Non-market strategies and environmental management: Framework for effective sustainable transformation

Abstract

As environmental concerns intensify, businesses are increasingly adopting non-market strategies (NMS) to navigate regulatory pressures and improve environmental performance (EP). However, there has been no systematic effort to synthesise existing studies on the environmental benefits of NMS and to provide an integrated conceptual understanding of the field. As a result, there remains limited understanding of how these strategies influence firms’ EP and the boundary conditions under which they are effective. To address this gap, this study conducts a systematic review of 151 peer-reviewed articles and develops a comprehensive integrative framework linking NMS to firm-level EP. The framework highlights the effectiveness of combined NMS in comparison to single strategies, emphasising the role of dual legitimacy activation. This synthesis provides a foundation for more nuanced future research and offers practical guidance on aligning political engagement, governance capacity, and innovation investment to enhance sustained EP across varying institutional contexts.