Public Relations Review 35 (2009) 133–135

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Public Relations Review

Research in brief

The impact of green initiatives on environmental legitimacy and

admiration of the organization
Denise Sevick Bortree ∗
Penn State University, 106 Carnegie Building, University Park, PA 16802, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Communication about environmental policies and practices has become a critical area of
Received 18 July 2008 focus for corporations. Through an online experiment this study explored the impact of
Received in revised form 17 December 2008
awareness of environmental initiatives on perceived environmental legitimacy and the sub-
Accepted 6 January 2009
sequent impact of legitimacy on organizational admiration. Findings suggest that raising
awareness of an organization’s environmental initiatives improves environmental legiti-
Keywords:
macy; however, investigation of the relationship between legitimacy and admiration found
Legitimacy
Environment that only one dimension of environmental legitimacy influences the level of admiration of
Green an organization.
Admiration © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Online experiment

1. Introduction

Research suggests that an organization’s actions toward the environment have consequences for its business operations.
A study published in 2008 found that consumers prefer to purchase from companies that behave responsibly toward the
environment (Sass, 2008). As well, organizations that are more environmentally legitimate, meaning their environmental
performance is perceived as more responsible and useful for society, are considered more caring (Livesey & Kearins, 2002)
and are less likely to experience negative consequences from key stakeholders such as activists, governmental agencies and
the media (Bansal & Clelland, 2004).
This study makes three important contributions to the literature. First, it offers reliable and valid measures of environmen-
tal legitimacy. Second, it establishes that awareness of an environmental initiative can improve environmental legitimacy,
and third, it identifies the dimension of environmental legitimacy that leads to greater admiration of an organization.
Environmental legitimacy has been defined as “the generalized perception or assumption that a firm’s corporate envi-
ronmental performance is desirable, proper, or appropriate” (Bansal & Clelland, 2004, p. 94). Two dimensions of legitimacy
identified in the literature are utility and responsibility (Epstein, 1972; Hearit, 1995; Hurst, 1970). For environmental pro-
grams this would mean organizations’ environmental initiatives are effectively addressing key environmental issues (utility)
and that the initiatives are addressing concerns of groups or communities affected by the functions of the organization
(responsibility).
One possible outcome of improved environmental legitimacy is greater admiration of the organization by key publics.
Admiration, defined as the degree to which an organization is esteemed by its stakeholders, has been identified as one of
the strongest predictors of quality in an organization–public relationship (Bortree & Waters, 2008).

∗ Tel.: +1 814 865 1274.

E-mail address: dsb177@psu.edu.

0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2009.01.002
134 D.S. Bortree / Public Relations Review 35 (2009) 133–135

Given this study’s interest in exploring the relationship between environmental initiatives, environmental legitimacy and
admiration, the following research question and hypotheses are proposed.

RQ1: What are valid and reliable measures of environmental legitimacy?

H1: Awareness of an environmental initiative will lead to a more positive evaluation of organizational environmental
legitimacy.
H2: The level of environmental legitimacy will predict the level of admiration of an organization.

2. Method

To explore the stated research question and test hypotheses, an online experiment was conducted with 289 undergraduate
students at a large northeastern university. The control group viewed a television advertisement for a new laptop introduced
by Apple Inc. The treatment group viewed the same advertisement followed by a one-minute video from Apple on the
environmentally friendly aspects of the new computer. After viewing the online video material, participants completed a
questionnaire that measured environmental legitimacy, admiration of Apple and demographic information.
Eight measures of environmental legitimacy were created to reflect utility and responsibility. Four measures assessed
utility, “acts responsibly toward the environment,” “reputation in regard to the environment is good,” “engages in sustainable
behaviors,” and “is making adequate progress in changing its behaviors that damage the environment.” Four measures of
responsibility asked whether the company was “addressing environmental issues that are of concern to its customers,” “as
concerned about the environment as they are,” “doing enough to protect the environment,” and “responding to environmental
issues that concern the communities in which it does business.” Participants responded to these questions on a nine-point
Likert-type scale. In addition, four measures of admiration were adopted from the literature (Bortree & Waters, 2008).
Reliability of admiration measures was strong, ˛ = .88.

3. Results

The respondent group was 53% female and 47% male with 88 percent of respondents reporting that they were Caucasian,
4% Asian, 4% Latino, 3% African-American, and 1% other. A manipulation check question was used to eliminate participants
who did not view the video. Of the 289 responses to the questionnaire, 19 were eliminated, resulting in a final respondent
group of 270 (n = 270).
To address research question one about validity and reliability of measures of environmental legitimacy, exploratory factor
analyses were conducted separately for the four measures of utility and four measures of responsibility. Pearson’s correlation
matrices were produced, and principle components analyses with varimax rotations were performed. Only components with
an eigenvalue greater than one were considered. In both cases, the four measures loaded strongly onto one factor (factor
loading ranged from .82 to .89) which accounted for 76% of the variance in utility and 74% of the variance in responsibil-
ity. Reliability of the measures were assessed using Cronbach’s alpha, utility ˛ = .89 (M = 6.0, SD = 1.3), and responsibility
˛ = 88 (M = 5.8, SD = 1.3). Considering the results of these tests, the validity and reliability of the measures of environmental
responsibility were presumed to be high.
The first hypothesis posited that increased environmental awareness of an organization’s environmental initiative would
lead to a higher rating of organizational environmental legitimacy. A t-test was run to compare ratings by the treatment and
control groups. Results indicated that respondents who were exposed to the environmental initiative rated the company
as significantly higher in utility (M = 6.4, SD = 1.2) than those who were not exposed (M = 5.5, SD = 1.2) (t = 6.4, p < .001), and
those in the treatment group rated responsibility higher (M = 6.3, SD = 1.2) than those in the control group (M = 5.3, SD = 1.2)
(t = 7.0, p < .001). H1 was supported.
To test the second hypothesis that greater environmental legitimacy would lead to greater admiration, a multiple regres-
sion analysis was run with the two dimensions of environmental legitimacy as the independent variables and admiration
as the dependent variable. Results revealed that only responsibility (ˇ = .45, p < .001) was a significant predictors of admira-
tion, accounting for 20% of the variance in admiration. A subsequent path analysis supported the finding that responsibility
(ˇ = .43, p < .001) significantly predicted admiration while utility did not. H2 was partially supported.

4. Discussion

Results of this study strongly suggest that the proposed measures of environmental legitimacy are valid and reliable.
In addition, awareness of an environmental initiative positively influences environmental legitimacy of an organization.
However, only one dimension of legitimacy, responsibility, significantly predicts the level of admiration of an organization.
In a business environment in which publics increasingly expect organizations to focus resources on corporate social
responsibility, it’s not surprising that responsibly addressing environmental concerns of key publics and communities
(responsibility) leads to greater admiration of the organization. What is surprising is that the degree to which organiza-
tions are, in fact, effectively addressing environmental issues (utility) does not predict admiration. This may be a sign that
environmental responsibility has become an expectation. Organizations may be expected to eradicate the harm done to the
 D.S. Bortree / Public Relations Review 35 (2009) 133–135 135

environment by their business processes. Organizations which take into account, additionally, the concerns and needs of the
communities and groups affected by their businesses gain the admiration of their key publics.
An organization earns environmental legitimacy by meeting the expectations of the societies in which it functions;
however, expectations of environmental performance appear to be changing. The expectations of corporations ten years ago
are different from those of today. Consumers and activists are pushing organizations to become greener and are demanding
changes in the ways organizations conduct their business. The findings from this study suggest that environmental initiatives
may help organizations bridge the legitimacy gap, but to gain admiration for the organization these initiatives should address
issues of concern to key groups and communities.

5. Conclusion

Limitations of this study include its generalizability due to the sample, undergraduate students. Second, the organization
chosen for this study, Apple, was named by Forbes Magazine as the most admired company in 2008. It is possible that the
level of admiration for this company masked the relationship between utility and admiration. The study of a less admired
company may offer additional insights into the relationship between the two types of legitimacy and admiration.
Future research in this area should test these scales with other organization types and public types. In addition, further
research should explore sources of influence on the types of legitimacy, including activist activities, organizational crises and
other environmental factors.

References

Bansal, P., & Clelland, I. (2004). Talking trash: Legitimacy, impression management, and unsystematic risk in the context of the natural environment. Academy
of Management Journal, 47(1), 93–103.
Bortree, D. S., & Waters, R. D. (2008). Admiring the organization: A study of the relational quality outcomes of the nonprofit organization–volunteer
relationship. Public Relations Journal, 2(3) [retrieved online on November 24, 2008 from http://www.prsa.org/prjournal/Vol2No3/BortreeWaters.pdf]
Epstein, E. M. (1972). The historical enigma of corporate legitimacy. California Law Review, 60, 1701–1717.
Hearit, K. M. (1995). Mistakes were made: Organizations, apologia, and crises of social legitimacy. Communication Studies, 46, 1–17.
Hurst, J. W. (1970). The legitimacy of the business corporation in the law of the United States, 1780–1970. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia.
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