How Corporate Executives Perceive Environmental Issues

Abstract

This article reports the results of a survey conducted in Hungary to compare the environmental perceptions of Hungarian corporate managers with those of other executives from around the world who had earlier responded to a similar survey conducted by McKinsey and Company. The results showed virtually no differences in how Hungarian managers perceived the importance of environmental challenges, but they did reveal stronger differences in perceptions between Hungarian and international respondents and among Hungarian respondents from companies in different ownership groups on how companies were putting their environmental concerns into practice. Although there seems to be a wider gap between cxecutives of Hungarian companies and those from Western Europe and North America in adopting environmental practices, the survey revealed that Hungarian managers arc acutely aware that their companies will have to invest more heavily to achieve higher levels of environmental protection in the future.