Organizational responses to environmental demands: opening the black box

Abstract

This article combines new and old institutionalism to explain differences in organizational strategies. We propose that differences in the influence of corporate departments lead their facilities to prioritize different external pressures and thus adopt different management practices. Specifically, we argue that external constituents—including customers, regulators, legislators, local communities, and environmental activist organizations—who interact with influential corporate departments are more likely to affect facility managers' decisions. As a result, managers of facilities that are subjected to comparable institutional pressures adopt distinct sets of management practices that appease different external constituents. We test our framework in the context of the adoption of environmental management practices using an original survey and archival data obtained for nearly 500 facilities. We find support for these hypotheses. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Drivers of environmental management in the Brazilian context

“…In this study we focus on command and control instruments as they are comparable across the different federal states. As a mandatory stakeholder, the government is responsible for firms' formal license to operate and it provides the necessary legitimacy to businesses (Christmann, 2004;Delmas & Toffel, 2008;Henriques & Sadorsky, 1996;Walker;Di Sisto, & McBain, 2008).…”

“…In general, the adoption of environmental standards is often considered a proactive environmental strategy that goes beyond compliance and has positive impacts on environmental management (Delmas & Toffel, 2008;Gavronski, Ferrer, & Paiva, 2008). Therefore, we formulate our second hypothesis: BAR, Rio de Janeiro, v. 12, n. 1, art.…”

“…Firms depend on customers, and studies have demonstrated the influence of the customersupplier relationship in the implementation of environmental management practices (Darnall et al, 2010;Sharma & Henriques, 2005). Competitors also exert strong influence over firms; they shape market practices and induce proactive environmental behavior (Delmas & Toffel, 2008). Among societal stakeholders, local communities, environmental organizations and industry associations also contribute to the development of environmental practices (Darnall et al, 2010;Sharma & Henriques, 2005).…”

“…The variances of views encompass different interests in the relationships with the firm (Crilly et al, 2012;Delmas & Toffel, 2008). Organizations also respond differently to the same environmental demands (Delmas & Toffel, 2008).…”

“…Drivers of environmental behavior come from constituents inside and outside the firm and exert pressure towards the reduction of negative externalities (Aravind & Christmann, 2011;Delmas & Toffel, 2008). These drivers are contingent on their context and may result in different impacts on firms' environmental management practices (Delmas & Toffel, 2008;López-Gamero, Molina-Azorín, & Claver-Cortés, 2010).…”