Environmental management practices, environmental technology portfolio, and environmental commitment: A content analytic approach for UK manufacturing firms

Abstract

This study investigates how various aspects of environmental management practices EMPs (operational, strategic, and tactical) undertaken by firms influence their environmental technology portfolios ETPs (pollution control and pollution prevention). It also explores the role of environmental commitment of firms on the influence of EMPs on ETPs. This study uses data from content analysis of annual reports, and corporate social responsibility reports available from corporate websites of 76 UK manufacturing firms from eight different industrial sectors across two years using a time lag (2010)(2011)(2012). We have controlled for industry type, economic performance and firm size in all our analyses. The findings of our study show that operational and tactical practices influence both the ETPs significantly but strategic practices influence only pollution prevention activities of firms. Further, we have found that environmental commitment positively moderates the influence of operational and tactical practices on pollution prevention but not on pollution control activities. There is no such moderating role on the influence of strategic practices on either pollution prevention or pollution control. Our finding generally highlight the short-term pollution control view; manufacturers focus on cost saving, operational efficiency, and being compliant with the environmental regulations rather than having a long-term strategy perspective. The use of strategic practices tends to have stronger influence on long-term pollution prevention activities. Once firms improve their level of environmental commitment, their involvement in long-term pollution prevention activities improve.

Beyond Gathering the ‘Low-Hanging Fruit’ of Green Technology for Improved Environmental Performance: an Empirical Examination of the Moderating Effects of Proactive Environmental Management and Business Strategies

“…In addition to identifying a direct effect on environmental performance, the previous literature seems to suggest that proactive environmental management is a necessary platform for fostering complementary environmental practices and technologies [3,8,22,25,33,48]. Based on the foregoing, we propose the following hypothesis: Hypothesis 2 (H2).…”

“…At this point, we should define our main research variables. Green technology can be defined as the set of technologies incorporating the techniques and equipment used in product design, production and distribution, which enhance efficiency, reduce energy and water waste, and mitigate environmental problems [7,33,48,49]. There are a range of synonymous terms to refer to green technology, such as "clean technology", "pollution prevention technologies", "environmental technology" and "low-carbon technology" (see [50]).…”

“…Finally, proactive environmental management includes the adoption of formal techniques and external audits for measuring and assessing environmental performance [48]. Specifically, the ISO 14001 standard tends to encourage firms to take into account different measurement indicators, such as the use of energy and water, atmospheric emissions and regulatory compliance [30,67].…”

“…In addition, the adoption of voluntary management system certifications helps showcase the firm's beneficial actions, drawing attention to its willingness to act responsibly. Such certifications can also help to establish relationships of trust with customers, other firms and suppliers [48], which can provide new external technical and/or practical know-how on how to better apply and maintain green technology [7,32,44], and may even enable the firm to identify the optimal level of adoption at the lowest possible cost.…”

“…There is no established scale in the literature to measure green technology [33]. As such, this research proposes a seven-point Likert-type scale reflecting managers' perception of the degree of implementation (1 = "very low", 2 = "low", 3 = "quite low", 4 = "average", 5 = "quite high", 6 = "high", and 7 = "very high") of technologies that ensure the reduction of materials, energy and emissions, and prevent pollution [25,48], as compared to competitors in their specific subsector. Specifically, the three items included are 'Energy-saving technologies', 'Development of sustainable buildings' and 'Industrial automation (intelligent conservation chambers, kitchens with efficient energy control, etc.…”