10.5465/AMBPP.2015.120 SHOOTING FOR THE MOON? RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN CORPORATE ENVIRONMENTAL ASPIRATIONS AND ACHIVEMENTS FREDERIK DAHLMANN Warwick Business School University of Warwick Coventry, CV4 7AL, U.K. LAYLA BRANICKI University of Birmingham, U.K. STEPHEN BRAMMER University of Birmingham, U.K. INTRODUCTION While a growing body of evidence has emerged that illuminates the circumstances in which companies reduce their environmental impacts (Cordano and Frieze, 2000; Jeswani et al., 2008; Kassinis and Vafeas, 2006; Kolk and Pinkse, 2005; Russo and Harrison, 2005; Sprengel and Busch, 2011; Weinhofer and Hoffmann, 2010), much of this research emphasises extra- organisational and organisational influences on environmental outcomes and relatively little environmental performance research has explored the importance of specific managerial practices for environmental outcomes. While numerous studies have examined the influence of certified environmental management systems on performance with mixed results (Bansal and Hunter, 2003; Boiral, 2007; Boiral and Henri, 2012; Jiang and Bansal, 2003; King et al., 2005), these generally see management systems in monolithic terms in relation to whether firms are certified or not. Much of the existing research has focused on the drivers for adopting management systems, often differentiating between competitive strategic advantages (Bansal and Hunter 2003; Russo, 2009) and symbolic signalling effects from certification (Bansal and Bogner, 2002; Rondinelli and Vastag, 2000). Outside the research on firms’ environmental performance, a strand of literature has developed that explores the role of organisational aspirations and goal setting in driving organisational learning and performance (Foss and Lindenberg, 2013; Lee et al., 2014; Locke and Latham, 2009; Ordóñez et al., 2009; Shinkle, 2012; Sitkin et al, 2011; Zhang and Jia, 2013). Specifically, existing debates revolve around the likelihood of firms setting ambitious ‘stretch goals’ in the first place and seek to explain and predict whether, and in what circumstances, they are likely to be effective. Much of this literature draws on psychological and behavioural theory as well as strategic management perspectives. However, as yet such research frequently tends to be of theoretical nature, and there is a recognition of the need for more empirical investigation of non-financial stretch goals (Shinkle, 2012; Sitkin et al., 2011). In this paper, we add to the small amount of research that examines the relationship between organisational aspirations and environmental outcomes by analysing both firms’ choices in relation to establishing corporate environmental aspirations, and the impacts of these on organisational environmental performance. Empirically, we focus on the influences of environmental aspirations on firms’ carbon emissions, thus contributing to the small body of research that examines the influences on concrete corporate environmental impacts, and to firm