Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how corporate environmental management strategies at different environmental management maturity (EMM) stages are influenced by institutional forces in the service sector organizations of a developing country.

Design/methodology/approach The authors used a multiple case study approach in this study. Institutional isomorphic pressures (coercive, mimetic and normative) at different EMM stages were used as the analytical framework.

Findings The study finds coercive pressures largely shape the corporate environmental management strategies at the reactive stage while mimetic pressures have the greatest influence on the internal integration stage. Combined mimetic and normative pressures influence the environmental strategies at the external integration stage. Further, it emphasizes the importance of various institutional pressures in propelling the organizations in the developing countries to benefit from higher levels of EMM.

Originality/value This paper offers a new theoretical approach that highlights the importance of considering the institutional influence of the top-down process of diffusion and simultaneous counter-process of invention by which the lower level organizational actors shape and change their environmental management practices for corporate EMM.