There is much international pressure on retail business leaders to address environmental issues, but much criticism is directed only at large/multinational businesses. While human behaviour is considered a major contributor to these environmental problems, it is imperative that retail businesses of all sizes begin to address such issues, promote better environmental quality and reduce any negative impact of their business activities on the natural environment. There is a need to advance our knowledge around the environmentally positive activities undertaken (or not) by small and medium size enterprises (SMEs), especially the significant number of ethnic minority food retail (EMFR) businesses. Moreover, negative impacts of business activities of SMEs can be reduced by pro-environmental behaviour (PEB). Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the adoption of PEB by EMFR SMEs and assess the extent to which individual resilience (IR) of owner-managers impacts on PEB and other associated variables (i.e. social embeddedness (SE), entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and commercial gains, (CGs). To fulfil this research aim, data was collected from three hundred and fifty-two owner-managers of EMFR SMEs. This study adopted a self-administered survey/questionnaire approach for data collection. Descriptive statistics and structural equation modelling (SEM) path analysis were used for the data analysis. The results showed a direct positive significant relationship between IR, SE, CG and PEB. The effect of EO, however, was not found to be significant. Theoretically, this study contributed by extending Stern (2000). Value Belief Norm (VBN) theory, by adding new knowledge in the context of EMFR SMEs about how resilient individuals are more pro-environmentalist than less resilient individuals. Managerial and policy implications are also provided, especially concerning how EMFR SMEs can improve the process of adoption of PEB in their businesses.
| Date of Award | 12 Sep 2022 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Morven McEachern (Main Supervisor) & Tribi Budhathoki (Co-Supervisor) |
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