Adoption of Green Environmental Practices in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises: Entrepreneur and Business Policies Patterns in Romania

Ionela Maniu, Cătălina Costache and Dănuţ-Dumitru Dumitraşcu
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Ionela Maniu: Research Center in Informatics and Information Technology, Mathematics and Informatics Department, Faculty of Sciences, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 550010 Sibiu, Romania
Cătălina Costache: Faculty of Economic Sciences, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 550010 Sibiu, Romania
Dănuţ-Dumitru Dumitraşcu: Research Center for Sustainable Products and Processes, Engineering Faculty, “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 550025 Sibiu, Romania

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 9, 1-21

Abstract: Current research shows that SMEs’ social and environmental actions are fragmented and informal, and few have formal policies and intentions. At the same time, many SMEs are engaged with environmental policies, often not knowing it. Concurrently, there is a gap between the pro-environmental attitudes of the SMEs managers, who are often seen as the main drivers for the firm’s behavior, and the policies implemented in reality in their firms. To this end, our research’s objective is to explore pro-environmental behavior, both at the individual and firm level, to identify connections between these levels and measures but also with firm’s and managers’ demographics, based on a study of Romanian SMEs. The descriptive analysis and factor analysis including tetrachoric correlation methods were used to explore these behaviors and the associations between them. The results confirm the research’s hypothesis and show that there are positive connections between the “green” behaviors at the individual level and in the SME context. Moreover, comparative analysis provided evidence of differences in the adoption of environmental practices, which were based on the firm’s demographics and manager’s characteristics. Simultaneously, five typologies of pro-environmental behavior in SMEs were identified and described, depending on the additional investment necessary and allocated resources, on the changes in organizational structure, and on the manager’s personal involvement. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the environmental improvement policies in SMEs and may help policy-makers tailor interventions and SMEs managers learn from good practices of their peers.

Keywords: environmental practices; sustainable development; pro-environmental behavior; small and medium enterprises; green entrepreneurs; corporate social responsibility (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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