Drivers of green economy in an emerging market: Generic and sector-specific insights

Abstract

The study examines the drivers of the green economy generally and with a focus on sectors regarded as environmental-sensitive hotspots like waste, agriculture, forestry, energy, and transport sectors. The study was grounded on both the natural resource-based view and institutional theories. Creswell's (2014) thematic analysis and the graphic framework of Miles and Huberman (1984, 1994) were used to address the respective objectives of the study. A total of 10 interviewees were selected purposively based on their expertise and the institutions in question who provided responses that were analysed. The results show that the three generic drivers of the green economy include pollution prevention revealed by the impact of climate change, and environmental degradation cost, environmental stewardship portrayed by inefficient resource utilization and global demand for change, as well as, sustainable development manifesting from a futuristic drive, a focus on people-planet-profit, and rejection of environmentally unfriendly development models. The findings further reveal the differences and interrelatedness of the drivers of the green economy within the 5 hotspot sectors under investigation. The results of the study reveal that there are different and sector-specific strategies that policymakers and practitioners have to apply in their quest to drive a green economy at the central government, local government and grassroots levels. The study proposes the development of a comprehensive national green economy policy and also the promotion of peer-to-peer knowledge transfer networks structured as Communities of Practice. This study is one of the few that explores the concept of the green economy within the macroeconomic level and is novel in attaching theoretical lenses.