Proactive environmental strategies: a stakeholder management perspective

TLDR

Country-specific factors largely explain the observed outcomes. The study empirically examines how environmental strategy relates to stakeholder management. The results show that firms must improve several resource domains to become more proactive, that proactive strategies cover stakeholders more deeply, that environmental leadership does not raise regulatory importance, and that overall linkages between strategy and stakeholder management are weaker than anticipated. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

Abstract This paper includes an empirical analysis of the linkages between environmental strategy and stakeholder management. First, it is shown that several simultaneous improvements in various resource domains are required for firms to shift to an empirically significant, higher level of proactiveness. Second, more proactive environmental strategies are associated with a deeper and broader coverage of stakeholders. Third, environmental leadership is not associated with a rising importance of environmental regulations, thereby suggesting a role for voluntary cooperation between firms and government. Finally, the linkages between environmental strategies and stakeholder management, based on a sample of 197 firms operating in Belgium, appear more limited than expected. Country‐specific characteristics may to a large extent account for these results. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.