![Sample our Economics, Finance,Business & Industry journals, sign in here to start your access, latest two full volumes FREE to you for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5931/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Economics-Finance-Business-Industry.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
The paper addresses the interplay between economics and the politics of state-owned enterprises confronted with changes concerning the value of environment under post-1990 transformations. It examines the value of the environment as a result of state-public firm relations grounded on the multiple and often conflicting demands within the changing context and requirements of the EU environmental policy. By process-tracing two Romanian SOEs in the coal energy industry, the paper looks into: i) the hierarchical coordination and negotiation systems of state and SOEs in relation to the environment; ii) how the economic and political elites deal with the competition on free markets and use various mechanisms to empower the survival of SOEs that eventually translate into economic performance and environmental behavior. The findings suggest the salient decapitalization of SOEs due to the state behavior embedded in confusing procedures and actions that made room for political maneuvering. Also, the organizational culture of working in a “closed circle” may have strengthened the liabilities accrued to SOEs and undermined their capacity to deal with environmental requirements. Hence, a double-layered “dissonant” environment stems from the opposition between the requirements of the EU environmental policy and the commitment of domestic economic and political elites to support the survival of energy SOEs.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers and the editor for their valuable comments. Many thanks are due to our colleagues Adrian Kanovici and Viorel Mionel for the fruitful discussions of the topic.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.