The Contingent Influence of Organizational Capabilities On Proactive Environmental Strategy in the Service Sector: An Analysis of North American and European Ski Resorts

Improved financial performance usually accompanies proactive environmental strategies of waste reduction and pollution prevention that exceed regulatory requirements (e.g., Hart & Ahuja, 1995; Judge & Douglas 1998; Klassen & McLaughlin, 1996; Russo & Fouts, 1997). Hart (1995) argued in his 'natural resource-based view of the firm' that this is because firms with proactive environmental strategies generate valuable organizational capabilities that contribute to competitive advantage. Indeed, this argument has been supported empirically in both single industry and cross-industry studies (e.g. Christmann, 2000; Klassen & Whybark, 1999; Marcus & Geffen, 1998; Russo & Fouts; Sharma & Vredenburg, 1998). Even with the evidence accumulated over the last decade that proactive environmental strategies are likely to be accompanied by improved financial performance, we still lack a well-developed understanding of why only some firms in an industry implement such strategies.

One stream of research has examined the influence of specific internal organizational factors on the willingness of firms to develop proactive environmental strategies. Examples of such influences include managerial interpretations of envkonmental issues, (Bansal, 2003; Sharma, 2000), managerial attitudes toward the environment (Cordano & Frieze, 2000), leadership (Egri & Herman, 2000; Ramus & Steger, 2000), and organizational champions (Andersson & Bateman, 2000). These studies shed light on some internal influences that affect the willingness of firms to develop a proactive environmental strategy, but do not explain how firms develop the capacity to implement such strategies.

Another research stream has examined the direct influence of exogenous influences such as institutional forces (Hoffman, 1999), stakeholder pressures (Buysse & Verbeke, 2003; Henriques & Sadorsky, 1999, Kassinis & Vafeas, 2006), industry growth (Russo & Fouts, 1997), and regulations (Marcus & Geffen, 1998; Majumdar & Marcus, 2001) on the willingness of firms to develop a proactive environmental strategy. Recently, literature from the resource-based view of the firm (RBV) has called not only for an integrated analysis of the influence of exogenous variables on organizational capabilities (Barney 2001; Priem & Butler, 2001a, 2001b),...

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