Corporate Social Responsibility in mittelständischen Unternehmen: Eine synoptische Betrachtung

Book chapterAbstract attachment pendin

Social marketing and residential electricity consumption: every kilowatt matters

This book chapter explores consumers’ attitudes towards climate change and energy resources along with their electricity consumption practices in the home. The discussion is situated within the wider context of sustainability. The research is important, because firstly, research into the electricity consumption practices of Australian households is surprisingly sparse, albeit growing (Moloney, Horne, and Fien, Energy Policy 38(12):7614–7623, 2010; Mullaly, Energy Policy, 26(14):1041–1052, 1998; Sommerfeld, Buys, and Vine, Energy Policy 105:10–16, 2017). Secondly, it is essential to gain a better insight into the ‘attitudes-behaviour’ gap which can underpin effective and targeted social marketing campaigns, and finally, promoting energy-efficient behaviours may play a role in climate change mitigation efforts. Findings are based on a consumer survey of 325 respondents in a regional city. The research shows that survey participants attach importance to minimizing electricity usage in the home and the adoption of roof-top solar systems is related to age, education, political affiliation and home ownership. The study shows that there is a divergence in attitudes towards the use of fossil fuels as a source of electricity generation, however patterns of electricity consumption in the home are quite similar across the sample. Recommendations therefore focus on behavioural modifications to reduce electricity use during peak demand and encourage the installation of electricity-saving devices in the home

Internal Drivers and Performance Consequences of Small Firm Green Business Strategy: The Moderating Role of External Forces

Growing detrimental effects on the bio-physical environment have been responsible for a large number of small firms to adopt a more strategic stance toward exploiting green-related opportunities. This article aims to shed light on how internal company factors help to formulate a green business strategy among small manufacturing firms, and how this, in turn, influences their competitive advantage and performance. Based on data received from 153 small Cypriot manufacturers, we propose and test a conceptual model anchored on the Resource-based View of the firm. The findings underscore the critical role of both organizational resources and capabilities in pursuing a green business strategy. The adoption of this strategy was more evident in the case of firms operating in more harmful, as opposed to less harmful, industries. The implementation of a green business strategy was found to generate a positional competitive advantage, with this association becoming stronger under conditions of high regulatory intensity, high market dynamism, high public concern, and high competitive intensity. It was also revealed that this competitive advantage is conducive to gaining heightened market and financial performance. Our study makes a fivefold contribution: it injects a theoretical perspective into a relatively atheoretic field, underlines the role of organizational resources/capabilities as drivers of eco-friendly initiatives, highlights the often neglected strategic aspects of small firms’ ecological business activities, stresses the contingent role of external forces in moderating the positive impact of small firm green business strategy on competitive advantage, and focuses on the performance implications of the small firm’s engagement in environmental operations