Environmental regulation in China is not really different from that
in the rest of the world, except that environmental authorities are
relatively new and less established. In order to understand why
corporate environmental performance has hardly improved despite the
existing regulatory framework, empirical research on high-level
executives' perceptions of environmental protection is essential.
This unique book analyses and interprets Chinese managers'
perceptions of environmental management and regulatory enforcement
practices in Chinese enterprises. Most importantly, it identifies
the bottlenecks to environmental protection in Chinese firms. It
includes a detailed analysis of the needs for management training
(for example, CEO and executive development and MBA education) in
China and presents a roadmap of how they can be met. Finally, it
presents two case studies that illustrate how Chinese corporations
currently react to a wide range of different environmental
challenges, including hardening regulatory pressure, competition
and lack of capital. Based on an innovative research project
sponsored by the UNESCO/UNDP offices in Beijing and undertaken by
the Institute for Management Development (IMD), Lausanne,
Switzerland and the Business School of the Academy of Science and
Technology (USTC), Hefei, China, Greening Chinese Business provides
the first hard empirical evidence of how Chinese managers view
environmental protection. Over 300 companies-both state-owned
enterprises and SMEs-took part in the research. Key findings
includeAround 70% of managers surveyed admit moderate or even heavy
environmental impact (this is a subjective assessment without an
external benchmark). Furthermore, they indicate that the lack of
environmental performance is primarily due to insufficient
managerial expertise, capital and employment-related protectionism.
Managers hesitate to take necessary action to upgrade technical
equipment, because, although decreasing pollution, upgrading would
lead to lay-offs that, in turn, would diminish social stability.
Since the latter is first priority in China, managers fear loss of
their companies'-and, attached to that, their personal-image, which
plays a very important role in Chinese culture. Regulative
enforcement has been strong enough to put environmental management
on the "to do" lists of Chinese managers. Nevertheless, managers
criticise existing enforcement practices as being too lax and
untransparent (due to local protectionism, bribery and lack of
expertise in the enforcement institutions). Managers consider
environmental functionaries-the Chinese equivalent of an
environmental protection agency-and the government to be the most
important environmental stakeholders. This is a clear sign for
their predominantly reactive attitude towards environmental
protection: few Chinese companies are going beyond compliance and
pioneering integrated approaches to pollution prevention. The
research shows similarities between current Chinese company
approaches and the "state of the art" in industrial centres of OECD
countries such as Germany in the 1960s. Apart from a lack of
capital, managers cite a lack of expertise-managerial more than
technical-as the main obstacle to "greening" their organisations.
Environmental management programmes need to be developed:
competence-building should start with CEOs and executives. Greening
Chinese Business will aid readers to understand how: Chinese
managers perceive and react to the increasing (more external than
internal) pressure to improve environmental protection; understand
the regulatory, public and business environment in which Chinese
managers make decisions about environmental protection; understand
the potential for improvement of this regulatory, public and
business environment, either as a manager or an external
stakeholder and develop strategies that lead to improved
stakeholder relationships and, consequently, to competitive
advantage; understand the urgent need to develop environmental
management practices in Chinese companies in areas such as EMSs and
supply chain management; and identify the resources available for
management development in China.
General
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