Business enterprise produces goods and services through the orchestration of factors of production defined in essence by human consumption behaviour. The production and consumption of goods and services are also associated with environmental problems. These socially constructed problems, regardless of the implied incontrovertibility of their dangers, have drawn attention to the importance of sustainable development models as a means of minimising ecological risk. As a consequence of the ecological aspects of business enterprise and its interrelations between the social and physical environment the firm and corporate management have become focus points of attempts to ameliorate environmental change. The ecological orientation of companies can be defined through their internal, social and economic characteristics as well as psychological factors, which are germane to corporate objectives. The development of corporate ecological orientations is on one hand dependent upon actual or anticipated external changes acting upon the operating frameworks of a firm and on the other hand the existence of relevant management values and intentions expressed through their strategic planning process. In this research key features of the notion of environmental consciousness are identified and employed to investigate the corporate environmental consciousness of small and medium-sized enterprises in the United Kingdom and Germany. Environmental consciousness comprises cognitive, affective and conative aspects. Accordingly, the research involves an empirical examination of corporate values, attitudes towards environmental commitments and environmental action within firms. The examination is contextualised by socio-economic factors in which business enterprise is conducted in selected industry sectors within the United Kingdom and Germany. The study concludes with a synthesis of the research findings on environmental management practice and experiences of SMEs in each country.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:390901 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | Halner, Alan Joseph |
| Publisher | Open University |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://oro.open.ac.uk/58179/ |
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