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Examines the organizational purchase of one environmental straight rebuy product, recycled paper products. Insight into what may assist marketers of products with environmental attributes in being more effective; Advantages of the attitudes and perceptions of purchasing agents' (PAs') toward the purchase of recycled paper products; In-depth interviews held with 11 PAs; Conclusion to study; Problems in marketing environmental products.

How does a corporation know it emits carbon? Acquiring such knowledge starts with the classification of environmentally relevant consumption information. This paper visits the corporate location at which this underlying element for their knowledge is assembled to give rise to carbon emissions. Using an actornetwork theory (ANT) framework, the aim is to investigate the actors who bring together the elements needed to classify their carbon emission sources and unpack the heterogeneous relations drawn on. Based on an ethnographic study of corporate agents of ecological modernisation over a period of 13 months, this paper provides an exploration of three cases of enacting classification. Drawing on ANT, we problematise the silencing of a range of possible modalities of consumption facts and point to the ontological ethics involved in such performances. In a context of global warming and corporations construing themselves as able and suitable to manage their emissions, and, additionally, given that the construction of carbon emissions has performative consequences, the underlying practices need to be declassified, i.e. opened for public scrutiny. Hence the paper concludes by arguing for a collective engagement with the ontological politics of carbon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A significant issue that is increasingly affecting the operations of companies is the policies of governments with regard to the natural environment and the activities of nongovernmental organizations in promoting codes of practice and other forms of nonlegal regulation. The onset of new regulations and codes of conduct is placing significant operational burdens on firms to merely comply with new requirements and changed circumstances. Furthermore, there is a need in strategic terms to anticipate and to plan for environmental concerns and to incorporate this thinking into corporate strategy. Thus a new subfield of strategic management is beginning to emerge: that dealing with the natural environment as it affects corporate strategy. Alan Rugman and Alain Verbeke in their paper corporate strategies and environmental regulations' organize the literature on environmental regulations and corporate strategy into a new managerial framework They go on to develop a resource-based view of the interaction between the firm's key resources (core competences) and environmental regulations including the implications for the development of 'green' capabilities. Finally, they analyze the deployment of 'green' capabilities within a standard international business model and explore hypotheses on the relationships between environmental regulations, competitiveness, and corporate strategy. The question about how firms should respond to environmental regulations can be seen in broad terms as part of the debate on corporate social responsibility. A fundamental problem in this area has been that there are no definitions of corporate social responsibility or corporate social responsiveness that provide a framework or a model for consistent systematic collection, organization, and analysis of corporate data relating to these important concepts (Clarkson, 1995). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of RAE: Revista de Administração de Empresas is the property of Fundacao Getulio Vargas and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper explores some interconnections between the business and environmental ethics movements. The first section argues that business has obligations to protect the environment over and above what is required by environmental law and that it should cooperate and interact with government in establishing environmental regulation. Business must develop and demonstrate environmental moral leadership. The second section exposes the danger of using the rationale of "good ethics is good business" as a basis for such business moral leadership in both the business and environmental ethics movements. The third section cautions against the moral shallowness inherent in the position or in the promotional strategy of ecological homocentrism which claims that society, including business, ought to protect the environment solely because of harm done to human beings and human interests. This paper urges business and environmental ethicists to promote broader and deeper moral perspectives than ones based on mere self-interest or human interest. Otherwise both movements will come up ethically short. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a discussion of the external or side effects of business and rational responses to these external effects for profit-maximizing firms. Some people would argue that the rational response for the profit-maximizing firm is to do nothing about its external effects until required by law; whereas others, as we in this paper, argue that the rational response for the profit-maximizing firm is to take some action. The first section of the paper deals with the meaning of externalities, of which pollution is a fundamental type, and the phases of a solution to such problems. In the second section, the paper deals with rational responses for the profit-maximizing firm regarding its externalities, in which many aspects of the popular arguments against the rationality and the practicability of independent corrective action by a firm are examined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent innovation diffusion in organisations literature suggests that innovation diffusion dimensions and characteristics are not independent of each other, rather organisational internal environment interacts with both an organisational external environment and an innovation's characteristics. The purpose of this paper is to examine the validity of the framework consisting of organisational innovation dimensions and characteristics within Saudi Arabian organisations. We test this model with survey data from a large-scale survey of 223 Saudi public and private project-based organisations, these organisations had either adopted, or intended to adopt, the project management office (PMO). To obtain a broad representation of respondents, and to minimise bias, the survey did not target any specific industry. Statistical analysis, specifically exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were conducted to ascertain the factors underlying each construct. Structural equations modelling (SEM) was sequentially utilised to determine the factor structure of the model and to assess the relationships between model constructs. This paper took an initiative step towards a conceptual framework for organisational innovation diffusion, represented by the PMO. Its results revealed that perceived organisational innovation climate functions as a gateway to the organisational innovation diffusion. It was also found that technology mediate the relationships between socio-culture and organisation climate for innovation. More importantly, PMO complexity was not related to the intention to implement the PMO. The quantitative study showed that the framework is a useful tool for studying the diffusion of organisation innovation. The model can potentially form the foundations of a framework for organisations seeking to enhance the organisational innovation diffusion that could in turn strengthen their business performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the most important strategies for reducing carbon emissions is to optimize firms' operation decisions in business practices. This paper proposes a green vendor-managed inventory (a green VMI) model with a supplier and a manufacturer under a carbon emissions trading mechanism. The proposed model integrates both environmental and economic goals under a carbon emissions constraint, and then the members' optimal decisions are obtained. Comparing this model with the traditional VMI model, this paper finds that, in the green VMI model, whether the supplier should sell or buy carbon credit depends on the carbon cap. Further, the impacts of the carbon cap and the carbon emissions factors on the optimal decisions, the carbon emissions, and the total costs in the supply chain are examined analytically. Finally, numerical experiments are performed to verify the theoretical results. It is shown that, after introducing the carbon trading mechanism, the VMI model could increase the total cost of the supply chain under some specified set of parameters. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to explore whether a linkage between environmental effects and financial performance exists; and second, to investigate whether firms displaying more environmental effort show a more significantly positive relationship between environmental performance and financial performance than those displaying less green effort. Design/methodology/approach - The study adopts correlation analysis of a sample comprising of 51 European companies from 14 industries across 15 countries to investigate the possible relationship between firm environmental performance (including three measures: sustainable value, sustainable value margin, and return to cost ratio) and financial performance. Findings - The paper does not find a positive relationship between firm environmental performance and financial performance. Both the Pearson correlations and Spearman's rho are statistically insignificant for both the full sample and the carbon-intensive sectors. When the lag effect on firm financial performance is considered, the result remains the same. The result suggests that corporate good guys in Europe do not necessarily reap the rewards of their green effort. Research limitations/implications - Future research may investigate the relationship between firm environmental efforts and financial performance across industries with different technologies and product life cycles, or industries with similar pollutions/emissions or usage pattern of natural resources, such as the petroleum industry and the transportation industry. Practical implications - Although it was not possible to find a positive association between environmental performance and financial performance, still, being perceived as a green company may improve a company's image and reputation, thus attracting more talented workers and green-conscious customers. Originality/value - The paper provides a new perspective on the relationship between firm environmental performance and financial performance in monetary terms by taking a broader view at the environmental outcomes. While past studies only measure firm environmental performance based on damaging impacts to the environment, the research also considers the efficiency of resource use by the firm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Sociology is the property of Canadian Journal of Sociology and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This paper emphasizes the importance of the role played by social responsibility in supporting sustainable businesses. The first part of the paper displays a short historical evolution and a series of definitions of this concept from the perspective of the social, environment and economic preoccupations of the French and German approaches of the issue concerning sustainable development that appears to meet the needs of nowadays generation. The largest part of the paper displays the advantages of CSR for organizations, employees, and communities as well as the implementation stages of CSR within corporations. The final part of the paper presents three approaches that characterize the practice of corporate social responsibility: the restrictive, cumulative and integrative approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper aims to empirically explore the impact of absorptive capacity (AC) on explorative and exploitative innovation in business cluster settings, and the environment's moderating role on these relationships. Design/methodology/approach – Using a sample of Central European companies, the paper applies multivariate data analysis techniques to test the effect of AC on innovation performance and potential moderators, respectively. Findings – The empirical evidence indicates that AC impacts both explorative and exploitative innovation, and that the strength of the impact depends on the business clusters' level of dynamism and competitiveness. Environmental dynamism and competitiveness positively moderate the effect of AC on explorative innovation, and negatively moderate the effect of AC on exploitative innovation. Research limitations/implications – Several research limitations apply. First, only one interview per firm was conducted on a self-reporting basis. Second, the survey's focus was on SMEs. Third, questionnaire translations and differing interviewer behaviour may bias the results. Practical implications – The findings suggest that firms in business clusters must develop AC to gain the fruits of agglomeration effects. Furthermore, attention should be paid to the cluster's environmental conditions, since dynamism and competition play a significant role for innovation. Originality/value – Although the importance of AC has often been highlighted, much more remains to be understood about its role in business cluster settings. This issue is addressed in this work by providing systematic, empirical evidence on how AC affects innovation performance at the firm level, and on how this relationship depends on the business cluster's environmental characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the intellectual capital became the most important recourse of the information era, and management relies on information and innovative intelligence, organisations should change the system of evaluation and find new, up-to-date methods. The traditional (especially financial) performance evaluating methods (general accounting methods) are not able to visualize the value of the knowledge, information, or immaterial stocks, in spite of these are the critical, key factors of today's and tomorrow's organization. In addition the environment should not be forgotten in the rank of the critical recourses of a company's success factor, especially that the improvement of the organisation's environmental performance increases the benefits. The lack of effectiveness of traditional performance evaluating methods and environmental management accounting in case of evaluation of environmental performance is a consequence. Have the organizations realized their intellectual capital and the benefits of the environmental performance's improvement? Have they evaluated it? How does an organization know the usability of the new, modern evaluating methods in case of intellectual capital or in case of environmental performance or in case of environmental management accounting? Or maybe do they need incentives for evaluation? The paper is the summary of different secondary and primary researches, which tries to answer these, before mentioned questions and the key issues of the intellectual capital and the environmental performance (evaluation) and also of the usability of the new, up-to-date methods. Therefore the paper -- the answer -- is the consequence of theoretical research, where the practice also will be appear, because the common solution -- in connection with up-to-date methods, environmental performance and environmental management -- will be presented by the method of Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) and other suggestions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

1. Businesses have an unrivalled ability to mobilize human, physical and financial capital, often manage large land holdings, and draw on resources and supply products that impact a wide array of ecosystems. Businesses therefore have the potential to make a substantial contribution to arresting declines in biodiversity and ecosystem services. To realize this potential, businesses require support from researchers in applied ecology to inform how they measure and manage their impacts on, and opportunities presented to them by, biodiversity and ecosystem services. 2. We reviewed papers in leading applied ecology journals to assess the research contribution from existing collaborations involving businesses. We reviewed applications to, and grants funded by, the UK’s Natural Environment Research Council for evidence of public investment in such collaborations. To scope opportunities for expanding collaborations with businesses, we conducted workshops with three sectors (mining and quarrying, insurance and manufacturing) in which participants identified exemplar ecological research questions of interest to their sector. 3. Ten to fifteen per cent of primary research papers in Journal of Applied Ecology and Ecological Applications evidenced business involvement, mostly focusing on traditional rural industries (farming, fisheries and forestry). The review of UK research council funding found that 35% of applications mentioned business engagement, while only 1% of awarded grants met stricter criteria of direct business involvement. 4. Some questions identified in the workshops aim to reduce costs from businesses’ impacts on the environment and others to allow businesses to exploit new opportunities. Some questions are designed to inform long-term planning undertaken by businesses, but others would have more immediate commercial applications. Finally, some research questions are designed to streamline and make more effective those environmental policies that affect businesses. 5. Business participants were forward-looking regarding ecological questions and research. For example, representatives from mining and quarrying companies emphasized the need to move beyond biodiversity to consider how ecosystems function, while those from the insurance sector stressed the importance of ecology researchers entering into new types of interdisciplinary collaboration. 6. Synthesis and applications. Businesses from a variety of sectors demonstrated a clear interest in managing their impacts on, and exploiting opportunities created by, ecosystem services and biodiversity. To achieve this, businesses are asking diverse ecological research questions, but publications in leading applied ecology journals and research council funding reveal limited evidence of direct engagement with businesses. This represents a missed opportunity for ecological research findings to see more widespread application. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore and investigate the process of green management adoption in small and medium-sized enterprises. Design/methodology/approach - The study used the qualitative methods of case study, in-depth interviews and document analysis to collect data from two companies, one in the acoustic equipment, the other in the electronics industry. Findings - The paper finds that the extant literature in the field of business and management has largely ignored green management practices within small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study finds that SMEs can make themselves greener by making strategic and organizational changes. For greener management, the factors of organizational structure, innovation capability, human resources, cost savings and competitive advantage can influence organizational change. The outcomes of the case studies confirmed this. The paper argues that further research is needed in order to identify how management practice might reduce negative sustainability impacts. The paper argues that such research can benefit from the methodological and theoretical insights of other disciplines. Originality/value - The paper is of benefit to academics and managers by providing a new way to consider green management and strategies of SMEs. Since green sustainability is obviously challenging to all companies, to increase understanding of how to cope with green management is necessary, but has been rarely researched in SMEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to carry out a literature review of the quantitative studies that have analyzed the impact of green management on financial performance. Design/methodology/approach - An examination of the literature was undertaken to review the quantitative studies that analyze the influence of environmental management on financial performance. A total of 32 studies were identified, examining the environmental variables used, the financial performance variables, the statistical analyses, and the main findings obtained by these studies. Findings - Results are mixed, but studies where a positive impact of environment on financial performance is obtained are predominant. In addition, the findings show that the set of firms, industries and countries are varied. Some studies use environmental management variables and other works employ environmental performance variables, and regression analysis prevails. Research limitations/implications - The study does not consider studies that analyze the influence of environmental management on environmental performance. Implications for future research are suggested. Practical implications - The paper offers interesting implications for managers, pointing out that a real commitment to green management may result in a positive influence on financial performance. Originality/value - The findings are derived from an exhaustive literature review of quantitative studies that have studied the green management-financial performance link. In addition, ideas for improving future research in this field are provided. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New requirements and regulations have increased the pressure on companies to provide information on their products. This is challenging for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) since they lack both expertise and resources. In this paper, the possibilities to develop environmental product declarations (EPDs) for products with use of data-assistant tools are explored. A case study of furniture production in Norway is used to exemplify this. A database with specific environmental data for materials used in furniture has been developed. The database is used to conduct the life cycle assessment (LCA) for selected products and is the backbone of a data-assistance tool used to design and present the EPDs. Five key performance indicators are selected. The database and these KPIs ensures standardised assessments of products that enables both comparison of existing products as well as assessment of environmental performance of redesigned products and potential new products. This paper shows how this enables the SMEs to both provide environmental performance information to stakeholders as well as enables them to identify possible improvements with limited resources and competence on environmental performance and LCAs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Environmental & Social Management Journal / Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental is the property of Environmental & Social Management Journal and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

As the second part of a research agenda addressing the idea and meaning of Sustainable Development, this paper responds to the challenges set in the first paper. Using a Foucaudian perspective, we uncover and highlight the importance of discourse in the development of societal context which could lead to the radical change in our epistemological thought necessary for Sustainable Development to reach its potential. By developing an argument for an epistemological change, we suggest that business organizations have an ethical responsibility towards revaluating Sustainable Development, leading to a discourse based on an integrated inclusive process of celebrating diversity in all its forms. The paper goes on to explore the argument for such a change. This exploration is based on three issues: the notion of over simplification in the promotion of development; the idea of an imbalance in the interaction of business and government operating in the larger context of society; and the notion of increasing responsibility with increasing influence in terms of the business organization within society. Having established the argument for an ethical choice by business organizations, we then reflect on how such a change could be incorporated into an organization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a globalizing world, governments are not always able or willing to regulate the social and environmental externalities of global business activities. Multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSI), defined as global institutions involving mainly corporations and civil society organizations, are one type of regulatory mechanism that tries to fill this gap by issuing soft law regulation. This conceptual paper examines the conditions of a legitimate transfer of regulatory power from traditional democratic nation-state processes to private regulatory schemes, such as MSIs. Democratic legitimacy is typically concerned with input legitimacy (rule credibility, or the extent to which the regulations are perceived as justified) and output legitimacy (rule effectiveness, or the extent to which the rules effectively solve the issues). In this study, we identify MSI input legitimacy criteria (inclusion, procedural fairness, consensual orientation, and transparency) and those of MSI output legitimacy (rule coverage, efficacy, and enforcement), and discuss their implications for MSI democratic legitimacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the environmental performance of family and nonfamily public corporations between 1998 and 2002, using a sample of 194 U.S. firms required to report their emissions. We found that family-controlled public firms protect their socioemotional wealth by having a better environmental performance than their nonfamily counterparts, particularly at the local level, and that for the nonfamily firms, stock ownership by the chief executive officer (CEO) has a negative environmental impact. We also found that the positive effect of family ownership on environmental performance persists independently of whether the CEO is a family member or serves both as CEO and board chair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational slack seems to have an ambiguous relationship with corporate greening. On the one hand, excess resources can be used to experiment with new environmental innovations, or potential green market segments. On the other, excess resources can be used to build corporate buffers against pressures for environmental improvement, such as large corporate environmental departments or environmental lobbying activity, and resist changes to the core of the organization. This paper begins to resolve these conflicting arguments by broadening the debate on organizational slack and corporate greening. It builds on recent empirical studies of slack and corporate greening, and recognizes the many potential roles that different types of slack may play in a dynamic decision–making context. Using a theoretical framework suggested by Bourgeois (1981), the paper systematizes and draws lessons from examples of the roles of slack encountered in a recent series of 35 interviews within UK public limited companies. It concludes that future treatments of slack and environmental management should incorporate a more holistic view of slack, which recognizes its dynamic, complex and often contradictory effects on decision–making in organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine whether narrative corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosures (the provision of textual information on companies’ environmental and social performance to external stakeholders) are associated with firm value in Germany. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the global reporting initiative guidelines, the paper uses content analysis to assess the value relevance of CSR disclosures of 130 German companies over four years. Findings – The results show that CSR information is value-relevant, but the value relevance of CSR information differs among CSR categories. Specifically, the disclosure of social information is positively associated with firm value yet environmental disclosures are not. Practical implications – The results confirm that management should be aware of the potential capital market effects of voluntary CSR disclosures, even though such disclosures may be directed at other stakeholders. Originality/value – Germany is an interesting setting as CSR disclosures are voluntarily, even though the institutional environment appears sensitive to CSR disclosures. Despite this, little research has focussed upon the value-relevance of CSR-disclosures in Germany. In addition, the results confirm that management should be aware of the potential capital market effects of voluntary CSR disclosures, even though they are not directed at shareholders as such. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organisational innovations and crisis management have a lot in common. Crisis may come in many various forms. It can be a result of economic slowdown or recession influencing the industry and, therefore, some of its organisations. However, firm disaster can be a result of wrong management decisions or unexpected events. Each form of crisis has its own causes, which influence the company in a number of ways. The main objectives of the paper are to describe the nature of crisis management in project-based enterprises and to define the scope and role of organisational innovations in it. The conducted research shows that the organisational innovations are the crucial elements of crisis response strategies. Applying organisational innovations, the entity can gain short-term benefits because they aim at improving the flexibility and adaptability of the company and the supervision of the running projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose The Chinese Government encourages firms to diffuse their operational-level environmental management (EM) into their organization's mission and strategy to develop strategic EM to promote sustainable development. The purpose of this paper is to utilize two concepts of institutional theory (isomorphic pressures and decoupling behavior) to assess how different institutional forces arising from Chinese macro-level factors (market pressure, business turbulence, legal voids, carbon policy, structural-level governmental interference and guanxi with government) influence the efficacy of strategic EM.Design/methodology/approach In partnership with a major consulting firm in China, the authors collect multi-informant survey data from 183 manufacturing firms drawn from a variety of industries for testing the hypotheses posited.Findings The efficacy of strategic EM in the sampled firms is confirmed by the positive association with environmental performance. The authors also find that the efficacy of strategic EM is weakened by market pressure, business turbulence and legal voids, whereas it is strengthened by structural-level governmental interference. However, carbon policy and guanxi with government do not impact it significantly.Research limitations/implications To extend the findings on the environmental importance of strategic EM, future research can develop and validate a management framework to guide the adoption of strategic EM. With regard to the four valid macro-level factors influencing the efficacy of strategic EM, future research can identify the reasons (e.g. conflict with corporate functions) behind them to aid manufacturers to mitigate their negative influence or enhance the positive influence on strategic EM.Social implications China's Government and its manufacturers (or those sharing a similar institutional environment) can expand the scope of their EM efforts from operational-level EM practices to strategic EM. The findings on the valid macro-level factors have led to practical suggestions for government bodies and manufacturers to improve the efficacy of strategic EM adoption. Overall, the implications help achieve the higher levels of firm-level environmental performance and alleviate the global pollution problem.Originality/value A particular value of this work lies in the demonstration of combining institutional theory (organization decoupling, isomorphic pressures) with practical consideration such as guanxi with government in the particular institutional environment of China to help address an important and context-related problem, environmental performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to advance the concept of “integrative capability” as a critical dynamic capability (DC) and empirically investigate its implications for a firm’s sustainable competitive advantage in business partnerships. Design/methodology/approach – This study is based on an empirical analysis of a sample of 300 manufacturing firms in south and central China. Findings – Integrative capability is an important mediator in relationship between operational capabilities (managerial, marketing and technological capabilities) and firm performance. Integrative capability has a significant direct impact on a firm’s performance (marketing effectiveness and financial performance) and also indirect impact via the creation of new operational capabilities. Practical implications – Managers should recognise the significant payoffs of developing integrative capability. Integrative capability helps a firm transfer the benefits of operational capabilities from alliances partners to superior firm performance. Further, integrative capability also effectively updates and renews a firm’s operational capabilities that lead to an enhanced firm performance. Originality/value – Extending the DC literature, this study untangles the complex relationship among operational capabilities, DC and firm performance. Moreover, the study adds new insights into extant literature by conceptualising, operationalising and empirically testing one specific DC – integrative capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this decade and the coming century, the natural environment will be an important arena for economic competition. Ecological issues regarding energy, natural resources, pollution, and waste offer both competitive opportunities and constraints, and are changing the competitive landscape in many industries. Corporations can gain competitive advantage by managing ecological variables. This paper explains the concept of 'environmental technologies' as a competitive force and a tool for competitive advantage. Environmental technologies offer a new substantive orientation and a management process for minimizing ecological impacts of economic production while enhancing competitiveness of firms. The practical application of environmental technologies is illustrated using a mini case example of 3M Corporation. Strategic implications of environmental technologies for competitiveness are explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present six criteria for assessing proposed solutions to environmental risk problems. To assess the final criterion --the criterion of ethical responsibility--we suggest another series of criteria. However, before these criteria can be used to address ethical problems, business persons must be willing to discuss the problem in ethical terms. Yet many decision makers are unwilling to do so. Drawing on research by James Waters and Frederick Bird, we discuss this "moral muteness"--the inability or unwillingness to use moral language to solve moral problems--and suggest some underlying causes of moral muteness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate a second round of intensive green community entrepreneurship, a form of social entrepreneurship, by a set of environmental service organizations (ESOs) facing the loss of their largest revenue source (the ecoENERGY program), to see if it differed from responses to a similar funding cut five years earlier. In particular, the study compared green community entrepreneurship rates and types to those of the previous program (EnerGuide for Houses) cancellation and examined the perceived importance of various factors, including a social entrepreneurship training program offered by the national association. Design/methodology/approach – Interviews were held with executive directors who had led their organization through both periods of financial crisis. Information was collected on changes in revenue, staffing, residential energy evaluations conducted, service creation, and the perceived importance of organizational factors. The adaptation strategy undertaken by each ESO was classified as resilience, transition, or transformation focussed. Findings – First, green community entrepreneurship is accelerated when needs are heightened, such as when ESOs face funding cuts. Second, only some of the new services or activities launched were financially successful and remained viable over a five-year period. Third, green community entrepreneurship is an important initiative for ESOs to implement their adaptation strategy (resilient, transition, or transformation strategy). Fourth, a higher perceived difficulty of adaptation to funding cuts is associated with the launch of more new services by the ESO. Originality/value – The original contributions of the paper include the verification of repeated increases to the rate of entrepreneurship undertaken in response to sudden funding cuts, as compared to the rate of entrepreneurship during a stable funding period. This accelerated creation of new services can be directed to achieve various adaptation strategies from creating new services in the established area of energy expertise, to initiatives in new areas of sustainability services, such as water, food, or finance. The importance of collective innovation is highlighted with the use of both local and national networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper attempts to validate a conceptual model for conscientious corporate brands (CCB) by exploring environmental and climate change issues together with perceptions of the internal and external effectiveness of corporate codes of ethics as dimensions of CCBs. Design/methodology/approach – By surveying organizations, the paper attempts to extend and validate previous research in ethical branding by proposing an additional empirically grounded conceptual model of "the conscientious dimension" of corporate brands. Research limitations/implications – The CCB model was tested on a sample of small-, medium- and large-sized companies in Canada, which may indicate less generalizability to larger companies or in other countries and contextual settings. Practical implications – The CCB-framework provides insights into the relationship between the natural environment, climate change and corporate codes of ethics, which organizational managers might relate to their organization. Originality/value – This empirical study extends previous research by studying the willingness among business managers to support aspects of conscientious corporate brands (CCBs) in business-to-business relationships: when considering the impact of their brands on the natural environment and climate change, and when considering their corporate codes of ethics. Such findings imply that ethical conscientiousness is not just a rider to brand value; rather, it is an integral dimension in the manufacturer-supplier relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The degradation of the environment, caused in part by end of life and end of used products, necessitates the set-up of recovery networks. These networks may be owned by the manufacturer or they can be outsourced to third parties. Most manufacturers prefer outsourcing, so this study proposes a benchmarked recovery process for third party reverse logistics providers (3PRLP) by evaluating design criteria, implementation criteria, process control characteristics, and business orientation policies. Expertise efficiency of third party providers dictates their competitiveness and/or survival. In an effort to help third parties enhance value recovery from the process in the market, this paper seeks to establish a meaningful benchmark that will dictate best practices through quality function deployment (QFD). In particular, the paper offers a theoretical background to measure the relative importance among the various types of criteria. The proposed technique also helps to establish guidelines by which to prioritize the various characteristics. This study finds that the main driving factor regarding waste management centers on mandatory laws. It also concludes that when government relaxes its policies, environmentally oriented businesses are able to strengthen their systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Excessive entries of business into resource industries can cause allocation inefficiency and externality problems, such as resource depletion and environmental pollution. These problems have been existed in China's resources industry for many years. After opening up to the world, China has even begun to lose some critical strategic resources. Theoretical studies suggest that state-owned shares as an indirect form of entry regulation could help the government reduce costs and control risk. This paper first empirically analyzed the co-integration relationship between double externalities and state-owned shares, using a Seemingly Unrelated Regression based on China's coal, ferrous metal and non-ferrous metal resources panel data for 1999 to 2015. The results showed that state-owned shares significantly reduced the intergenerational (0.760) and environmental externalities (0.265). However, higher state-owned shares might reduce industrial effectiveness; thus, this paper further tested the effect of state-owned shares under different threshold degrees of externality. The results showed that the effect of indirect regulation was the best when it was associated with a medium degree of intergenerational externality and high degree of environmental externality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue, including one by J. Lewis and T. Fuller regarding social constructionism, and another by Frances E. Bowen regarding corporate greening.

Growing social concerns over the environmental externalities associated with business activities are pushing firms to identify activities that create economic value with less environmental impact and to become more eco-efficient. Over the past two decades, researchers have increasingly used frontier efficiency models to evaluate productive efficiency in the presence of undesirable outputs, such as greenhouse gas emissions or toxic emissions. In this paper, we identify critical flaws in existing frontier models and show that these models can identify eco-inefficient firms as eco-efficient. We develop a new eco-inefficiency frontier model that rectifies these problems. Our model calculates an eco-inefficiency score for each firm and improvements in outputs necessary to attain eco-efficiency. We demonstrate through a Monte Carlo experiment that our eco-inefficiency model provides a more reliable measurement of corporate eco-inefficiency than the existing frontier models. We also extend the single-output Cobb-Douglas production function to multiple desirable and undesirable outputs. This extension allows for greater flexibility in the simulation analysis of frontier models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The aim of this paper is to present a framework to create a better understanding of the context and to aid the environmental disclosure management process. The paper seeks to present a case study illustrating the proposed methodology for assessing environmental disclosure management Design/methodology/approach - The ProKnow-C process is used to identify the opportunities in the literature and the MCDA-C methodology is used in order to build up the environmental disclosure management (MED) model. Findings - First the ProKnow-C process was used to identify opportunities in the literature about environmental disclosure and later the MCDA-C methodology was used to discover the opportunities and to show a process for generating actions to promote improvement in environmental disclosure. Practical implications - The case study allowed the manager to develop an understanding of environmental disclosure, showing that organizational performance is the key factor according to managers' perception. This knowledge allowed the manager to identify what the company needs to improve in its environmental disclosure regarding the following aspects: targets for using water, energy program, management of effluent and waste, biodiversity, adaptation to emergency plans, training and environmental awareness, expanding the coverage of the certification process and increasing operational performance in specific indicators relating to the electricity sector (pruning control, fire and oil spill). Originality/value - The structured process of the MCDA-C methodology enabled a model to be built that showed graphically and numerically the systemic diagnosis of environment disclosure, allowing the manager to know the consequences of a decision a priori and to suggest a set of improvement actions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to derive operational principles from environmental ethics for business organizations to achieve sustainability. Design/methodology/approach – The paper analyses different levels on which business affects the natural environment. Individual biological creatures are affected by business via hunting, fishing, agriculture, animal testing, etc. Natural ecosystems are affected by business via mining, regulating rivers, building, polluting the air, water and land, etc. The Earth as a whole is affected by business via exterminating species, contributing to climate change, etc. Findings – Business has a natural, non-reciprocal responsibility toward natural beings affected by its functioning. At the level of individual biological creatures, awareness-based ethics is adequate for business. At the level of natural ecosystems, ecosystem ethics is relevant for business. At the level of the Earth as a whole, Gaian ethics applies to business. Practical implications – A business activity system can be considered acceptable if: its aggregate impact on animal welfare is non-negative;, its aggregate impact on ecosystem health is non-negative; and its aggregate impact on the living planet is non-negative. By satisfying the above criteria, business can performs its duty: not to harm nature or allow others to come to harm. Originality/value – The paper uses principles of environmental ethics to redefine business sustainability in an ethically meaningful way. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – This paper seeks to suggest that the responsible management of the growth process can prevent the organization from becoming “too big to fail”. Moreover, responsibly managing growth enhances the organizational propensity to experience healthy longevity. Design/methodology/approach – Four growth-related challenges provide the basic framework that organizes the discussion and inspires the main dimensions that make up the responsible management of growth. Findings – Responsibly managing growth comprises providing responsible responses to the growth challenges. It encompasses nurturing continued value creation; performing responsible risk management; securing value capture for the businesses (profits) and for the organization as a whole (legitimacy); performing systematic scanning of the environment; responsibly reacting to external pressures, preferably in anticipation of upcoming changes; sustaining the firm’s integrity, in face of increasing diversity; and equipping the organization with the right amount and variety of skills at the right time. Practical implications – Management should keep under close scrutiny the growth challenges and develop systematic procedures to check the impact of decisions and actions on the growth challenges. Originality/value – The paper advances the notion that organizations exhibit a dual nature. Growing organizations can develop a potential ability to renew and self-perpetuate; but they can also sow the seeds of their own destruction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The role of environmental regulations in inducing innovation and improving performance has been studied in the literature. However, there have been no studies in the UK using statistical data. This paper aims to study the links among regulations, innovation and performance in the UK using sector level data. Design/methodology/approach – The paper used structural equation modelling to study the links among the three variables simultaneously. Findings – The analysis indicates that environmental regulations in the UK are significant in improving economic performance of the industrial sectors. They also find that, in the short run, environmental regulations negatively influence innovation, and innovation negatively influences economic performance in these sectors. Practical implications – The results have implications both for policy makers and firms in the UK industrial sector. For policy makers, environmental regulations have generally improved economic performance. For firms, the study shows that sufficient planning in meeting government’s environment standards can help improve their economic performance. Originality/value – This is the first study in the UK to explore simultaneously the links among the three variables: environmental regulations, innovation, and performance, using secondary sector level data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2001 the EU defined Corporate Responsibility (CR) as: "A concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis."1 A responsible business is one that has built-in to its purpose and strategy a commitment to deliver sustainable value to society at large, as well as to shareholders, and has open and transparent business practices that are based on ethical values and respect for employees, communities and the environment. This paper discusses how CR is covered in the media and the media's own corporate responsibilities, covering both traditional and new media: traditional media includes news services (wires), film, print and broadcast channels; new media includes the Internet and mobile phones, the emergent blogosphere and so-named 'citizen journalism.' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the latest results for indices measuring the business environment quality in countries V4 (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia) and Serbia. We use for mutual comparison four indices - Corruption Perception Index (CPI), Aggregate Governance Indicators (AGI), Capture Index, Opacity index. All indicators are based on subjective data obtained through surveys. According to these results, the quality of business environment in Hungary is perceived as the best, followed by Czech Republic and Poland with almost the same results. We have found little lagging in Slovakia, but the larger lagging in Serbia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of the paper is to analyse whether environmental issues form a supplier selection criteria of companies when sourcing third party logistics (3PL) services. Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on a total of nine cases, where six buyers and three 3PL are analysed in depth so that data are collected for both parties involved in related dyadic relationships. Findings - While 3PL reports an increasing interest in environmental issues, buying decisions are still made on "traditional" performance objectives, such as price, quality and timely delivery. Environmental concerns have not been incorporated and at best form a kind of minimum requirement. Related cooperation, as asked for when taking a wider supply chain management perspective, could not be identified. Research limitations/implications - The paper has the limitation that only a total of nine companies are analysed. Yet, these companies can be seen as being good representatives of the overall industry. Further, detailed information is collected on all companies, it permitted the understanding of related corporate action. One implication would be conducting, e.g. a survey for collecting data on a larger number of cases. Practical implications - Buyers of 3PL services and companies are challenged towards rethinking their strategies. Originality/value - So far, there is very little research on how buyers and 3PL jointly manage environmental issues. The paper addresses environmental issues as a buying criteria and places this into the wider literature on logistics and sustainable supply chain management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to shed further light on how corporate environmental disclosures are used to respond to institutional pressures stemming from the social context. Design/methodology/approach - Interpretive textual analysis is applied to discuss how the environmental disclosures of a leading Finnish chemical company developed during the period 1972-2005. This discussion is accompanied by an analysis of the social and institutional context in which the company has been operating. The development of the disclosures is reflected against changing social and institutional pressures identified from the perspective of new institutional sociology. Findings - The results show that during these 34 years there have been major transitions in the rhetoric used by the case company in its environmental disclosures. These transitions coincide with changes in the social and institutional context. It is argued that the case company has adjusted its disclosures to respond to the varying institutional pressures in order to maintain a legitimate position in society. Research limitations/implications - The subjective nature of the interpretive approach and the use of a single case limit the generalisability of the results. However, the longitudinal approach is argued to produce valuable insights on how corporate disclosures are used as a communication tool to portray the organisation in a certain light. Originality/value - The study adds to a growing body of literature using interpretive approaches in deconstructing corporate disclosures. The influence exerted by social and institutional pressures on corporate disclosures is highlighted, further research avenues can therefore be proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that most of the FTSE-listed firms in the United Kingdom use corporate environmental policy statements (CEPS) to communicate their strategic intent of what environmental and social targets to attain, and broad guidelines of how they will progressively achieve all the required changes and new developments. In this paper, we link the contents of CEPS of a sample of ETSE-listed firms (from the chemical, pharmaceutical and food industry that are committed to develop business excellence) to the voluntary participation in the environmental benchmarking exercise and the various levels of environmental performance therein. The findings suggest that in contrast to their non-participating counterparts, the strategic focus of the participating firms transcends from simply mitigating any potential damages that their operations might have on the environment to business process reengineering and building new implementation capabilities. However, not all of the participating firms achieved excellence in their environmental performance, the high performing firms outweighed their counterparts on their emphasis on technological competence and competitiveness, and interestingly, the average-performing firms would use the strategic emphasis on social responsibility to compensate for their mediocre technological competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the issues of environmental reporting in Sweden. Sweden has been at the forefront of such environmental reporting, and the survey cited in the final section of the paper investigates the extent and form of disclosure being undertaken by Swedish public companies. The main findings of the survey are as follows: ... The trend towards greater disclosure of environmental performance among Swedish public companies is continuing. ... Environmental reporting is seen as being important in maintaining or improving competitiveness in today's business environment It is also seen as demonstrating an openness about company activities to society at large. ... The main target groups for disclosure are identified as customers and consumers and as shareholders and investors, and the information provided is invariably structured to meet their needs. ... The form of disclosure varies considerably between companies, with most providing information only in their annual reports. ... There is little consistency in the methods of valuation or accounting for environmental issues, and very little detail of expenditure is provided in the reports. ... About a quarter of companies have satisfactory internal tracking systems for liabilities, and about a fifth for investment, but there is little evidence of systems to recognise environmental costs or revenue. ... There is a significant difference in the verification of environmental disclosures between that relating to financial information and that relating to ecological aspects. The paper concludes that many areas need to be developed if we are to achieve a harmonised environmental report from companies. Measurement (both expenditure and income) is vital for financial accounting, while external (independent) verification is also important if environmental reports are to be seen as reliable. There are considerable limitations on what environmental reports can achieve compared with company financial reporting. In particular, financial reports are developed with use of accepted accounting practices as the basis for a common understanding among users. By contrast, environmental accounting and reporting involves estimation and the public disclosure of environmental liabilities and material environmental costs without that common basis of understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a conceptual link among green marketing, environmental justice, and industrial ecology. It argues for greater awareness of environmental justice in the practice of green marketing. In contrast with the type of costs commonly discussed in the literature, the paper identified another type of costs, termed "costs with positive results," that may be associated with the presence of environmental justice in green marketing. A research agenda is finally suggested to determine consumers' awareness of environmental justice, and their willingness to bear the costs associated with it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines empirically how multi-party networks can strive towards sustainable development. It investigates eight tourism networks in Four European countries. All networks cross the private-public-sector borders involving business enterprises, authorities and, occasionally, citizen groups. Some networks Focus on environmental sustainability, whereas for others sociocultural aspects of sustainability are more central. A special emphasis is laid on the SME perspective of these networks. The paper identifies a number of barriers and success Factors of multi-party sustainability networks. Barriers include, For instance, conflicting goals, short-term thinking of participants or false expectations. Some of the key success factors included willingness of the members to invest in the network, the extensive expertise in the network and good contacts with important stakeholders outside the network. The findings indicate that sustainable development goals are interwoven with other personal, firm, regional or societal benefits provided by the network activity, and that such benefits have an important motivational role in the process in which sustainable development is implemented at a practical level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An important goal of ethical investment is to influence companies to improve their ethical and environmental performance. The principal means that many ethical funds employ is passive market signalling, which may not, on its own, have a significant effect. A much more promising approach may be active engagement. This paper reports on a questionnaire study of a sample of 1146 ethical investors in order to assess whether U.K. ethical investors would support more activist ethical investment and whether they would be prepared to invest in companies which are failing ethically in order to do so. The results show general support for the current practice of passive signalling accompanied by "soft" engagement in the form of lobbying and the development of dialogue in order to improve corporate practice. The "harder" options of investing in companies that err in order to change them is, however, favoured by consistent minorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]