"Greening" SMEs' Competitiveness

Over the last few years, public institutions, the market, the financial community and non governmental associations have explicitly demanded that firms improve their environmental performance. However, in spite of the strong pressure from external stakeholders, recent studies have highlighted the fa...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Small business economics 1998-11, Vol.11 (3), p.269-281
Main Authors: Bianchi, Raffaella, Noci, Giuliano
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Business structures
Competition
Competitiveness
Corporate strategies
Ecological sustainability
Empirical research
Environment
Environment and politics
Environmental economics
Environmental management
Environmental policy
Environmental programs
Environmental protection
Environmental regulation
Green businesses
Green design
Natural resources
Small and medium sized enterprises
Small business
Stakeholders
Stockholders
Studies
Sustainable development
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Summary:Over the last few years, public institutions, the market, the financial community and non governmental associations have explicitly demanded that firms improve their environmental performance. However, in spite of the strong pressure from external stakeholders, recent studies have highlighted the fact that only large corporations adopt a pro-active environmental strategy, whereas SMEs tend to comply with external pressures, thus adopting a re-active strategy. In the light of these issues, the paper analyses the stakeholders' role in supporting SMEs' shift from a reactive to a proactive pattern of environmental behavior. In particular, the study seeks to: design a conceptual model which describes stakeholders' "direct role", i.e. providing SMEs with resources, as well as their "indirect role", i.e. encouraging SMEs to develop co-operative relationships and creating the necessary conditions for collaboration in improving their environmental performance, and verify empirically stakeholders' actual role in supporting SMEs' environmental development.
ISSN:0921-898X
1573-0913
DOI:10.1023/a:1007980420087