The relationship between competitiveness, environmental performance and management of small and medium sized European manufacturing firms

The environmental performance of SMEs (Small and Medium sized Enterprises) is an area of major policy concern. The research project deals witz factors influencing the environmental performance of SMEs across four European countries: the UK, Ireland, Germany and Italy. While there are a range of factors which are expected to influence the take up clean technology, this publication focuses a three key hypotheses, namely firm competitiveness , culture and use and availability of information and advice. The publication concentrates on results from Germany.