Table 4. Business context and Environmental Strategies

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A summary of the characteristics of institutional pressures (e.g. coercive, mimetic and normative sources) in the adoption of environmental strategies, is presented in Table 4: Business context and Environmental Strategies.

Table 4. Business context and Environmental Strategies

Isomorphic pressures Characteristics Drivers Environmental Strategies References

Coercive sources

Mimetic sources

Normative sources

* There is pressure to conform to rules.

* The firm is exposed to social penalties. * Regulation is the main driver.

* There is pressure to imitate other practices for achieving success.

* The firm is exposed to lagging behind competitors. * Uncertainty and novelty are the main drivers.

* There is pressure for the standardization of activities.

* The firm expects a performance reward.

* Values and norms from the business context constitute the main drivers. Environmental regulation in conjunction with social license, cultural expectations and mass media.

Successful (international) competitors, supply networks and parent companies.

Material substitution restricted by law End of pipe solutions

Ecosystem restoration in exchange for firm´s impacts * Competitors´ and parent companies´ best practices D’Andrade, (1984). Hoffman, (1997) Earnhardt, (2017)

Zhu & Geng, (2013). DiMaggio, (1983). Vejvar, (2017)

Green markets, Organizational fields and professional associations. * Eco-Design Cyert & March, (1963). D’Andrade, * ISO 14001 (1984). Sarkis, (2011) Zhu & Liu, * CSR programs (2010) Delmas, (2007)

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Along with the concern about the practices and processes explaining “why” and “how” there has been increased interest in the co-occurrence configuration among influencing factors (Lawrence et al., 2011), which has led to an exposition of the consequences of multiple factors (i.e. contexts, business models and manager´s perspectives) on organizational decisions (Ocasio et al., 2018).

The institutional logics perspective is defined as a framework for analyzing the interrelationships among individuals, organizations, and institutions in social systems (Friedland R., 1991; Ocasio et al., 2018). Specifically, institutional logics are “the socially constructed historical patterns of cultural symbols and material practices, assumptions, values, and beliefs by which individuals produce and re-produce their material subsistence, organize time and space, and provide meaning to their daily activity” ((Thornton & Ocasio, 1999).

Regardless of the occurrence of institutional pressures, some organizations have lower proclivity than others to be influenced by institutional forces. Specifically, the relative influence of institutional pressure on firm strategies depends on the [perceived] power of a particular stakeholder (Mitchell et al., 1997). The response to institutional pressures regarding ESA can vary according to the readiness of organizations (e.g. business models) and how manager´s perceive or interpret these pressures (e.g. cognitive frames and manager´s perspective toward ESA) (Sayed et al., 2017).

Research on ESA has also used RBV as a framework to analyze divergent ESA modes and firm responses to external pressures (Aguilera-Caracuel et al., 2011; Sarkis et al., 2010). According to the RBV, the type of environmental strategy adopted depends on business models and firm capabilities that conditions how firms perform actions and conduct practices (Ulrich & Lake, 1991). Additionally, RBV has been used in conjunction with Institutional Theory as a way of developing an integrated view to analyze how firms deploy strategies under the influence of business context and internal factors such as firm business models and firm capabilities (Del Río et al., 2016).

• Business models

The business models concept is defined as the way an enterprise works to create a value proposition to deliver and capture economic value from customers (Ovans, 2015). In that sense, a business model articulates how the company converts capabilities into value creation (Teece 2010), by grasp-

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ing business opportunities and accessing new markets to achieve additional revenues (Bocken et al., 2014). Furthermore, a firm delivers value through mechanisms and interactions within the organization and with stakeholders (Johnson et al., 2008; Stähler, 2002). Summarizing, business model represents the organizational and financial ‘architecture’ of a business according to a collection of customers and their needs, the structure of costs and firm´s interaction with stakeholders (Teece, D. 2010).

A stream of business model literature is strategy oriented, meaning with that, it studies the focus of business models in market competition in order to achieve a competitive advantage (Teece, 2010). Market competition refers to the products that a firm define to sell and the market a that firm choose to attend (Boons, 2009). Business model, then, specifies transactions with customers and other stakeholders (Chesbrough & Rosenbloom, 2002; Zott et al., 2011) through the coordination of capabilities and of the organizational routines to deliver value (Globocnik et al., 2019). Furthermore, a business model represents the logic of firm´s capabilities with which the firm actually competes in the market. Therefore, the business model reflects the firm´s strategy to exchange value in the form of a structured system explaining how all capabilities are put together (Casadesus-Masanell & Ricart, 2010).

Literature shows that there is a blurred boundary between business model and business strategy. According to (Blank, 2013), “business strategy and business models are not distinguished but are fully integrated and developed together”. Even more, “the entire strategy-making process involves validating a predefined value proposition and selecting the best business model configuration to enable the deployment of firm´s strategy (Cortimiglia et al., 2016). Furthermore, Boons, 2009, investigated how firms deliver value according to their strategic orientation, the coordination of firm´s routines and its definition of ecological value. Specifically, same author proposes how a business is run according to a stable, dynamic or transformative perspective:

• Firms that run businesses under a stable perspective seek to maintain their portion of the market by fighting back against competitors and improving their operational efficiencies. • Firms that operate under a dynamic perspective look forward to increasing their portion of the market by developing new products and taking advantage of market opportunities with their current capabilities.