The Moderation Effects of Political Connections on the Relationship Between Environmental Performance and Firm Performance: Insight from Fortune Global Oil and Gas Companies

Growing awareness among citizens has rapidly changed the way organizations operate. Demanding for better-controlled pollution has forced the company to invest in technological advances in pollution-curb to ensure a safe environment for everyone. Companies must offer a strategic role in making sure excellent environmental efficiency. This thesis introduces effective environmental management for dependability goals which involve the political mechanism as a moderator to examine the cause and effects in companies’ environmental and firm performance. Through these political means, companies are able to transmit their objectives into practice as a source of reputation, good image, and financial constancy. A sample of Oil and Gas Companies was depicted on the Global Fortune website from 2012 to 2018. This study is to demonstrate the relationship between environmental performance and firm performance with the existence of political connections as moderator. The theory used in this study are, the Resource Dependency Theory, the Institutional theory, and the Helping Hand Theory. The analysis used in this study is the Panel Data methodology and a software-based tool used to develop the analysis of this study using STATA version 8.0. The accounting and financial data, the environmental information, as well as the politician’s information, were obtained from the company's annual report, Thomson Reuters, Asset 4, and cross-referencing from other reliable sources. This study contributes to the body of knowledge that the political assistance bearing the environmental and firm performance especially in the oil and gas companies. Keywords: Political connections, environmental performance, firm performanc