Trust and enterprise climate change mitigation: Evidence from Vietnam

In the wake of COP28, organizations worldwide are under increasing pressure to accelerate their efforts toward achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. While the role of formal policies and incentives has been widely studied, less attention has been paid to the influence of social factors such as trust on corporate environmental action. Our study examines the impact of generalized trust on enterprise's climate change mitigation in Vietnam, the emerging economy facing both high climate vulnerability and institutional challenges. Trust within an organization can foster employee alignment, reduce resistance to change, and strengthen commitment to shared sustainability goals. Despite growing evidence linking trust to pro-environmental behavior at the individual level, little is known about its role at the enterprise level. Using a novel dataset combining the World Bank Enterprise Surveys 2023, World Values Survey wave 7, and regional indices, we analyze 702 enterprises in various provinces across Vietnam. Our study reveals that enterprises operating in provinces with higher levels of generalized trust are more likely to adopt climate change mitigation. The finding offers new insights into the role of social capital in driving corporate climate action and provide important implications for sustainability strategies in emerging markets.