The mechanisms behind environmental strategies in chemical manufacturing firms

The evaluation of an effective environmental strategy goes beyond understanding its antecedents and benefits. Identifying and understanding the various mechanisms behind the formulation, design and implementation of environmental strategies is important – yet past studies have not adequately addressed this issue. This paper explores corporate environmentalism, and extends the framework by identifying the internal mechanisms behind the environmental strategies in large Malaysian chemical manufacturing firms. Given the exploratory nature of the study, a case study method using semi-structured interviews was used to ascertain these mechanisms. Interestingly, the results revealed seven important mechanisms of the environmental strategies in large chemical firms. These are a central system, internal system, quantifiable measurement, specific environmental management unit, strategy alignment, collaboration, and collective involvement. The mechanisms are clustered as systems and commitments based on the role that these mechanisms play in the environmental strategy of the firms. Additionally, powerful and influential top management commitments were found to contribute to the initiation of these mechanisms.