Firm‐Level Climate Change Initiatives and Christian Religiosity

ABSTRACT We conduct an empirical investigation into whether the Christian religiosity prevalent in a company's headquarters community influences its top management's decisions on climate change. The study tests two opposing theoretical frameworks: a stewardship hypothesis , which predicts a positive relationship in which managers act as environmental stewards, and a dominion hypothesis, which predicts a negative relationship in which managers exercise a harmful dominion over nature. The results present a compelling contrast. We find that general Christian religiosity is negatively associated with corporate climate initiatives, supporting the dominion hypothesis. Conversely, the specific Catholic religiosity within a community is associated positively with Catholic religiosity, supporting the stewardship hypothesis. This pattern is reinforced by data on managers' personal religiosity, showing that Catholic managers favor climate‐friendly initiatives, while Protestant managers disfavor them.