IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/bstrat/v18y2009i8p542-556.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

How to define an environmental policy to improve corporate sustainability in developing countries

Author

Listed:
  • Mônica Cavalcanti Sá de Abreu

Abstract

Continual efforts to work with government and society are crucial to persuade businesses to become even better engaged in sustainability practices in developing countries. This study rebuilds the SCP (structure–conduct–performance) paradigm to incorporate environmental variables and to address the environmental strategy choices. Grounded theory was adopted in a systematic collection of data in petrochemical, textile and beverage companies established in different Brazilian states. In‐depth personal interview, site visit and documentary evidence were coded and analysed. The empirical results demonstrate that environmental regulation and enforcement, environmental risk and demands from stakeholders play a central role in increasing the corporate commitment to the natural environment. The study defines four strategic generic types of organization, termed variously as sleeper, reactor, defender and innovator, owing to their solutions to environmental issues. This typology contributes as a roadmap for business decision makers to choose the appropriate environmental strategy in a global economy. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Suggested Citation

  • Mônica Cavalcanti Sá de Abreu, 2009. "How to define an environmental policy to improve corporate sustainability in developing countries," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(8), pages 542-556, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:18:y:2009:i:8:p:542-556
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.625
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.625
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/bse.625?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Giovanni Azzone & Giuliano Noci & Raffaella Manzini & Richard Welford & C. William Young, 1996. "Defining Environmental Performance Indicators: An Integrated Framework," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 69-80, June.
    2. Kristel Buysse & Alain Verbeke, 2003. "Proactive environmental strategies: a stakeholder management perspective," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(5), pages 453-470, May.
    3. Sanjay Sharma & Irene Henriques, 2005. "Stakeholder influences on sustainability practices in the Canadian forest products industry," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(2), pages 159-180, February.
    4. Banerjee, Subhabrata Bobby, 2002. "Corporate environmentalism: the construct and its measurement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 177-191, March.
    5. Dominguez, Luis V. & Brenes, Esteban R., 1997. "The internationalization of Latin American enterprises and market liberalization in the Americas: A vital linkage," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 3-16, January.
    6. Javier González‐Benito & Óscar González‐Benito, 2006. "A review of determinant factors of environmental proactivity," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 87-102, March.
    7. Henriques, Irene & Sadorsky, Perry, 1996. "The Determinants of an Environmentally Responsive Firm: An Empirical Approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(3), pages 381-395, May.
    8. Petra Christmann & Glen Taylor, 2001. "Globalization and the Environment: Determinants of Firm Self-Regulation in China," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 32(3), pages 439-458, September.
    9. Joao Carlos Ferraz & David Kupfer & Franklin Serrano, 1999. "Macro/Micro interactions: Economic and institutional uncertainties and structural change in Brazilian industry," Oxford Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 279-304.
    10. Vastag, Gyula & Kerekes, Sandor & Rondinelli, Dennis A., 1996. "Evaluation of corporate environmental management approaches: A framework and application," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(2-3), pages 193-211, June.
    11. Roberto Fernández Gago & Mariano Nieto Antolín, 2004. "Environmental management and strategic positioning of Spanish manufacturing industries," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(1), pages 33-42, January.
    12. Magali Delmas & Michael W. Toffel, 2004. "Stakeholders and environmental management practices: an institutional framework," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 13(4), pages 209-222, July.
    13. Ans Kolk & Anniek Mauser, 2002. "The evolution of environmental management: from stage models to performance evaluation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 11(1), pages 14-31, January.
    14. Julie L. Hass, 1996. "Environmental (‘Green’) Management Typologies: An Evaluation, Operationalization And Empirical Development," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(2), pages 59-68, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Giorgos Papagiannakis & Irini Voudouris & Spyros Lioukas, 2014. "The Road to Sustainability: Exploring the Process of Corporate Environmental Strategy Over Time," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(4), pages 254-271, May.
    2. Qi Guoyou & Zeng Saixing & Tam Chiming & Yin Haitao & Zou Hailiang, 2013. "Stakeholders' Influences on Corporate Green Innovation Strategy: A Case Study of Manufacturing Firms in China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(1), pages 1-14, January.
    3. Quang Le Van & Thanh Viet Nguyen & Manh Hung Nguyen, 2019. "Sustainable development and environmental policy: The engagement of stakeholders in green products in Vietnam," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(5), pages 675-687, July.
    4. Javier González‐Benito & Óscar González‐Benito, 2010. "A study of determinant factors of stakeholder environmental pressure perceived by industrial companies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(3), pages 164-181, March.
    5. Christin Seifert & Edeltraud Guenther, 2020. "Who cares?—Stakeholder relevance for voluntary environmental management in hospitals," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(4), pages 1786-1799, July.
    6. Harish Kumar Jeswani & Walter Wehrmeyer & Yacob Mulugetta, 2008. "How warm is the corporate response to climate change? Evidence from Pakistan and the UK," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 17(1), pages 46-60, January.
    7. Adolfo Carballo‐Penela & Juan Luis Castromán‐Diz, 2015. "Environmental Policies for Sustainable Development: An Analysis of the Drivers of Proactive Environmental Strategies in the Service Sector," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(8), pages 802-818, December.
    8. Elena Fraj‐Andrés & Eva Martínez‐Salinas & Jorge Matute‐Vallejo, 2009. "Factors affecting corporate environmental strategy in Spanish industrial firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 18(8), pages 500-514, December.
    9. David G Hyatt & Nicholas Berente, 2017. "Substantive or Symbolic Environmental Strategies? Effects of External and Internal Normative Stakeholder Pressures," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(8), pages 1212-1234, December.
    10. Christin Seifert & Matthias Damert & Edeltraud Guenther, 2020. "Environmental Management in German Hospitals—A Classification of Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-24, May.
    11. Frank‐Martin Belz & Birte Schmidt‐Riediger, 2010. "Marketing strategies in the age of sustainable development: Evidence from the food industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(7), pages 401-416, November.
    12. JS Keshminder & Pablo del Río, 2019. "The missing links? The indirect impacts of drivers on eco‐innovation," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 26(5), pages 1100-1118, September.
    13. Farida Saleem & Saiqa Saddiqa Qureshi & Muhammad Imran Malik, 2021. "Impact of Environmental Orientation on Proactive and Reactive Environmental Strategies: Mediating Role of Business Environmental Commitment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-16, July.
    14. Noushi Rahman & Corinne Post, 2012. "Measurement Issues in Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility (ECSR): Toward a Transparent, Reliable, and Construct Valid Instrument," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 105(3), pages 307-319, February.
    15. Marta Pinzone & Emanuele Lettieri & Cristina Masella, 2015. "Proactive Environmental Strategies in Healthcare Organisations: Drivers and Barriers in Italy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 131(1), pages 183-197, September.
    16. David Christopher Sprengel & Timo Busch, 2011. "Stakeholder engagement and environmental strategy – the case of climate change," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(6), pages 351-364, September.
    17. Shubham & Parikshit Charan & L.S. Murty, 2018. "Secondary stakeholder pressures and organizational adoption of sustainable operations practices: The mediating role of primary stakeholders," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(7), pages 910-923, November.
    18. Elisa Alt & Emilio Díez-de-Castro & Francisco Lloréns-Montes, 2015. "Linking Employee Stakeholders to Environmental Performance: The Role of Proactive Environmental Strategies and Shared Vision," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 128(1), pages 167-181, April.
    19. Lixiang Wang & Weian Li & Lujun Qi, 2020. "Stakeholder Pressures and Corporate Environmental Strategies: A Meta-Analysis," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(3), pages 1-16, February.
    20. Feng Zhang & Lei Zhu, 2019. "Enhancing corporate sustainable development: Stakeholder pressures, organizational learning, and green innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 1012-1026, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:18:y:2009:i:8:p:542-556. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-0836 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.