MSc Capstone Project: Creating Cohesion in Energy Strategy: An Analysis of Risk Management in the Western Canadian Petroleum Industry

Abstract

Strategic synergy can lead to operational efficiencies and improved performance, a phenomenon not sufficiently explored within the environmental strategies of the Western Canadian petroleum industry (WCPI). This study, therefore, explores, “to what extent does the WCPI demonstrate synergy in the discussion of risk between their environmental and corporate strategies?” and, “how is this relationship moderated by industry subsector and firm size?”. Through textual analysis of published environmental and corporate reports, firms demonstrated a lack of strategic synergy and inconsistent risk disclosures: citing more environmental risks in their environmental reporting, with inconsistent financial and operational risks within corporate reporting. Although some relationship to the moderating variables is observable, statistical analysis provided mixed results. Moreover, firms demonstrated homogeneity in risk disclosures and strategic methodologies, with evidence of coercive and mimetic institutional isomorphic forces. Stricter ESG frameworks or adopting integrated reporting could drive greater consistency but will still require additional oversight and regulation.

You can read my entire project here at the University of Calgary’s PRISM repository.

Citation

Hoang, C. (2023). Creating Cohesion in Energy Strategy: An Analysis of Risk Management in the Western Canadian Petroleum Industry (Unpublished master's project). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB.