Michael Wood
Western University
Michael Wood is a PhD Candidate at the Richard Ivey School of Business under the supervision of Dr. Tima Bansal. His dissertation work explores how geographical space affects organizational perceptions and responses to environmental issues. His work has been presented most recently at the Academy of Management's annual meeting in Boston, and GRONEN in Marseilles, France. He has also developed a related stream of research that explores the effects of psychological distance on managerial decision-making.
Prior to entering academia, Michael worked in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors. Most notably, he was the Executive Director of the Canadian Snowboard Federation.
Michael is also the co-owner of an apiary business that produces and supplies local restaurants and retailers with honey. When he is not getting stung, he also enjoys cross-country skiing, snowboarding, cycling, and running.
The materiality of chemical emissions and their effect on environmental performance
We test whether the material characteristics of toxic emissions have an effect on corporate environmental performance through time. The central argument is that firms tend to focus on those chemical emissions that are most noticeable to stakeholders but overlook those that are less obvious. We theorize that the greater the diffusion of toxic emissions through geographical space, the greater the number of stakeholders who would be able to perceive those emissions and who in turn could exert greater pressure to reduce emissions through time. Further, this work theorizes that the vividness of those emissions exacerbates that relationship, resulting in a greater reduction in toxic emissions through time. The results from our analysis supported the predictions that the greater the diffusion of toxic emissions, the more likely they will be to decline through time, especially when those emissions are easily sensed.