Exploring the Proactivity Levels and Drivers of Environmental Strategies Adopted by Vietnamese Seafood Export Processing Firms: A Qualitative Approach

Abstract

Export processing firms from emerging markets often need to adjust their export strategies towards environmentally friendly directions to address strict regulatory requirements and increasingly environmental concerns among the public and consumers in advanced countries. This study aims to explore and evaluate different proactivity levels and drivers of environmental strategies (ESs) adopted by Vietnamese seafood export processing firms. Data was obtained from two sources: Public archival data of 32 listed firms, and semi-structured interviews with 44 managers from seafood export processing firms. Content analysis revealed that reactive ESs were adopted the most by Vietnamese seafood export processing firms, followed by opportunistic ESs, focused ESs and proactive ES, respectively. The findings also demonstrated that both internal factors and external factors in home and host countries motivate the firms to pursue different ESs. This study sheds light on unexplored characteristics and drivers of ESs in Vietnam and it assists key stakeholders including export processing firms and policymakers in the adoption, development and promotion of ESs.

The Links between Proactive Environmental Strategy, Competitive Advantages and Firm Performance: An Empirical Study in Vietnam

“…It should be noted that our study enriches environmental sustainability research by operationalizing proactive environmental strategies as multidimensional constructs, including factors such as product, organizational system, production process, supply chain and external relationship. In the context of Vietnam, an emerging country that is a manufacturing hub with low awareness of environmental issues [17], our first conclusion provides compelling evidence to motivate Vietnamese firms to adopt proactive environmental strategies as value-creating strategies.…”

“…These authors conceptualized the proactive environmental strategy as a multidimensional construct consisting of five key dimensions: product, production (manufacturing) process, organization system, supply chain and recovery, and external relationship. It is important to note that, proactive environmental strategies are adopted least by firms in several industries in Vietnam [17] that may doubt the potential effects of such strategies on the generation of competitive advantages.…”

“…It should be mentioned that the proactivity levels of environmental strategies differ considerably from firms to firms, depending on their commitment to environmental activities [13,14]. Additionally, the links between proactivity levels of environmental strategies and firms' competitive advantages have not yet been fully understood [15][16][17][18]. Clarification of the relationship between a proactive environmental strategy and competitive advantages achieved from such a strategy is of importance for firms to decide whether or not to pursue this type of environmental strategies.…”

“…With 16% of the country's total GDP depending on the manufacturing sector [41], Vietnam has recently been confronted with various environmental challenges, such as increasing emissions, lowering resource efficiency and high levels of environmental pollution. Nevertheless, the level of environmental awareness is low in this country, and firms generally are not enthusiastically engaged in a proactive environmental strategy [17]. Providing these firms with empirical evidence about the outcomes of proactive environmental strategies such as competitive advantages and better firm performance may motivate them to pursue such strategies.…”

Corporate Environmentalism: An Emerging Economy Perspective

“…Moreover, a manager's personal perception about environmental values and protection plays an important role in the organization's environmental stance [49]. The management of a firm is vital in seeking out emerging sources of competitive advantage such as environmental marketing to satisfy customers and other stakeholders, and in return, increase shareholder value [24,49,50]. Wijethilake et al [51] asserted the importance of top management commitment in the successful implementation of environmental strategies by organizations and put its own sustainability agenda over other organizational strategies.…”