Continual efforts to work with government and society are crucial to persuade businesses to become even better engaged in sustainability practices in developing countries. This study rebuilds the SCP (structure-conduct-performance) paradigm to incorporate environmental variables and to address the environmental strategy choices. Grounded theory was adopted in a systematic collection of data in petrochemical, textile and beverage companies established in different Brazilian states. In-depth personal interview, site visit and documentary evidence were coded and analysed. The empirical results demonstrate that environmental regulation and enforcement, environmental risk and demands from stakeholders play a central role in increasing the corporate commitment to the natural environment. The study defi nes four strategic generic types of organization, termed variously as sleeper, reactor, defender and innovator, owing to their solutions to environmental issues. This typology contributes as a roadmap for business decision makers to choose the appropriate environmental strategy in a global economy.15 different wage indexation policies, 19 changes in the rules governing changes of the exchange rate, 22 different proposals to deal with the external debt and 20 proposals for the fi scal adjustment of the state.From the 1990s, a new development strategy, named competitive integration, started to emerge. Changes can be seen as composed of three main blocks: market focus, industrial structure and a regime of incentives and regulations (Ferraz et al., 1999). Trade liberalization, aiming at increasing both import and exports and exposing the local industry to international competition, has changed the market focus. The industrial structure, in turn, was set to be modifi ed by means of privatization of state companies and attraction of direct foreign investment. Decreasing government intervention in the economy (deregulation) has been the main feature of the regime of incentives and regulations. The renewal of environmental consciousness in Brazilian society from the 1990s, together with the corresponding growth in the extent and stringency of related regulations, has brought about a change in the nature of environmental pressures on the industry because these issues began to affect the market place directly. By becoming market-related factors, such pressures have promoted an associated change in the nature, source, means and geographical scope of fi rms' environmental response.The purpose of the current research was to evaluate the environmental strategies adopted by Brazilian companies. The framework used is a traditional structure-conduct-performance (SCP) approach, common in industrial economics, and adds the assumption that the environmental performance of a company is the result of its environmental competitive practices or conduct standards, depending on the industrial structure in which it is inserted.The paper is organized as follows, and the next section discusses issues that a company must address in developing an appr...
