Abstract
A pillar of sustainable development (SD), environmental commitment is the subject of many academic studies often devoted to large enterprises located in developed countries. This article analyzes the environmental commitment of SMEs in terms of public policies in favor of SD in two national contexts, namely France and Tunisia, based on a frame of reference of entrepreneurs’ profile. The deductive qualitative methodological approach is essentially based on analysis of interviews conducted in twelve SMEs in each country. The results show that the environmental commitment of SMEs and their motivations are influenced by the managers’ entrepreneurial characteristics as well as their education level, degree of innovation and integration in social networks. The comparative analysis shows convergence and divergence between the French and Tunisian contexts, particularly because of public policy, a mirror image of national cultures.
Highlights
Environmental commitment is one of the three components of sustainable development (SD)
Based on the entrepreneurial theory, our analysis focused on the relationship between environmental commitment of the SME and the profile of its manager and was enhanced by the analysis of the influence of environmental public policy understood as a reflection of national culture
Our results suggest that environmental commitment of SMEs varies depending on the manager’s entrepreneurial characteristic features and, more on his profile
Summary
Environmental commitment is one of the three components of sustainable development (SD). The conditions of effectiveness of public policies in favor of environmental commitment of SMEs can legitimately be questioned in both North and South economic contexts to ensure a sustainable active commitment of the economic world to SD (Palpacuer et al, 2010) Answering this question involves the realization of theoretically based and comparative studies of environmental strategies in the specific environment of SMEs and of their explanatory factors in different, though comparable, cultural and institutional contexts. From a North-South comparative perspective and primarily based on entrepreneurial theory, our research question concerns the link between environmental commitment of SMEs and the profile of their owner-managers It takes place in two entrepreneurial situations that are different but historically and economically related and yet previously explored in the field of environmental commitment of SMEs, namely France and Tunisia. Our findings are presented and analyzed by country in the fourth section, before being compared and discussed in the fifth section
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