Drivers of environmental management in the Brazilian context

The demand for improved environmental practices inside firms has increased around the world. However, in the process of implementation of environmental management, policy may be decoupled from practice, generating doubts about its effectiveness. This study investigates an overlooked middle step in the environmental management process, analyzing the strength of the main environmental drivers in improving environmental practices inside firms. We developed a set of hypotheses about the influence regulation, voluntary norms and stakeholder pressure have upon environmental management practices, considering the institutional context and different enforcement of these drivers. We use a cross-sectional survey of 150 Brazilian firms to gather information about environmental management and test our hypotheses in a Structural Equation Model. The findings confirm the importance of command and control instruments as well as stakeholder pressure in promoting better environmental practices inside firms. Yet, the results demonstrate that voluntary norms did not influence management practices even though they were perceived as a market opportunity.