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Factors Promoting Environmental Responsibility in European SMEs: The Effect on Performance
- Source :
- Sustainability, Vol 8, Iss 9, p 898 (2016), Sustainability; Volume 8; Issue 9; Pages: 898, Sustainability
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- MDPI AG, 2016.
-
Abstract
- There is increasing social and political awareness of the importance of developing environmental responsibility at a corporate level. When focusing on issues of responsibility, large companies are frequently perceived to be more responsible for driving climate change and resource depletion. However, small and medium enterprises (SMEs) contribute significantly to the use of resources such as material and energy and produce approximately 64% of the pollution in Europe. Drawing on evidence from “The Eurobarometer 381 Survey on SMEs, Resource Efficiency and Green Markets”, we analyze the environmental responsibility of European SMEs, studying their compliance with environmental legislation and how several factors drive environmental orientation among SMEs. Our sample consists of 3647 SMEs operating in 38 countries. Only around a fifth of the firms go beyond environmental regulations, showing the highest levels of environmental responsibility. We conduct OLS regressions to analyze the factors that affect a positive environmental attitude among European SMEs (internal drivers being more significant than external ones) and then, to observe the positive effect of environmental responsibility and firm’s experience in offering green services/products on performance, although a conjoint effect was not found. Implications for practitioners, academics, and policy-makers are outlined.
- Subjects :
- Economics
Stakeholder-Ansatz
Mittelbetrieb
Geography, Planning and Development
Political awareness
lcsh:TJ807-830
shortage
Knappheit
Umweltbelastung
010501 environmental sciences
01 natural sciences
Ökologie und Umwelt
Ökologie
Ressourcen
stakeholder approach
lcsh:Environmental sciences
Kleinbetrieb
lcsh:GE1-350
Ecology
Public economics
environmental responsibility
Eurobarometer
lcsh:Environmental effects of industries and plants
05 social sciences
Wirtschaft
drivers
Resource depletion
environmental behavior
Management
Europe
corporate social responibility
small business
Small and medium-sized enterprises
Europa
performance
Management Science
Resource efficiency
lcsh:Renewable energy sources
Sample (statistics)
Legislation
Ecology, Environment
Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law
legislation
Affect (psychology)
environmental impact
environmental law
0502 economics and business
ddc:330
Gesetzgebung
ddc:577
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Umweltstandard
Renewable Energy, Sustainability and the Environment
medium-sized firm
Umweltverhalten
Commerce
lcsh:TD194-195
Corporate Social Responsibility
Business
resources
050203 business & management
Umweltrecht
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 20711050
- Volume :
- 8
- Issue :
- 9
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Sustainability
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....7f5e8d4d1a251a0d4a9ce6e33c26924d