Failure to launch: the Kyoto protocol and sustainable strategic management

Abstract

Despite an unquestioned worldwide green movement, business progress toward environmental sustainability has been relatively slow. The relative speed of greening may result from a lack of a dominant design or set of agreed upon standards. Some scholars argue that in uncertain technology markets, industry needs government initiatives such as the Kyoto protocol to accelerate its development. Governments failed to ratify quickly the treaty, weakening its effectiveness. This research presents that environmental treaty ratification takes place in a complex environment of cultural, political, and economic forces. This makes environmental sustainability more complex and suggests that markets rather than governments will be the driving force in sustainability standards.