Abstract:

Based on longitudinal data, collected over a period of 16 years, this paper addresses how management responds to stakeholders’ concerns about the natural environment by prioritizing their activities and thus improving the environmental performability of the firms. The paper specifically seeks to answer how stakeholders' perceived influence develops over time and whether those changes affect firms' environmental activities. Starting in 1995, and every fourth year following, we distributed a pre-tested structured questionnaire to a random sample of small and medium-sized industrial firms in Denmark. Despite the continuing economic crisis, our findings indicate that environmental management initiatives have successfully moved up on industry’s strategic agenda to become an enduring or lasting endeavor for Danish firms. Before closing, key implications for corporate managers and other affected decision-makers are addressed.