响超出约旦。