Corporate Environmental and Economic Performance of Japanese Manufacturing Firms: Empirical Study for Sustainable Development

This study examines the relationship between environmental performance and economic performance in Japanese manufacturing firms. The environmental performance indicators include CO2 emissions and the aggregate toxic risk associated with chemical emissions relative to sales. Return on assets (ROA) is used as an indicator of economic performance. We demonstrate that there is a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between ROA and environmental performance calculated by aggregated toxic risk. We also find that the environmental performance increases ROA through both returns on sales and improved capital turnover. However, we observe a significant positive relationship between financial performance and environmental performance based on CO2 emissions. These findings may provide evidence for the consequences of firms' environmental behavior and sustainable development. © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Corporate commitment to sustainability : is it all hot air? An Australian review of the linkage between executive pay and sustainable performance

Across time, companies have increasingly made public commitments to sustainable development and to reducing their impacts on climate change. Management remuneration plans (MRPs) are a key mechanism to motivate managers to achieve corporate goals. We review the MRPs negotiated with key management personnel in a sample of large Australian carbon-intensive companies. Our results show that, as in past decades, the companies in our sample have MRPs in place that continue to fixate on financial performance. We argue that this provides evidence of a disconnection, or ‘decoupling’, between the sustainability-related rhetoric of the sample companies, and their ‘real’ organisational practices and priorities.

Input-orientated data envelopment analysis framework for measuring and decomposing economic, environmental and ecological efficiency : an application to OECD agriculture

This paper presents an input-orientated data envelopment analysis (DEA) framework which allows the measurement and decomposition of economic, environmental and ecological efficiency levels in agricultural production across different countries. Economic, environmental and ecological optimisations search for optimal input combinations that minimise total costs, total amount of nutrients, and total amount of cumulative exergy contained in inputs respectively. The application of the framework to an agricultural dataset of 30 OECD countries revealed that (i) there was significant scope to make their agricultural production systemsmore environmentally and ecologically sustainable; (ii) the improvement in the environmental and ecological sustainability could be achieved by being more technically efficient and, even more significantly, by changing the input combinations; (iii) the rankings of sustainability varied significantly across OECD countries within frontier-based environmental and ecological efficiency measures and between frontier-based measures and indicators.

Social enterprises and the performance advantages of a Vincentian marketing orientation

This study focuses on the managerial issue of should social enterprises (SEs) become more marketing oriented. It adapts the Kohli et al. (J Mark Res 30:467–477,1993) MARKOR marketing orientation scale to measure the adoption of marketing by SEs. The items capture Vincentian-based values to leverage business in service to the poor as a measure of a Vincentian marketing orientation (VMO). A VMO is an organisational wide value-driven philosophy of management that focuses a SE on meeting its objectives by adopting a more marketing orientated approach to serve the needy and poor in a just and sustainable manner. SEs that exhibit a VMO seek to understand and respond to both the needs of their beneficiaries and stakeholders. They are constantly generating,disseminating, and responding to environmental, beneficiary, and stakeholder information and develop their business propositions to more effectively and efficiently meet the needs of the poor, while guided by a philosophy of leveraging business for social good. This study of SEs in Australia found that a VMO is strongly and positively correlated with social, economic, and environmental performance. These findings suggest that SEs may benefit by leveraging marketing capabilities to better serve their beneificiaries and stakeholders.

Environmental dynamism as a moderator of the relationship between bricolage and firm performance

Many firms initially face significant resource constraints during attempts to develop and grow (Shepherd et al., 2000). One promising theory that explicitly links to ways entrepreneurial firms respond to resource constraints is bricolage (Lévi-Strauss, 1966). Bricolage is defined as “making do by applying combinations of the resources at hand to new problems and opportunities” (Baker & Nelson, 2005, p. 333). Bricolage aligns with notions of resourcefulness: using what’s on hand, through making do, and recombining resources for new or novel purposes. Through a bias for action and a refusal to enact limitations on the resources that are available to create solutions, bricoleurs can tackle unexpected complex challenges, take advantage of opportunities, and go where most other firms won’t, in their attempts at firm development. Bricolage studies have previously not empirically examined the impact of bricolage on firm performance. Our work contributes to the emerging behavioral theory of bricolage by offering the first empirical test evaluating the impact of bricolage on early stage firm performance (i.e. venture emergence in nascent firms and sales in young firms). Using new product development (NPD) theories of speed of development, co-creation and innovativeness, we theorise that bricolage has a positive effect on early stage firm performance. We then introduce environmental dynamism as a moderator which influences this relationship.

Transfunctional living walls-designing living walls for environmental and social benefits

Greater attention is being directed towards incorporating greenery into the built environment as increasing global urbanisation drives the search for sustainable urbanism. This research takes a parametric approach to studying living wall dynamics using three methods to cover a diversity of design parameters and performance criteria. The findings led to a functional typology for living walls based on a range of design, context and performance parameters wider than previously identified. Such parametric studies offer valuable insights into 'transfunctional' living walls for homes, schools and public spaces.

Smart buildings for healthy and sustainable workplace: scoping study report

Deficiencies in the design and operation of office buildings can give rise to high social, environmental and economic (triple bottom line) costs. As a result, there are significant pressures and incentives to develop ‘smart building’ technologies that can facilitate improved indoor environment quality (IEQ), and more energy efficient operation of office buildings. IEQ indicators include lighting, ventilation, thermal comfort, indoor air quality and noise. In response to this, the CRC for Construction Innovation commissioned a six-month scoping study (Project no. 2002-043) to examine how different technologies could be used to improve the ‘triple bottom line’ for office buildings. The study was supported by three industry partners, Bovis Lend Lease, Arup, and The Queensland Department of Public Works. The objective of the study was to look at the history, trends, drivers, new technologies and potential application areas related to the operation of healthy and efficient office buildings. The key output from the study was a recommendation for a prototype system for intelligent monitoring and control of an office environment, based on identified market, technical and user requirements and constraints.

Current rural valuation practice : a survey of valuers and agribusiness managers on farm management and sustainable rural land use

Over the past 20 years the nature of rural valuation practice has required most rural valuers to undertake studies in both agriculture (farm management) and valuation, especially if carrying out valuation work for financial institutions. The additional farm financial and management information obtained by rural valuers exceeds that level of information required to value commercial, retail and industrial by the capitalisation of net rent/profit valuation method and is very similar to the level of information required for the valuation of commercial and retail property by the Discounted Cash Flow valuation method. On this basis the valuers specialising in rural valuation practice have the necessary skills and information to value rural properties by an income valuation method, which can focus on the long term environmental and economic sustainability of the property being valued. This paper will review the results of an extensive survey carried out by rural property valuers in Australia, in relation to the impact of farm management on rural property values and sustainable rural land use. A particular focus of the research relates to the increased awareness of the problems of rural land degradation in Australia and the subsequent impact such problems have on the productivity of rural land. These problems of sustainable land use have resulted in the need to develop an approach to rural valuation practice that allows the valuer to factor the past management practices on the subject rural property into the actual valuation figure. An analysis of the past farm management and the inclusion of this data into the valuation methodology provides a much more reliable indication of farm sustainable economic value than the existing direct comparison valuation methodology.

How environmental and organizational complexity affects opportunity recognition and exploitation in development projects

Principal Topic: Project structures are often created by entrepreneurs and large corporate organizations to develop new products. Since new product development projects (NPDP) are more often situated within a larger organization, intrapreneurship or corporate entrepreneurship plays an important role in bringing these projects to fruition. Since NPDP often involves the development of a new product using immature technology, we describe development of an immature technology. The Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) F-35 aircraft is being developed by the U.S. Department of Defense and eight allied nations. In 2001 Lockheed Martin won a $19 billion contract to develop an affordable, stealthy and supersonic all-weather strike fighter designed to replace a wide range of aging fighter aircraft. In this research we define a complex project as one that demonstrates a number of sources of uncertainty to a degree, or level of severity, that makes it extremely difficult to predict project outcomes, to control or manage project (Remington & Zolin, Forthcoming). Project complexity has been conceptualized by Remington and Pollock (2007) in terms of four major sources of complexity; temporal, directional, structural and technological complexity (See Figure 1). Temporal complexity exists when projects experience significant environmental change outside the direct influence or control of the project. The Global Economic Crisis of 2008 - 2009 is a good example of the type of environmental change that can make a project complex as, for example in the JSF project, where project managers attempt to respond to changes in interest rates, international currency exchange rates and commodity prices etc. Directional complexity exists in a project where stakeholders' goals are unclear or undefined, where progress is hindered by unknown political agendas, or where stakeholders disagree or misunderstand project goals. In the JSF project all the services and all non countries have to agree to the specifications of the three variants of the aircraft; Conventional Take Off and Landing (CTOL), Short Take Off/Vertical Landing (STOVL) and the Carrier Variant (CV). Because the Navy requires a plane that can take off and land on an aircraft carrier, that required a special variant of the aircraft design, adding complexity to the project. Technical complexity occurs in a project using technology that is immature or where design characteristics are unknown or untried. Developing a plane that can take off on a very short runway and land vertically created may highly interdependent technological challenges to correctly locate, direct and balance the lift fans, modulate the airflow and provide equivalent amount of thrust from the downward vectored rear exhaust to lift the aircraft and at the same time control engine temperatures. These technological challenges make costing and scheduling equally challenging. Structural complexity in a project comes from the sheer numbers of elements such as the number of people, teams or organizations involved, ambiguity regarding the elements, and the massive degree of interconnectedness between them. While Lockheed Martin is the prime contractor, they are assisted in major aspects of the JSF development by Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Pratt & Whitney and GE/Rolls-Royce Fighter Engineer Team and innumerable subcontractors. In addition to identifying opportunities to achieve project goals, complex projects also need to identify and exploit opportunities to increase agility in response to changing stakeholder demands or to reduce project risks. Complexity Leadership Theory contends that in complex environments adaptive and enabling leadership are needed (Uhl-Bien, Marion and McKelvey, 2007). Adaptive leadership facilitates creativity, learning and adaptability, while enabling leadership handles the conflicts that inevitably arise between adaptive leadership and traditional administrative leadership (Uhl-Bien and Marion, 2007). Hence, adaptive leadership involves the recognition and opportunities to adapt, while and enabling leadership involves the exploitation of these opportunities. Our research questions revolve around the type or source of complexity and its relationship to opportunity recognition and exploitation. For example, is it only external environmental complexity that creates the need for the entrepreneurial behaviours, such as opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation? Do the internal dimensions of project complexity, such as technological and structural complexity, also create the need for opportunity recognition and opportunity exploitation? The Kropp, Zolin and Lindsay model (2009) describes a relationship between entrepreneurial orientation (EO), opportunity recognition (OR), and opportunity exploitation (OX) in complex projects, with environmental and organizational contextual variables as moderators. We extend their model by defining the affects of external complexity and internal complexity on OR and OX. ---------- Methodology/Key Propositions: When the environment complex EO is more likely to result in OR because project members will be actively looking for solutions to problems created by environmental change. But in projects that are technologically or structurally complex project leaders and members may try to make the minimum changes possible to reduce the risk of creating new problems due to delays or schedule changes. In projects with environmental or technological complexity project leaders who encourage the innovativeness dimension of EO will increase OR in complex projects. But projects with technical or structural complexity innovativeness will not necessarily result in the recognition and exploitation of opportunities due to the over-riding importance of maintaining stability in the highly intricate and interconnected project structure. We propose that in projects with environmental complexity creating the need for change and innovation project leaders, who are willing to accept and manage risk, are more likely to identify opportunities to increase project effectiveness and efficiency. In contrast in projects with internal complexity a much higher willingness to accept risk will be necessary to trigger opportunity recognition. In structurally complex projects we predict it will be less likely to find a relationship between risk taking and OP. When the environment is complex, and a project has autonomy, they will be motivated to execute opportunities to improve the project's performance. In contrast, when the project has high internal complexity, they will be more cautious in execution. When a project experiences high competitive aggressiveness and their environment is complex, project leaders will be motivated to execute opportunities to improve the project's performance. In contrast, when the project has high internal complexity, they will be more cautious in execution. This paper reports the first stage of a three year study into the behaviours of managers, leaders and team members of complex projects. We conduct a qualitative study involving a Group Discussion with experienced project leaders. The objective is to determine how leaders of large and potentially complex projects perceive that external and internal complexity will influence the affects of EO on OR. ---------- Results and Implications: These results will help identify and distinguish the impact of external and internal complexity on entrepreneurial behaviours in NPDP. Project managers will be better able to quickly decide how and when to respond to changes in the environment and internal project events.

Technology strategy and competitive performance in bridge construction

Pragmatic construction professionals, accustomed to intense price competition and focused on the bottom line, have difficulty justifying investments in advanced technology. Researchers and industry professionals need improved tools to analyze how technology affects the performance of the firm. This paper reports the results of research to begin answering the question, “does technology matter?” The researchers developed a set of five dimensions for technology strategy, collected information regarding these dimensions along with four measures of competitive performance in five bridge construction firms, and analyzed the information to identify relationships between technology strategy and competitive performance. Three technology strategy dimensions—competitive positioning, depth of technology strategy, and organizational fit—showed particularly strong correlations with the competitive performance indicators of absolute growth in contract awards and contract award value per technical employee. These findings indicate that technology does matter. The research also provides ways to analyze options for approaching technology and ways to relate technology to competitive performance for use by managers. It also provides a valuable set of research measures for technology strategy.

Technology strategy and competitive performance : A study of bridge construction

Doctoral dissertation, Stanford University, California, 1993

Strategies for appropriate technology and competitive performance in infrastructure construction

Earlier research developed theoretically-based aggregate metrics for technology strategy and used them to analyze California bridge construction firms (Hampson, 1993). Determinants of firm performance, including trend in contract awards, market share and contract awards per employee, were used as indicators for competitive performance. The results of this research were a series of refined theoretically-based measures for technology strategy and a demonstrated positive relationship between technology strategy and competitive performance within the bridge construction sector. This research showed that three technology strategy dimensions—competitive positioning, depth of technology strategy, and organizational fit— show very strong correlation with the competitive performance indicators of absolute growth in contract awards, and contract awards per employee. Both researchers and industry professionals need improved understanding of how technology affects results, and how to better target investments to improve competitive performance in particular industry sectors. This paper builds on the previous research findings by evaluating the strategic fit of firms' approach to technology with industry segment characteristics. It begins with a brief overview of the background regarding technology strategy. The major sections of the paper describe niches and firms in an example infrastructure construction market, analyze appropriate technology strategies, and describe managerial actions to implement these strategies and support the business objectives of the firm.