Stimulating environmental management performance: Towards a contingency approach

Abstract

Purpose

This article aims to provide an analysis of the joint impact of the business network and the company's internal resources on the level of environmental management (EM) deployment.

Design/methodology/approach

Correlation, regression and cluster analyses of data gathered in 2005 in the Dutch food and drink (F&D) industry were carried out.

Findings

The deployment of managerial capabilities that support ecological modernization (such as supply chain cooperation and network information exchange, or product‐redesign) in the Dutch F&D industry is low. The results show that different company profiles are connected with specific drivers and barriers for environmental pro‐activeness. Prospector companies (a minority) are more pro‐active with respect to environmental capability building than defenders.

Research limitations/implications

Comparative longitudinal studies of environmental management drivers in subsectors could improve the understanding of the factors that stimulate environmental performance.

Practical implications

Optimism that industry will enhance EM‐performance through radical market‐induced innovation is misplaced. Instead, a contingency approach is in place. Public environmental policy with respect to the F&D industry should be adjusted to discernable managerial patterns and categories of companies. Voluntary cooperation, self‐governance, and market‐induced environmental innovation are only effective with respect to a minority of the companies.

Originality/value

The research opposes the existing foundation of public environmental policy on generic attributes assigned to the whole F&D‐industry and, consequently, of generic policies to improve environmental management performance. A differentiation of public policy should be based on the understanding of the drivers of managerial behavior.

Citation

Haverkamp, D., Bremmers, H. and Omta, O. (2010), "Stimulating environmental management performance: Towards a contingency approach", British Food Journal, Vol. 112 No. 11, pp. 1237-1251. https://doi.org/10.1108/00070701011088223