Environmental Concern of Owner-Managers and Environmental Practices of SMEs: A Typology Considering Size and Sector-Specific Environmental Regulations

Abstract

Previous works have highlighted that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are responsible for approximately 60%–70% of European industrial pollution, which has led scholars to investigate whether owner-managers, the most influential decision-makers in SMEs, actually care about environmental issues. Although existing works have identified various antecedents of owner-managers' environmental concern, limited attention has been paid to understand how they could turn such environmental concern into environmental practices. Therefore, the present research explores how owner-managers' environmental concern influences the environmental practices of SMEs, whereas considering the effects of company size and sector-specific environmental regulations. Relying on interviews with 19 Belgian SME owner-managers, we contribute to the existing literature by providing a typology classifying SMEs' environmental practices according to their owner-managers' environmental concern and considering company size and environmental sectoral regulations. Four profiles emerge from this typology: climate change champions, green opportunists, eco-compliant followers and routine entrepreneurs. This typology highlights the fact that micro-enterprises are more likely to adopt environmental practices when they are mandatory. In contrast, the adoption of environmental practices is more likely to result from owner-managers' environmental concern in small to medium-sized firms.