Regulatory pressures affecting the restaurant business's responsible behaviors in Penang, Malaysia

Abstract

While the impact of hotel operation on the environment has now been well discussed in the literature, there is not much awareness about the environmental responsibility of restaurant operation on its surroundings. It is also not known if the sector is being pressured to ‘green’ its operation. This paper investigates the existence and strength of regulatory pressures in relation to restaurant greening within the context of Penang, Malaysia, because it is widely agreed in the literature that regulatory pressure is an important driver for business to change the way they do business. Using qualitative data based on semi-structured interviews of key informants from the restaurants, and various agencies relevant to the sector, it looks at the existence and strength of such pressure. The findings indicate that the restaurant industry does not receive much attention from the authorities in their role of exacerbating degradation of the environment. The situation is attributed to three factors, i.e. ‘weak enforcement’, ‘unfocused environmental effort’ by the government and ‘poor service attitudes among the government officers’. The paper ends with a discussion on the theoretical and managerial implications of the findings.

Keywords:

• CSR
• external pressure
• restaurant business
• Penang