The climate emergency emphasises the need for businesses to move towards net zero. This research explores and compares the environmental attitudes and practices of rural and urban-based businesses.
Rural firms
Urban firms
said they always consider the environmental implications of business decisions
Rural firms
Urban firms
said that environmental impact should be part of a business’s bottom line
Rural firms
Urban firms
had these in place
These include monitoring air pollution, investigating low carbon products and services and investing in environment-related research and development
I’m Co-Director of NICRE, Professor of Enterprise at Warwick Business School and Director of the Enterprise Research Centre (ERC). I am an economist with over 30 years’ experience of researching issues related to small and medium enterprises, innovation and innovation policy in the UK and internationally and have published widely in both areas. I have led over 70 externally funded projects, have been a member of a number of government advisory boards, and I regularly act as a consultant for OECD and the World Bank on issues related to small business development and innovation policy including projects in Austria, Abu Dhabi, Mexico, Israel, Columbia and Poland, Austria and Canada over the last four years. I am an Academician of the Academy of Social Sciences and a Fellow of the RSA.
Effie is Senior Research Fellow at the Enterprise Research Centre and Associate Professor in Applied Economics at Leeds University Business School. Prior to that, she was Lecturer in Industrial Economics at Nottingham University Business School. Her research is interdisciplinary and seeks to understand the institutional, demand, organizational factors that drive environmental innovations; to assess the impact of international sustainability standards upon firm performance; and to explain the role of city-regions and local knowledge spillovers upon firm’s innovation and productivity.
Rural firms often run their businesses differently than urban firms, as evidenced by their lower adoption of business planning activities, their lower likelihood to export, and their different business priorities. This may influence the way that they approach environmental issues.
We found differences between rural and urban firms’ attitudes towards, and engagement with, environmental issues. Rural firms are more likely than urban firms to approach environmental issues positively, are more engaged with, and invested in, environmental practices, and are leading the way when it comes to integrating environmental priorities into their business models.
Rural firms appear to be motivated by different external factors than urban firms when contemplating the adoption of environmental practices, notably grants and reducing costs. Rural firms experience different barriers to net zero adoption than urban firms, notably administrative procedures.
Policies and measures to address these specific circumstances will need to be designed to reach rural firms. Overall, underlying differences in attitudes and business models suggest that firm location (e.g., urban or rural context) should be considered when developing policy and initiatives to encourage wider adoption of net zero practices.
I am Research Fellow at NICRE and at the Enterprise Research Centre at Warwick Business School. Since joining Warwick in 2018, I have contributed to a multi-country study into SME resilience funded by JP Morgan, and to a major UK study into mental health in the workplace. My current research interests include business and individual resilience, ethics, innovation and entrepreneurship. Before coming to academia, I spent 17 years working in global consumer marketing roles in UK-based companies.
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