Extending linear approaches to mapping corporate environmental behaviour

Drawing upon the findings of an ongoing empirical study of UK corporate environmental attitude and policies, the paper seeks to extend the debate as to how company strategic environmental policy making can be plotted and described. It is argued that the positioning of companies is determined by the interaction of a set of key external and internal influences and constraints, the relationship between which often produces strategic policy positions which appear not to conform to the behavioural archetypes established by linear sequential models. This suggests that such models may not allow the full impact of the reality of business necessity to be recognized. This is seen to be increasingly true for companies operating globally, who are faced with differing environmental requirements and regulations, and who have as yet not developed global environmental performance standards. Although acknowledging existing linear work, the case is put for the recognition of further archetypes, that can distinguish behavioural characteristics and which are identified as being beyond the confines of the linear approach. The hypotheses established are exploratory in nature and are the subject of ongoing confirmatory research. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.