Despite the growing interest in environmental management practices (EMPs), research to date has typically analyzed a limited range of these practices and used traditional data sources. In contrast, this paper uses an innovative data source to explore EMPs. We use a more comprehensive set of the practices than prior works in order to test relationships between EMPs and firm performance. The data used in this study comprised environmental and business performance data from 45 corporate reports. Content analysis is used to gather the data and canonical correlation is used for analysis in a two-step process in order to explore the relationships between EMPs and performance measures. Results support previously posited relationships based on traditional data and indicate that EMPs are associated with firm performance. #
The vast majority of research and practice regarding sustainable supply chains has followed an instrumental logic, which has led firms and supply chain managers to place economic interests ahead of environmental and social interests. Evidence that firms are attempting to become less unsustainable is mounting, but compensating practices such as offsetting a supply chain's negative impact on the environment and society do not create truly sustainable supply chains. This conceptual study seeks to move the field from the question of how can firms merely diminish environmental or social problems to how supply chains can become truly sustainable. To that end, we review the major weaknesses in previous logics and develop an Ecologically Dominant logic where environment and social interests supersede economic interests. To encourage a wider adoption of our perspective, the study illustrates how the Ecologically Dominant logic can advance practice and research. We do this by providing examples drawn from practice and our previous research and by offering propositions to encourage future research.
While environmental management is an important topic in supply chain management, there is little theoretical understanding of how firm practices (supervisory support, rewards, and training) relate to employee engagement in environmental behaviors. Drawing upon behavioral research literature, the purpose of our article is to use organizational support theory to develop a model of how employee perceptions of management practices influence employee engagement in environmental behaviors such as participating in environmental management activities, promoting environmental initiatives, and proposing innovative environmental practices. The theoretical model was evaluated using a sample of supply chain management employees employed by a major retailer and support was found for all of the hypothesized relationships except those entailing rewards. Study findings demonstrate the importance of employee perceptions in advancing employee-level involvement in environmental behaviors and how organizations can modify their internal infrastructures to champion environmental behaviors through their effects on employee perceptions of support for the environment and commitment to the environment. Additionally, the research illustrates how an extant behavioral theory, organizational support theory, can profitably be modified and adopted to explain behavior in the field of supply chain management.
Recently, environmental management offers firms a source of competitive advantage in the marketplace. The development of environmental innovations is critical to the success of today's firms. Drawing on the Schumpeterian perspective of competition, this research examines how the perception of rival firms' green success influences a firm to pursue and produce environmental innovation through its green supply chain integration activities. Using survey data from 230 firms, a conceptual model is developed and tested using structural equation modeling. We find that the firms in our sample do perceive pressure from their competitors' success in environmental management activities, and thus take supply chain action to pursue integration activities. By differentiating incremental and radical environmental innovation, this study also reveals the role of three dimensions of green supply chain integration (internal, supplier, and customer integration of green product development) on incremental and radical environmental innovation separately. Specifically, findings suggest that green supply chain integration has a positive impact on developing incremental environmental innovation, while only customer integration has a significant positive impact on developing radical environmental innovation.
SUMMARY
The ISO 14000 series of environmental standards is a relatively recent development in environmentally responsible manufacturing (ERM). It applies to environmental systems and processes the same approach used by its predecessor, the ISO 9000 quality standards. Being relatively new, numerous questions have arisen regarding the impact of these new standards on both the corporate environmental management system and corporate performance. This article addresses some of these questions by drawing on data generated by a large‐scale survey of American managers. The results indicate that, even though ISO 14000 has achieved relatively limited acceptance, there is strong evidence to indicate that this series of standards can positively impact both the performance of the environmental management system as well as overall corporate performance. Further, it was found to outperform other ERM initiatives such as the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) 33/50 program.
We propose that single respondent surveys continue to be a viable supply chain management research tool. However, necessary care must be taken in research design and implementation. Articles published in leading supply chain management journals in the past 10 years were reviewed to identify patterns and trends in the use of single respondent surveys. Based on that analysis, several recommendations such as using multimethod research design, careful informant selection, and better documentation are presented for survey researchers to ensure and enhance the validity of single respondent survey research.
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