How SMEs benefit from environmental sustainability strategies and practices

ABSTRACT There is considerable literature on sustainability, but studies that specifically address small and medium-sized business enterprises (SMEs) are limited. This paper addresses the gap in current quantitative research concerning the link between environmental sustainability and performance in SMEs. Stakeholder and neo-institutional theories and resource-based view are used as underpinnings to hypothesise relationships between relational motives, internal sustainable environmental strategies, and operational, economic, and environmental performance in SMEs. We statistically analyse survey data completed by a sample of 49 SMEs in the Houston, Texas metropolitan area by applying regression path analysis, bootstrapped with .95 CI (Bias Corrected and Accelerated) of 2000 samples on all regressions. The results show significant relationships between (1) the relational motives and sustainable internal environmental strategies and (2) sustainable internal environmental management strategies and operational, economic, and environmental performance in the sampled SMEs. Conclusions from the results, managerial and theoretical implications, limitations, and future research opportunities are discussed.