Strategic Responses to Resource Management Pressures in Agriculture: Institutional, Gender and Location Effects

CITATION

Tingey-Holyoak, J., & Pisaniello, J. (2017). Strategic Responses to Resource Management Pressures in Agriculture: Institutional, Gender and Location Effects. Journal of Business Ethics, 144(2), 381–400. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2828-5

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ABSTRACT
Sustainable management of natural resources
by farmers is under increasing public scrutiny. In Australia,
the case of water unsustainably used and stored by agricultural
businesses has gained attention with communities
in catchments potentially deprived of water and placed at
downstream risk. Yet, sustainable water management
institutional policy mechanisms remain disjointed around
the country. The study reported here applies a strategic
response typology to a survey of 404 farmers in four different
institutional environments in Australia to explore
their responses to institutional pressures. Findings demonstrate
a convergence in typologies that relate to farmers
organising each other and communities influencing and
networking for the benefit of agricultural resource management
thereby questioning the traditional continuum of
resistance. Furthermore, the mid-range typology ‘avoidance’
emerges as a highly problematic typology for sustainable
water management policymakers especially those
in weaker institutional environments where there is a need
to develop policy instruments that retain farmer water
management decision-making power and encourage networks.
The paper also extends the strategic response
typology to enable understanding of how gender and
location affect strategic responses to institutional pressures.
Findings provide insight for policy design in times of
increasing catastrophic flood and drought conditions
exacerbated by poor water management practice.


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