his paper presents some of the results ofa four-year study which sought to measure the relationship between firm competitiveness, management environmental culture, the importance of external advice on the use of cleaner production and the firm's environmental performance among small and medium-sized European manufacturing firms (SMEs) in the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, Germany and Italy for three industrial sectors. Using the example of the furniture sector, this paper concentrates on the relationship between the firm's use of environmental initiatives and its competitive performance. Cost and market drivers appear to be almost as important as regulation, and the environmental initiatives adopted by firms in the industry did have an impact on both cost and market performance. Nevertheless, a statistically significant relationship between overall environmental and economic performance could not be shown. Moreover, regarding the other two hypotheses, there was no evidence of a relationship between environmental performance and management's environmental attitudes, while the relevance of external advice is that, although it is important, SMEs fail to take up available advice, which is often of good quality. The policy implications of the research are that environmental policy towards SMEs should not in these cases be constrained by concerns over competitiveness implications; firms' attitudes to the environment are not irrespective of their current environmental performance. External advice is important but is not valued by the firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
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