Routines and the environment: Bridging the gaps

The paper examines the hypothesis that the mechanisms used by firms to improve their environmental performance are organisational routines. The concept of routines has been developed by evolutionary economists to investigate firms' innovative behaviour, but it has not been used to study how firms address environmental issues. Based on an applicable definition of routines, a methodology is designed to identify environmental routines in a case study of 13 oil refineries located in four different countries. Results confirm the hypothesis for firms operating under strict environmental regulations (France, UK). A comparative analysis of the degrees of routineness of the environmental mechanisms used by case study firms reveals and explains important gaps between European and North African refineries. Solutions to reduce them are proposed.