IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v17y2020i23p8993-d455284.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Environmental Practices in Firms Located in Underpopulated Rural Areas in Spain: The Case of the Province of Teruel

Author

Listed:
  • Luisa Esteban-Salvador

    (Department of Accounting and Finance, University of Zaragoza, 44003 Teruel, Spain)

  • Ana Felicitas Gargallo-Castel

    (Department of Business Management and Organisation, University of Zaragoza, 44003 Teruel, Spain)

  • Javier Pérez-Sanz

    (Department of Business Management and Organisation, University of Zaragoza, 44003 Teruel, Spain)

Abstract

This study aims to develop a better understanding of what drives small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to engage in environmental practices in isolated rural areas. Despite a growing literature on environmental behavior in different contexts, the green activities of SMEs in rural areas remains underexposed. This neglect is remarkable, and deserves attention given the serious depopulation problems they have to face, and the economic and social challenges that lie ahead. Using unique data from 141 SMEs in one of the most sparsely populated regions in the European Union, we study the influence of territorial relations on firms’ environmental conduct. Our results suggest that different territorial factors have some impact on the adoption of environmental practices. We report evidence indicative of the role of these factors in shaping environmental decisions. Finally, we offer suggestions for future research that could further develop our understanding of environmental management decisions in rural and underpopulated areas.

Suggested Citation

  • Luisa Esteban-Salvador & Ana Felicitas Gargallo-Castel & Javier Pérez-Sanz, 2020. "Environmental Practices in Firms Located in Underpopulated Rural Areas in Spain: The Case of the Province of Teruel," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(23), pages 1-16, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:23:p:8993-:d:455284
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/8993/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/23/8993/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johan Graafland & Reyer Gerlagh, 2019. "Economic Freedom, Internal Motivation, and Corporate Environmental Responsibility of SMEs," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 74(3), pages 1101-1123, November.
    2. Luisa Esteban-Salvador & Ana F. Gargallo-Castel, 2019. "Female Executives in the Service Sector: The Case of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Spain," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-18, October.
    3. Owen, John R. & Kemp, Deanna, 2013. "Social licence and mining: A critical perspective," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(1), pages 29-35.
    4. Artur A Steinerowski & Izabella Steinerowska-Streb, 2012. "Can social enterprise contribute to creating sustainable rural communities? Using the lens of structuration theory to analyse the emergence of rural social enterprise," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 27(2), pages 167-182, March.
    5. Robert Handfield & Robert Sroufe & Steven Walton, 2005. "Integrating environmental management and supply chain strategies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(1), pages 1-19, January.
    6. Linda Collins & Sam Usher, 2004. "Project PASCALEA – public and stakeholder consultation in developing high‐profile corporate environmental strategy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(2), pages 95-102, June.
    7. Craig Michael Deegan, 2019. "Legitimacy theory," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 32(8), pages 2307-2329, July.
    8. Ralph Adler & Mansi Mansi & Rakesh Pandey, 2018. "Biodiversity and threatened species reporting by the top Fortune Global companies," Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 31(3), pages 787-825, March.
    9. Anna Żelazna & Matylda Bojar & Ewa Bojar, 2020. "Corporate Social Responsibility towards the Environment in Lublin Region, Poland: A Comparative Study of 2009 and 2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-13, June.
    10. 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.
    11. Josefina L. Murillo‐Luna & Concepción Garcés‐Ayerbe & Pilar Rivera‐Torres, 2008. "Why do patterns of environmental response differ? A stakeholders' pressure approach," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(11), pages 1225-1240, November.
    12. José M. Agudo‐Valiente & Concepción Garcés‐Ayerbe & Manuel Salvador‐Figueras, 2015. "Corporate Social Performance and Stakeholder Dialogue Management," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(1), pages 13-31, January.
    13. Miguel Arato & Stijn Speelman & Guido Van Huylenbroeck, 2016. "Corporate Social Responsibility Applied for Rural Development: An Empirical Analysis of Firms from the American Continent," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-17, January.
    14. Céspedes-Lorente, José & Burgos-Jiménez, Jerónimo de & Álvarez-Gil, Maria José, 2003. "Stakeholders' environmental influence. An empirical analysis in the Spanish hotel industry," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 333-358, September.
    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. 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.
    2. Runhui Lin & Yuan Gui & Zaiyang Xie & Lu Liu, 2019. "Green Governance and International Business Strategies of Emerging Economies’ Multinational Enterprises: A Multiple-Case Study of Chinese Firms in Pollution-Intensive Industries," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-32, February.
    3. Chien‐Ming Chen & Maria J. Montes‐Sancho, 2017. "Do Perceived Operational Impacts Affect the Portfolio of Carbon‐Abatement Technologies?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(3), pages 235-248, May.
    4. Serdal Ozusaglam & Stéphane Robin & Chee Yew Wong, 2018. "Early and late adopters of ISO 14001-type standards: revisiting the role of firm characteristics and capabilities," The Journal of Technology Transfer, Springer, vol. 43(5), pages 1318-1345, October.
    5. Runa Sarkar, 2008. "Public policy and corporate environmental behaviour: a broader view," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 15(5), pages 281-297, September.
    6. Lynes, Jennifer K. & Andrachuk, Mark, 2008. "Motivations for corporate social and environmental responsibility: A case study of Scandinavian Airlines," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 14(4), pages 377-390, December.
    7. 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.
    8. Zhu, Qinghua & Sarkis, Joseph & Cordeiro, James J. & Lai, Kee-Hung, 2008. "Firm-level correlates of emergent green supply chain management practices in the Chinese context," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 36(4), pages 577-591, August.
    9. Lyton Chithambo & Venancio Tauringana & Ishmael Tingbani & Laura Achiro, 2022. "Stakeholder pressure and greenhouses gas voluntary disclosures," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 159-172, January.
    10. 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.
    11. Marco Guerci & Annachiara Longoni & Davide Luzzini, 2016. "Translating stakeholder pressures into environmental performance – the mediating role of green HRM practices," Post-Print hal-01251759, HAL.
    12. 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.
    13. Marion Allet & Marek Hudon, 2015. "Green Microfinance: Characteristics of Microfinance Institutions Involved in Environmental Management," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(3), pages 395-414, February.
    14. Hua-Hung (Robin) Weng & Ja-Shen Chen & Pei-Ching Chen, 2015. "Effects of Green Innovation on Environmental and Corporate Performance: A Stakeholder Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(5), pages 1-30, April.
    15. Vinod Kumar & Zillur Rahman & A. A. Kazmi, 2016. "Assessing the Influence of Stakeholders on Sustainability Marketing Strategy of Indian Companies," SAGE Open, , vol. 6(3), pages 21582440166, September.
    16. Anton Shevchenko, 2021. "Do financial penalties for environmental violations facilitate improvements in corporate environmental performance? An empirical investigation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1723-1734, May.
    17. D. Vazquez-Brust & C. Liston-Heyes & J. Plaza-Úbeda & J. Burgos-Jiménez, 2010. "Stakeholders Pressures and Strategic Prioritisation: An Empirical Analysis of Environmental Responses in Argentinean Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 91(2), pages 171-192, February.
    18. Luo, Le & Tang, Qingliang, 2016. "Determinants of the Quality of Corporate Carbon Management Systems: An International Study," The International Journal of Accounting, Elsevier, vol. 51(2), pages 275-305.
    19. David Ervin & JunJie Wu & Madhu Khanna & Cody Jones & Teresa Wirkkala, 2013. "Motivations and Barriers to Corporate Environmental Management," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(6), pages 390-409, September.
    20. Kate Odziemkowska & Witold J. Henisz, 2021. "Webs of Influence: Secondary Stakeholder Actions and Cross-National Corporate Social Performance," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(1), pages 233-255, January.

    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:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:23:p:8993-:d:455284. 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: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    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.