Purchasing's Role in Environmental Management: Cross‐Functional Development of Grounded Theory

SUMMARY Are government regulations a driver or barrier to environmental activities? Does greater functional involvement within a firm help to ensure the success of environmental projects? Do environmental projects improve or harm financial performance? This research finds that none of these questions can be answered with a simple “yes” or “no.” Instead, this article distinguishes between successful and unsuccessful environmental projects, through an examination of not only their consequences but also their drivers and barriers and the functional interplay that occurs during their implementation. The findings result from an inductive study leading to theory grounded in the data but related to extant findings, and are based on case studies that tap the perspectives of purchasing managers and the managers in multiple, additional functional areas with whom they interact when initiating environmental projects.