The gap between the environmental attitudes and the environmental behaviour of small firms

Abstract

Small firms are facing serious difficulties responding to environmental pressures. Due to their unique characteristics, small firms cannot be expected to employ scaled down solutions that have been developed by, and for, larger organizations. The indications are that the typical owner–managers of manufacturing and service small firms are struggling to bridge the gap between their environmental attitudes (aspirations) and their environmental behaviour (practices). Part of the problem would appear to be the domination of an outmoded paradigm that has created a set of values, personal and corporate, that is unable to cope with the environmental problems of today. However, the prognosis need not be pessimistic. There is evidence to suggest there are driving forces promoting change toward a more sustainable small firms sector. A number of emerging solutions offer ways to tackle the problem at the level of the firm, such as industrial ecology, and at the level of the institution, such as ecological modernization. The message remains that support for more extensive environmental education and training programmes and a much stronger regulatory framework would help to counteract the imbalance between the resistant forces and driving force that are presently widening the gap between small firm environmental attitudes and behaviour. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

SMEs and environmental responsibility: do actions reflect attitudes?

“…Eighty‐seven percent had a recycling programme and almost as many dispose of hazardous waste appropriately. This emphasis on waste management is consistent with the findings of other studies that have also found that this is an area of environmental improvement where SMEs engage due to the perceived ease of doing so (Tilley, 1999), and the perception that ‘reducing waste is synonymous with reducing costs’ (Williamson and Lynch‐Wood, 2001). In the New Zealand context, Collins et al (2007) also found that recycling was the most common environmental practice reported in their sample of New Zealand SMEs.…”

Unexplored aspects of the social licence for SMEs

“…For many SMEs, other factors, particularly compliance with traditional forms of regulation, are more likely to drive performance. This, once again, supports other studies (Tilley, 1999;Williamson et al, 2006;Studer et al, 2006).…”

Corporate vs. social attitudes toward environmental externalities

“…This research supports evidence in the literature (Dunlap and Van Liere, 1978;Dunlap et al, 1993;Groundwork, 1995;Tilly, 1999;Schultz, 2000;Schaper, 2001;Schultz et al, 2005) that the environmental attitudes of both businesses and people in general have been shifting over time. National Science Foundation statistics in 2005 show that, "Attitudes towards environmental protection have been shifting in recent years".…”