A relação circular entre a preservação do meio ambiente e a sobrevivência das empresas: Uma análise evolucionária da indústria do plástico

Abstract

The main objective of this research was to present evidence of how organizations decide on their routines influenced by the social demands related to the preservation of the environment. It is worth mentioning that the theoretical lens used was the Evolutionary theory, being useful to understand the social dynamics of organizations according to historical dependence (Path Dependence). In this study the routines were categorized as evolutionary and isomorphic. It is worth noting that the main assumption of this research is that the survival of companies is directly related to the fulfillment of social demands related to the preservation of the environment. It is also worth mentioning that the locus of research was the plastic transformation industry. As for the methodological procedures, the qualitative approach was adopted because it seeks to understand the meaning of management choices. The subjects of the survey for data collection were 107 companies (secondary data) and 6 interviews (primary data). In addition, as a procedure of analysis, this research adopted the technique of constant comparison of the empirical corpus, being understood as a hermeneutic exercise. The main contributions are the discussion about a circular relationship between the survival of companies and the fulfillment of social demands, as well as the evidence that companies adopt proactive and reactive positions to choose routines in the face of changes in the external environment. A relevant aspect in this research is that the search for evolutionary routines rescues the principles of Schumpeterian competition. On the other hand, it was noted the use of isomorphism as protection by companies that adopted a reactive attitude, and also by sector to promote their survival. It should be emphasized that the isomorphic routines, represented by those activities or conventional processes, can transmit some security when it is adopted. However, this sense of security over time becomes counterproductive by the adoption of a stagnant isomorphism. In fact, it can be said that the adoption of one or another routine may be associated with the company's posture being reactive or proactive, but that this posture that leads to managerial decisions can lead to inertia and entropy of the organizational system. In addition, it was noticed in the studied companies a movement toward evolution to meet a sustainable management, which incorporates an economic-productive-social perspective for decisions on the allocation of resources in a circular flow