Abstract
This study examines how managers in high-pollution industries translate green policy pressure into environmental sustainability practices amid regulatory uncertainty. We argue that the relationship between policy pressure and organisational outcomes is not linear; instead, its effects are mediated by managerial interpretation and structural embedding processes. Regulatory uncertainty increases interpretive discretion, shaping whether environmental practices are framed as peripheral compliance obligations or transformative actions. Substantive sustainability integration occurs when environmental priorities are embedded in formal authority structures, supported by resource allocation, and incorporated into core decision-making systems. In the absence of such embedding, sustainability initiatives remain symbolic or decoupled from operational activities. Stakeholder configuration further conditions this process by reinforcing or constraining managerial commitments. By theorising how green policy pressure is inacted through interpretive and structural mechanisms, this study explains why firms facing similar regulatory environments exhibit uneven patterns of sustainability integration