Abstract.
Proactivity concept could be defined as the tendency to initiate changes on a voluntary basis rather than waiting to react to possible pressures. Environmental proactivity appears when this proactivity is focused on environmental care.  It is the voluntary implementation of practices and initiatives encouraged to improve the relationship between the company and the environment.
The purpose of this thesis is to study the environmental proactivity concept and its application to manufacturing industries, which often regard environment distrustfully.  It is therefore necessary a literature review on environmental proactivity and its application to different industrial types, the goal is to know what the latest trends in this field are, but above all the most important is to check its practical application and usefulness for companies.  In today´s world, increasing enterprises competitiveness is a key factor to promote their survival, it is interesting to know if environmental proactivity can be a source of companys´ productivity improvements and therefore their competitiveness can be improved as well.
The main objective of this study is the industrial sectors in-depth analysis from the environmental performance point of view, studying environmental proactivity in the Valencian Community.  The structure followed in this research is the collection of two papers published in international academic journals with anonymous review, two chapters of research books in prestigious international editorial, and a fifth paper that is actually in revision process.  Each one approaches the different phases in which this study has been divided, and the whole content explains this thesis. Articles internal structure follows each journal´s requested format in order to be reviewed and subsequently published.
This research is divided into two separated but interconnected phases.  The first phase consists in a qualitative approach through three empirical case studies, according to qualitative methodology, applied to the three major industrial sectors of the Valencian Community, the food industry, the tile industry and the automotive industry.  The objectives of this first phase are:
1.-  Environmental proactivity facilitators identification.
2.-  Environmental proactivity obstacles identification.
3.-  Environmental proactivity benefits identification.


In the second phase, a double quantitative analysis is done in order to corroborate the case studies proposed hypotheses relating to the environmental proactivity facilitators identification. In the first analysis, the ones that refer to firm size and internationalization are explored.  In the second one is explored environmental management commitment.
 It has been found convenient to carry out the study in these two phases; the first is to see what happens from the inside through personal interviews that let recognize firms’ real behavior.  And then see what happens from the outside through the quantitative analysis.  This combined analysis provides the broad vision and aim of this study and allows contrasting the real information obtained from the case studies with information obtained through the quantitative analysis.  
The results of this research allow us to know industrial firms behavior patterns in Valencia, their facilitators, benefits and obstacles.  The main conclusion obtained concerning the facilitators are the following; large size of a company facilitates environmental proactivity, but it is also verified that small size is not an insurmonuntable barrier to proactive environmental behavior. International competing also facilitates proactive environmental orientation and direct involvement of management is also essential to provide such a proactive orientation.  The major obstacles identified for environmental proactivity are lack of financial support and lack of institutional support.  The main benefits resulting from the proactive environmental behavior are to avoid futures sanctions, followed by improvement of corporate image and cost savings in the long term.
The final conclusion of this research indicates that environmental proactivity can be a source of value for companies in the Valencian Community, and therefore it is worth its support and diffusion