ABSTRACT
What distinguishes this book from many others produced on this topic over the past decade is the combination of:
1. In-depth investigation of the social processes leading to successful innovative environmental management in various industrial companies in different European countries;
2. The comparative evaluation of typical features of successful environmental management in different contexts;
3. The emphasis placed on the (complex) interaction dynamics of various company internal and external determinants on different levels of the sociosphere2 as an adequate framework for interpreting successful environmental management;
4. The inclusion of the results of related surveys and case studies in the explanation of (successful) environmental management;
5. The normative perspective with respect to starting points of supportive (public) environmental policy and;
6. The explicit preference for (hermeneutic) understanding within an analytical framework for (causal) explanation of the social evolution of environmental management practices described below.
