Walking the talk? Environmental responsibility from the perspective of small‐business owners

Abstract Small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) have generally been portrayed as failures in relation to environmental sustainability due to their low take‐up rates of sustainable business practices. This judgment arises when frameworks and standards that have been developed in, and for, large firms are applied to SMEs. Such assessment can provide a misleading impression of the uptake of sustainable business practices, as SMEs do not operate simply as miniature large firms. The performance of SMEs should be assessed using benchmarks that fit the circumstances of small firms. Based on interviews with 50 small‐business owners in New Zealand, we explore how environmental responsibility is understood and translated into practice. This paper contributes to the emerging stream of research that aims to build a theory of environmental responsibility that is grounded in the experiences of SME owner‐managers, and takes into account the heterogeneity and characteristics of the SME sector. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.