Environmental Monitoring in the Small Business: A Case Study on this Process in a Company of the Real Estate Sector

Abstract

It is observed a gap in the literature regard to studies related to strategic planning in small businesses, specifically related to environmental monitoring. As a result of this gap, this study aimed to understand how a small real estate company monitors the environment in which it operates. To develop the study, we opted for a descriptive and qualitative approach, based on the method of a single case study. The conceptual foundations used for structuring the field research took into account a secondary data survey on strategic planning, environmental analysis in strategic planning, conceptualization of small and medium sized business (SMB) and environment monitoring in SMB’s The study also has shown that although the respondents assert they perform environmental monitoring consistently, the process as described in the literature is not formal and systematic in the company studied. It has been observed efforts of the partners in this direction, but such activities are still restricted to the owners of the company. Given the proposed objective of this research, the case study did outline the main characteristics of the monitoring process of a small company in the construction sector. The study therefore contributes to broaden the knowledge about the structure of environmental monitoring in small businesses, enriching the theme that is still underdeveloped. In the business context, this study contributes pointing out factors that could be better developed by company managers and may serve as an example for other small businesses that are in the early stages of its environmental monitoring system development.