Why Do SMEs Go Green? An Analysis of Wine Firms in South Africa

Authors

Ralph Hamann, University of Cape Town
James Smith, University of Cape Town
Peter Tashman, Portland State University
R. Scott Marshall, Portland State UniversityFollow

Published In

Business & Society

Document Type

Citation

Publication Date

1-1-2017

Abstract

Studies on why small and medium enterprises (SMEs) engage in pro-environmental behavior suggest that managers’ environmental responsibility plays a relatively greater role than competitiveness and legitimacy-seeking. These categories of drivers are mostly considered independent of each other. Using survey data and comparative case studies of wine firms in South Africa, this study finds that managers’ environmental responsibility is indeed the key driver in a context where state regulation hardly plays any role in regulating dispersed, rural firms. However, especially proactive firms are also characterized by expectations of competitiveness gains. The authors thus emphasize the role of institutional context and potential interaction effects between these drivers in explaining the reasons why SMEs engage in pro-environmental behavior in developing countries.

Locate the Document

https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650315575106

DOI

10.1177/0007650315575106

Persistent Identifier

http://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/19853

Citation Details

Hamann R., Smith J., Tashman P., Marshall R.S. 2017. Why Do SMEs Go Green? An Analysis of Wine Firms in South Africa, Business & Society, 56(1): 23-56.