Environmental Management Maturity: The Role of Dynamic Validation

Abstract

Maturity models enhance the performance of companies by prescribing a trajectory through stages of increasing capability. However, a recent review of maturity models concludes that current maturity models hardly meet the design principles required for prescriptive use. To address this deficiency, we conducted semistructured interviews and a Group Model Building study with industrial companies in Spain in which we studied the progression toward a Leading Green Company as the highest maturity stage of environmental management. The findings from the study were tested using surveys with enterprises in Spain, Italy, and the United Kingdom, semistructured interviews in the United Kingdom and case studies in Spain. Using these data sources, we develop a causal model that captures an idealized environmental management maturity dynamic progression though stages. By mapping maturity stages to feedback loops connected to actions to improve those maturity levels, system dynamics can help companies articulate policies for transitioning toward higher maturity stages.

How to serve sustainability performance in businesses? An appetizing recipe to link practices to performance in business sustainability research

“…Their model suggests that businesses can evolve from an initial rejection phase to become a transformative and sustainable organization. Similar ideas of an evolving engagement have been proposed in studies explaining the greening of businesses (Gunningham et al, 2003;Ormazabal, Sarriegi, Rich, Viles, & Gonzalez, 2020;Post & Altman, 1992;Winn & Angell, 2000), sustainable initiative adoptions (Yuan, Bao, & Verbeke, 2011), sustainable supply chain management practices (Grosvold, Hoejmose, & Roehrich, 2014;van Bommel, 2011;Villena & Gioia, 2018), the deployment of management tools (Baumgartner, 2009;Baumgartner & Ebner, 2010;Gond et al, 2012) or general perceptions of business sustainability (Bansal, 2005;Benn et al, 2014;Ivory & MacKay, 2020;Landrum, 2018;Maon, Lindgreen, & Swaen, 2010;Valente, 2012;van Marrewijk, 2003).…”

Key factors in operational excellence for Industry 4.0: an empirical study and maturity model in emerging countries

“…A maturity level can be calculated, and corresponding activities can be recommended by consolidating the mentioned elements (Siedler et al ., 2021). The five-step Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI) is one of the best and most widespread models today, providing sequences for improvement as well as a basis to assess the deployment maturity of specific projects or organizations (Ormazabal et al ., 2021). CMMI was created for services and engineering activities and its aim is to be adjustable to diverse needs and approaches (Verrier et al ., 2016).…”

“…A previous study about maturity models and its validations was found in the literature (Ormazabal et al ., 2021). The study includes 108 articles in which software development and software engineering were by far the most frequent areas of application.…”

Energy Management in Manufacturing

“…Other applications include water scarcity mitigation (Yatskovskaya et al, 2018) and other industrial economies (Campos et al, 2020). Recent developments involve mapping maturity dynamic progression through stages to provide an insight into feedback loops connected to actions to improve maturity levels (Ormazabal et al, 2021).…”