In Search of a Useful Theory of Environmental Strategy-A Case Study on the Recycling of End-of-Life Vehicles from the Capabilities Perspective

The study deals with how firms develop strategies in order to solve environmental problems that have strategic importance. The empirical part focuses on the automotive industry, specifically, the strategies that eight European car manufacturers developed to try solving the end-of-life vehicle waste issue. Although these car manufacturers faced largely the same regulatory threat, and although they compete in the same markets, the capabilities they developed in their recycling strategies differ. This study questions why and how car manufacturers differ in developing a recycling strategy. In the theoretical part, a capabilities-based matrix for environmental strategy is developed. This is an extension to the current state-of-the-art in theorizing about the firm's environmental strategy. In recent literature, important issues are not satisfactorily dealt with, such as developing knowledge and organizational learning to solve environmental problems. Because firms hold different capabilities, and because they perceive different options for expanding their capabilities in trying to solve environmental issues, it is likely that their environmental strategies differ. Diversity in environmental strategy is an important empirical feature that is not sufficiently taken into account in the literature, and that might be of interest to environmental policy. ISBN: 90-9009717-1

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