Adoption of green electricity by small- and medium-sized enterprises in Germany

Rahbauer, Sebastian; Menapace, Luisa; Menrad, Klaus; Decker, Thomas

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2016.01.079

Cited by 26 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The personal values of a business owner, and their internal intimacy and responsibility for employees and communities (e.g., De Steur et al 2020 ), may also affect the level of sustainability of an SME (Vives 2006 ). A study regarding the adoption of renewable energy by German SMEs showed that entrepreneurs’ personalities reflected by their perceived internal responsibility for the environment were among the core adoption factors (Rahbauer et al 2016 ). In a case study to explore the development of green practices within micro-businesses, Parry ( 2012 ) confirmed this notion, reporting that the formation of green strategies within small businesses are closely linked to the ethical principles of the business leaders, which often flow into the ethical behavior of employees.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

What are the drivers and barriers for green business practice adoption for SMEs?

Purwandani

Michaud

2021

Environ Syst Decis

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The depletion of natural resources as a byproduct of widespread, global economic growth has urged entrepreneurs to think about the environment when starting or conducting business. However, several of these smaller-sized firms struggle with implementing environmentally conscious business practices, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), which represent more than 95% of all private sector firms. This study uses a survey method to assess and better comprehend the key drivers and barriers of green business practices by SMEs in the State of Ohio (USA). Results from our study show that a majority of respondents reported that they have implemented green practices, broadly defined, within their business. The two main drivers for deciding to engage in such practices are internal motivations and the opportunity to obtain a better public image. However, respondents also noted a lack of capital as the central barrier to implementing green business practices. We also observe that smaller firms, and firms located in urban areas, are more familiar with green business practices than larger firms and firms that are located in rural areas. Our results can be used by government and business actors alike, especially in states comparable to Ohio, as a benchmark to consider better strategies, programs, and policies for implementing green business techniques. Overall, this research helps to better discern best practices and ways to develop more prosperous SMEs without undermining the quality of the environment. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10669-021-09821-3.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

What are the drivers and barriers for green business practice adoption for SMEs?

Purwandani

Michaud

2021

Environ Syst Decis

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“…They have also analyzed the effects of three perceived barriers, namely cost, market, and knowledge, on the levels of involvement of European SMEs in eco-innovation investments. Rahbauer et al (2016) have identified three barriers faced by SMEs in the adoption of green electricity: (1) lack of knowledge regarding the green electricity system's reliability, (2) subjective awareness of green electricity price premiums, and (3) lack of communicability of green electricity usage in the manufacture of products to customers. Glaser et al (2016) have presented a holistic framework of enablers contributing to the development of enterprise in nanotechnology-related industries.…”

Section: Green Entrepreneurship (Ge)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Barriers to Green Entrepreneurship: An ISM-Based Investigation

Makki

Alidrisi

Iqbal

et al. 2020

JRFM

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Green entrepreneurship is a novel sustainability term. A strategy has recently been put forward to make a business greener by minimizing the harmful impact on the environment and committing to sustainability while maintaining financial imperishability. However, some barriers prevent its implementation to its full potential. This study aims at investigating such barriers following the interpretive structural modeling (ISM) approach for analyzing relationships among them and for their prioritization, for the effective construction of green entrepreneurship. The study revealed that collaboration among stakeholders of business activities is vital to green entrepreneurship. Results also show that R&D and technology are foundational to overcoming other barriers, such as the costs associated with green initiatives, lack of knowledge and subjective awareness in the market, shortage of investors and involvement of private sectors, government regulations, cultural differences, dominating industries, lack of incentive and support mechanism, and bureaucracy. Subsequently, the results indicated that overcoming these barriers will enable us to change the short-term mindset of investors towards green entrepreneurship. Implications of this study include using the revealed set of barriers and their modeled relationships for policymaking as well as the development of better targeted and more effective strategies to overcome these barriers, enabling its implementation to its full potential.

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“…provements are likely because of the following issues: SME often lack knowledge regarding potential resource efficiency improvements (Constantinos et al 2010, Mattes et al 2015) and implement resource efficiency-improving environmental innovations less often than large firms (Mattes et al 2017). 8 For example, in a survey dealing with compliance issues related to the British low carbon agenda with 141 SME in Derbyshire, Rahbauer et al (2016) find that smaller firms struggle with target settings for energy consumption and waste outputs. Vernon et al (2003) state that SME are rather reactive to environmental regulations than proactive.…”

Section: Differences Regarding the Influence Of Regulation On Resourcmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Furthermore, Becker et al (2013) and Evans (1986) find that regulation imposes less pollution abatement costs on smaller firms. Moreover, they often lack information about potential resource efficiency improvements (Constantinos et al 2010, Rahbauer et al 2016. If environmental regulation signals firms how to increase efficiency (Anderson & Ullah 2014, Ambec et al 2013, the benefits from information gains could be higher in smaller firms, as there is less knowledge about potential resource efficiency improvements.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental Innovation and Firm Profitability – An Analysis with Respect to Firm Size

Axenbeck

2019

SSRN Journal

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This paper investigates the effect of environmental innovations on firm profitability with respect to differences between small and medium-sized (SME) and large (LE) enterprises. Using data from the Mannheim Innovation Panel (MIP) 2015, results show that, in general, SME benefit more from environmental innovations than LE. This effect is particularly strong for resource efficiency-improving innovations induced by regulation. These environmental innovations are significantly related to an increase in profits of SME, whilst related to a decrease in profits of LE. A robustness check with data from the MIP 2009, however, does not confirm this result as the effect for LE is insignificant and differences between the two groups cannot be found in this survey wave. A reason why negative effects for LE are observed in the MIP 2015-but not in the MIP 2009-might be that most LE had already exploited the potentials of environmental innovations when they were surveyed in the MIP 2015. This is supported by evidence suggesting that size-related differences in the MIP 2015 are driven by a negative relationship between LE's profits and environmental innovations related to externalities that were reduced by innovations in periods before.

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Adoption of green electricity by small- and medium-sized enterprises in Germany

Cited by 26 publications

References 37 publications

What are the drivers and barriers for green business practice adoption for SMEs?

What are the drivers and barriers for green business practice adoption for SMEs?

Barriers to Green Entrepreneurship: An ISM-Based Investigation

Environmental Innovation and Firm Profitability – An Analysis with Respect to Firm Size

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