هدف استراتژیک در مدیریت محیط زیست سبز در بنگاه های کوچک و متوسط : تجزیه و تحلیلی از صنعت چاپ سیلک‌اسکرین انگلستان

What drives the environmental behaviour of companies is an under-researched and underdeveloped area of study, particularly in the context of small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This article investigates to what extent the responses by UK screen-printing companies to pressures to improve their environmental performance represented a deliberate attempt by senior managers to provide their organisations with a strategic competitive advantage. Using both a quantitative and qualitative approach, the research shows that the environmental responses of this sector tended to be reactive, defensive and driven by e and frequently limited to e legislative compliance. Even though companies accepted that there were potential commercial benefits to be gained from environmental action, there was very little evidence to indicate that managerial decisions were motivated by strategic intent or that managerial mindsets were tuned to the notion that a proactive environmental response could offer a competitive edge. The article discusses the management implications of this lack of strategic orientation and highlights how a more innovative response by companies could provide both demand and supply side benefits.

The question of how far companies have a social responsibility to improve their environmental performance, and the relative costs and benefits to the organisation of doing so, has engaged academics and practitioners for more than 30 years. A key strand in this debate has been the idea that complementarity can exist between a company’s economic and environmental goals,a proposition which has found support in political, business and academic circles and which is exemplified by concepts such as ‘eco-efficiency’, ‘ecological modernisation’ and ‘win-win’. In essence the argument is that companies that voluntarily embrace environmental good practice can simultaneously improve their business performance, thereby helping to create what has been called the ‘double dividend’ of environmentally responsible behaviour. Under this view the environment is seen as a critical business concern and an area of managerial activity that can yield significant benefits to the organisation, whether via the adaptation of business behaviour to a changing external context or through the accumulation of resources that promote distinctive organisational competencies. While there is empirical evidence to indicate that larger companies are increasingly seeing environmental performance as a strategic issue, our knowledge of the factors shaping the environmental decisions and actions of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) is relatively underdeveloped. Most studies of small company ecological behaviour have focused on ‘how’ smaller businesses have responded to pressures to improve their environmental performance, rather than ‘why’ such responses have occurred and ‘what’ the consequences might be. The general picture that emerges from the extant literature is one of positive environmental attitudes but accompanied by relatively limited and compliance-driven behaviour. Little attempt has been made to examine the degree to which SME environmental responses represent a conscious and deliberate intention by managers to utilise environmental performance as a potential source of competitive advantage.

We began this paper by observing that little was known about the extent to which small company environmental behaviour had a strategic dimension and whether managers in small businesses see the environment as a potential source of competitive advantage. The evidence we have presented in this article sheds light on both these issues. In summary, the environmental behaviour of small companies in the UK screen-printing sector does not generally indicate a strategic intent on the part of managers to use environmental performance as a means of gaining a competitive advantage. For many smaller businesses the environment tends to be seen primarily as a cost imposed on the organisation by the regulatory authorities, rather than as a value-adding activity. Such a view highlights the limited extent to which notions of ‘win-win’ appear to have penetrated small company managerial culture within an industrial sector known to have an adverse environmental impact. It also underlines the considerable challenge facing policy-makers seeking to promote ecological modernisation. While a cautious approach to environmental action can be construed as a less risky option, it could equally be presented as a missed ‘opportunity’ and/or potential ‘threat’ in a changing external context. Given the expectation in the small business community that the burden of environmental regulation and other pressures will increase in the future, we believe it could be advantageous for managers to establish strategic intent by moving away from a focus on regulatory compliance and towards a position where enhanced environmental action becomes part of the company’s competitive profile. Such a mindset might be achieved by encouraging managers to see environmental response as an integral part of the quality debate and as a contributor to the organisation’s value-adding activities.