Abstract

PERKS, S  and  SMITH, E. Greening the core business functions: a retail and finance sector perspective. JCMAN [online]. 2012, vol.9, n.1, pp.1-23. ISSN 1815-7440.

Although South African businesses have made significant progress regarding environmental management, many businesses still do not recognise the need to become green. Green businesses adopted environmentalism across the business functions using fewer natural resources. The primary objective of this paper is to explore the effect of greening on the core business functions in the retail- and finance industries. A quantitative research approach is followed. A non-probability convenient sample of 140 businesses was surveyed in the Nelson Mandela Metropole using self-administered questionnaires. It was found that retail businesses perceive their marketing/sales and operations functions as greener than their finance and human resource functions; however finance businesses perceive their finance and human resources functions as greener. Greening the operations functions differ in retail and finance businesses as products and services offered differ considerably in these two sectors. The human resource-, marketing/sales and finance functions can utilise the same green business practices in both sectors.

Keywords : greening; core business functions; sustainability; business activity.

        · text in English     · English ( pdf )