Sammendrag
The purpose of this thesis is to get knowledge about the prerequisites for and the forces behind a more environmentally friendly textile production in India. I have chosen to study two cases of firms which aspire to be ‘green’ (Welspun and Continental) to get knowledge about why a textile producer may have more environmentally friendly production than comparable producers and stricter criteria for the production than the law requires. It is a common assumption that industry does not make the production more environmentally friendly before law enforces it to. I will argue that this is not always the case and investigate what might be other reasons. By looking at the two cases in a context, I will try to understand what might have influenced these suppliers into being more environmentally friendly.
There are many different opinions on what encourages environmental upgrading of production. Based on a review of literature I have chosen 13 explaining factors which I use to explain my case studies:
• External:
o Geographical Location
o Government Regulation
o Transnational Activist Pressure
o Customer’s Tastes
o Industry Collaboration on Standard setting
• Internal:
o Reputation
o “Win-Win”- Opportunities
o Position in the Value Chain
o Internationalisation
o Strategic Attitude
o Company Size
o Employees’ Environmental Awareness
o Managements’ Environmental Awareness
I started working on my thesis, having several research questions, but gradually I summed them up in one: How can different internal and external factors explain the eco-friendly actions of Welspun and Continental and who are the stakeholders behind these factors? I have tried to answer this question in the analysis. By getting a better understanding of how different factors could explain why a company becomes more environmentally friendly, there is a greater possibility to enhance the drivers that encourages and pressure companies into being more environmentally friendly.