South African small and medium-sized enterprise owners’ intention to implement an environmental management system

Background: Environmental problems present the most complex and important managerial challenges of the 21st century. Most businesses have responded to these environmental problems by adopting an environmental management system.Aim: This article investigates South African small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) owners’ intentions to implement an environmental management system based on the theory of planned behaviour.Setting: Although large businesses are clearly of interest with respect to their environmental management, especially given their prominence in many of the most environmentally impactful sectors, the relative neglect of the environmental management of SMEs is disconcerting, given their overall importance in most economies. In addition, very little research used the theory of planned behaviour to empirically test SME owners’ intentions, to implement an environmental management system.Method: A quantitative survey was used to collect primary data from 326 SME owners by a structured questionnaire.Results: Regression analysis results confirmed the influence of SME owners’ attitudes towards an environmental management system and pro-environmental norms on their intention to implement an environmental management system. Perceived behavioural control, however, did not significantly influence the SME owners’ intention to implement an environmental management system.Conclusion: These findings provide valuable insights into the implementation of environmental management systems among South African SMEs. The theory of planned behaviour also seems to be an appropriate means to investigate the intentions of SMEs to implement an environmental management system.