Driving forces in small-firm investment in local environmental management systems : a case study in the Gothenburg food service industry

Abstract: The aim in this study has been to investigate the driving forces and stakeholders involved small firms’ environmental investment decision making. Slow adoption of environmental management systems among SME has been noted throughout Europe, yet it is recognized that SMEs account for well over half of environmental pollution. Major driving forces are identified from previous SME research and are combined with stakeholder theory to map key environmental stakeholders. The empirical evidence is based on a case study of the food service industry in Gothenburg, Sweden, using in- depth personal interviews with restaurant managers as the main source of data. The study results identify distinctly different driving forces behind middle and smaller restaurants’ motivation to invest in environmental measures. The middle size restaurant, which were typically more dependent on single business customers, were motivated by their external stakeholders; whereas smaller restaurants, which were typically more consumer oriented, were more motivated by the internal stakeholders. These results suggests an extension to stakeholder theory, where it is noted that firms are influenced by different sets of stakeholders depending on their size and their customer orientation.