Effects of Industrial Operations on Socio-Environmental and Public Health Degradation: Evidence from a Least Developing Country (LDC)

Abstract

Socio-ecological consequences emanating from inadequate compliance of environmental standards by the business firms’ operations in institutionally weak developing countries must be included in the research on organizations and their relationship with the natural environment. Business firms should be held accountable for the socio-ecological degradation generated from their unsustainable business operations. To improve our understanding of the environmental degradation created by polluting manufacturing firms in developing countries, we have adopted an exploratory qualitative research approach. Results of this study indicate that polluting industries’ (e.g., tannery, pulp & paper, fertilizer, textile, and cement) unsustainable practices have enormous impact on human health and the natural environment, resulting in enormous socio-ecological problems that ultimately create huge social costs in countries such as Bangladesh. Corporate environmental responsiveness is largely nonexistent in the polluting industries in Bangladesh.