Alignment of environmental management with business strategy in small and medium sized enterprises: case study of METAL-MECHANICAL industry from the central region of the State of São Paulo

Abstract

The general aim of this research is to identify the contingency factors for the development and alignment of activities relating to environmental management with business strategy in small and medium-sized enterprises. Here, our main objectives are outlined below as follows: 1- checking the nature and the use of environmental practices by small and medium sized enterprises; 2- evaluating first the existence of environmental practices while subordinating such practices to environmental strategy; 3- identifying the major relevance of the operations of small businesses;4- sorting out the main as well as the specific characteristics of the operations of small firms and classifying them under the following categories: favorable, neutral, or unfavorable to enable the adoption of the appropriate environmental management;5- identifying the degree of the formalization of business strategy; 6- and finally, investigating the relationship between environmental management and business strategy for SMEs.Environmental management is the set of guidelines and operational and administrative activities of the company that seek to address environmental problems in its operations, thereby preventing them from occurring in the future. Since the 1990s, scholars, experts and practitioners have shown that the activities of environmental management are urgent for the planet and good for business reputation as well as the financial performance of companies.Here, for the purpose of solving the problem of research and achieving the defined objective, we aim to undertake a qualitative exploratory research focusing on a study of multiple cases. The data collection instruments to be used are: (a) direct observation, (b) semi-structured interviews, (c) semi-structured spreadsheets for the data collection of documents selected from some companies, and (d) a field diary. At the end of the research, we hope to identify the contingency factors that influence the development as well as the alignment of activities relating to environmental management with business strategy in SMEs, and thus contributing to the diffusion of environmental strategies and practices in this business segment while paving the way for future researches (PhD) in the same field with the aim of building a roadmap for environmental planning in SMEs. (AU)