Towards a Process Model of Corporate Greening

Abstract

Internal processes of corporate greening have received little scholarly attention. A two-study investigation of consumer-goods producers, implementing environmental management and subject to the 1991 German Packaging Ordinance offers new insights. Findings from Study 1, an exploratory factor analysis, suggest two independent dimensions of environmental management: Policy Commitment and Approach to Implementation. We expand traditional strategic change models, and generate a typology of four types of corporate greening: Deliberate Reactive, Unrealized, Emergent Active, and Deliberate Proactive greening. These are fleshed out with four known cases in Study 2. Alternative conceptual scenarios, developed to explain those types with inconsistent values for Policy Commitment and Implementation, point to new directions for research on the dynamics of internal processes of corporate greening. We conclude with implications for corporate social performance and strategic process models.