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Proactive Environmental Strategies in Healthcare Organisations: Drivers and Barriers in Italy

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  • Marta Pinzone
  • Emanuele Lettieri
  • Cristina Masella

Abstract

This study sheds new light on why healthcare organisations are having difficulty responding to the growing pressure from stakeholders to proactively address their responsibility to deliver high-quality services without harming the environment. Basing our work on past research on stakeholder pressure and environmental barriers, we conceptualise and empirically test the effect of the interplay between stakeholder pressure and internal barriers on healthcare organisations’ adoption of proactive environmental strategies (PESs). To test the proposed hypotheses, a survey was carried out among medical directors of Italian healthcare organisations in 2012. Our results show that the lack of commitment to environmental issues within the organisation represents the main barrier to healthcare organisations’ implementing PESs. Furthermore, the difficulties in evaluating the impacts of advanced environmental practices negatively moderate the influence of stakeholders on developing PESs. Our findings contribute to extending previous knowledge on PESs in two ways: (i) focusing on the healthcare sector, our study investigates the phenomenon in a research context that has been largely overlooked in the sustainability literature; and (ii) cross-cutting previous research on stakeholder pressure and internal barriers, the study conceptualises and tests a more complete framework for understanding the adoption of PESs. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2015

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  • 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.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:jbuset:v:131:y:2015:i:1:p:183-197
    DOI: 10.1007/s10551-014-2275-8
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    4. Oksana Seroka‐Stolka & Kamil Fijorek, 2020. "Enhancing corporate sustainable development: Proactive environmental strategy, stakeholder pressure and the moderating effect of firm size," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2338-2354, September.
    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. Ali Uyar & Cemil Kuzey & Merve Kilic & Abdullah S. Karaman, 2021. "Board structure, financial performance, corporate social responsibility performance, CSR committee, and CEO duality: Disentangling the connection in healthcare," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 28(6), pages 1730-1748, November.
    7. Teena Bharti & Satish Chandra Ojha & Aviral Kumar Tiwari, 2022. "Interplay of Workplace Sustainability, Sustainable Work Performance, Optimism, and Resilience: The Moderating Role of Green Creativity in Luxury Hotels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(22), pages 1-15, November.
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    10. Christin Seifert, 2018. "The Barriers for Voluntary Environmental Management Systems—The Case of EMAS in Hospitals," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(5), pages 1-19, May.
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    13. Jesús Valero-Gil & Pilar Rivera-Torres & Conchita Garcés-Ayerbe, 2017. "How Is Environmental Proactivity Accomplished? Drivers and Barriers in Firms’ Pro-Environmental Change Process," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-15, July.
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    15. 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.

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