Sustainability in the context of supermarkets: an analysis of two retail networks in Brazil

Sustainability has become an extremely important factor for organizations, affecting the actions of companies, which are gradually changing their policies to reduce the damage caused by their activities and bring benefits to society and the planet. Thus, this research aims to analyze the relationship between waste and waste management practices and the generation of value and sustainable competitive advantage in the supermarket environment, through a study of two retail chains, operating in the Federal District, im Brazil, whose data were collected by a survey and analyzed with the support of statistical software, in order to test the proposed hypotheses. The results show that supermarkets that adopt environmental management practices are better seen in the market and that subjective environmental knowledge influences waste and waste management practices and the generation of sustainable value and competitive advantage, while objective environmental knowledge and market orientation does not influence these variables. As a main contribution, this research advances in studies that deal with sustainability in the context of medium-sized retail supermarkets.