Determinants of organizational responsiveness to the issue of pollution prevention : a study of Tennessee businesses

The purpose of this study was to examine the broad question "What are the determinants of organizational interpretation and response to issues stemming from changing societal expectations?" Specifically, the study examined how contextual antecedents impact organizational interpretation of strategic issues, and how this interpretation, in turn, impacts organizational responses to those issues. The study focused on one strategic issue - societal expectations for industry to adopt pollution prevention (the reduction or elimination, rather than treatment and disposal, of hazardous wastes) as their primary approach to hazardous waste management. The contexts surrounding an organization were found to impact both the interpretation given to the pollution prevention issue and the responses organizations made to the issue. The relationship between issue interpretation and organizational response was found to context specific.