Determinants of proactive environmental management practices in Indian firms: an empirical study

• The study empirically determine the principal determinants of proactive environmental management practices in Indian Firms.
• Internal and market pressures are significant determinant of firms' proactive environmental behaviour.
• External pressures from regulatory and societal stakeholders are not important.
• Firms' characteristics significantly explain the proactive behaviour of Indian firms.
• Manufacturing, chemical and agriculture sector are likely to have more comprehensive EMPs.

The present study aims to empirically determine the primary factors that have a major influence on adoption of environmental management practices in Indian firms. For this purpose, a theoretical framework has been proposed based on previous studies and a pilot survey that provides broad and specific variables that might have an impact of these practices. This impact has been investigated by conducting factor analysis and stepwise-regression analysis. In order to collect the primary data a questionnaire has been designed for which 104 valid responses (8.5% response rate) have been obtained. The study reveals that internal (holder ship and employees) and market (commercial buyers and suppliers of goods and services) pressures are the significant drivers who govern the adoption of proactive environmental management practices. However, the external pressures from regulatory and societal stakeholders were not found to be important in the Indian context. The analysis further showed that firm's characteristic also play a significant role in defining the positive behavior of firms, as large firms are more proactively engaged in environmental management initiatives. Moreover, firms in the manufacturing, chemical and agriculture sector are likely to have more comprehensive environmental management practices compared to the service sector.