Search results

This study aims to identify which actors play leadership and brokerage roles in voluntary environmental collaborations and how the corporate social responsibility (CSR) of actors is associated with such voluntary networking behaviours in Cambodia.

To achieve these purposes, this study mainly uses social network analysis to capture the properties of networking behaviours in the voluntary collaborative activities underlying three main environmental issues: waste disposal, energy and water pollution. The study focusses on the collaborative efforts undertaken by actors across multiple sectors: governmental organizations, for-profits and civil society organizations.

The results show that the government plays the leading role in voluntary environmental collaborations across environmental issues; however, the actual implementation is expanded to be undertaken by non-state actors. Moreover, CSR has positive associations with networking and brokerage roles; therefore, this study reveals the utility of various voluntary policy instruments.

This study demonstrates the role of governmental initiation and its influence on non-state actors, even for voluntary environmental tools. The CSR initiatives of private actors can also be supported and encouraged by the government, which will promote participation by private actors in voluntary collaborative networks and their leading role as network facilitators.

By understanding the positions and roles of each actor in the environmental collaborative networks, environmental policymakers can better understand the possibilities and the capabilities of each actor both to improve policy design and learning and to respond to policy changes effectively.

Voluntary collaboration and CSR are non-regulated policy tools; however, they can be promoted and introduced into society by governmental organizations, and they affect each other.

The purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze those US colleges and universities that are participating in the Green Power Partnership (GPP). GPP is a voluntary environmental program initiated by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2001 to help increase the use of green power (electricity produced from solar, wind, geothermal, biogas, biomass, and low‐impact small hydroelectric sources) among US organizations.

The paper draws on literature in voluntary environmental programs to develop an understanding as to what types of campuses might be most likely to partner with the US Government to be leaders in the use of green power. It then characterizes partner campuses based on institutional, geographical, financial, student specific and sustainability variables. The study draws attention to the GPP participants that are also signatories of the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC). This provides leeway into future research that would benefit from investigating the motivations for and constraints to such dual commitments.

The analysis reveals that GPP partners are primarily private, four‐year institutions located in the northeast region. These campuses show a high level of awareness for the environment and vested interest on part of the students, as evidenced by the dominance of environmental studies in the curriculum, student‐run organizations dedicated to sustainability issues, and adoption of green fees. Further, they are actively involved in the generation and use of electricity from renewable sources and more than two‐thirds have also signed the PCC.

This study is the first to explore EPA's GPP program with respect to the participation of higher education institutions (HEIs) in this program. It serves as a pioneer study, exploring a voluntary partnership between the US Government and the higher education sector and contributes to the understanding of the vital role of higher education in the development and deployment of renewable energy.

This paper aims to investigate the impact of situational factors and internal psychological states on employees’ decisions to perform voluntary pro-environmental behavior. This study used a model combining the theory of planned behavior, norm activation model and comprehensive action determination model. This stud also explored the moderating role of habit (HAB) on the relationship between intention and actual voluntary pro-environmental behavior.

Data were collected through three waves of time-lagged survey questionnaires from 519 employees of public organizations in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Employees’ perceptions of corporate social responsibility (CSR) had a significant impact on intention to perform voluntary pro-environmental behavior, as did all other variables except perceived behavioral control. HABs related to pro-environmental behavior enhanced the relationship between intention and actual behavior.

The main factors influencing employees’ voluntary pro-environmental behavioral intentions were perceived CSR, personal moral norms, organizational citizenship behaviors toward the environment and attitude. Public organization planners, managers and practitioners can use these findings to improve their organization’s environmental performance, leveraging nonmandated actions.

Employees can achieve a better work–life balance in organizations with flexible CSR policies and which sponsor social activities to improve public well-being and individuals’ life quality. Positive sense-making of corporate social activity helps employees develop social interactions with stakeholders, increasing their involvement in society and decreasing work stress.

This study sheds light on the factors influencing employees’ voluntary pro-environmental behavior. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study of its kind to combine these three models to explain the variables affecting intent to perform voluntary pro-environmental behavior in the workplace.

This study seeks to explore the roles of organizational support and environmental manager commitment on organizational environmental management practices.

A survey of environmental managers was conducted to examine the role of organizational support and individual environmental commitment on key informant perceptions of environmental organizational practices including participation in extra‐organizational voluntary environmental programs, adoption of a company‐specific environmental management system (EMS), and involvement in ISO 14000 certification.

Study findings demonstrate that high perceptions of organizational support for the environment affect the likelihood of an organization's implementation of environmental practices. Similarly, study findings indicate that higher levels of environmental commitment of the individual responsible for environmental management practices affects the likelihood of an organization's implementation of environmental practices. Lastly, the statistical results provide evidence that high organizational support and high personal commitment by an environmental champion interact to enhance the implementation of environmental practices.

This study represents the first development and empirical testing of a model of how organizational support for environmental practices and environmental managers' commitment to such endeavors affect the adoption of environmental practices by organizations. Additionally, the research illustrates how theoretical perspectives from the organizational behavior literature can be fruitfully adopted to explain behavior in the field of supply chain management.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether the introduction of water security, in 2015, as a category in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Climate A-List, increases the use of impression management (IM) strategies. The purpose is to analyze how companies reacted to programmes of voluntary disclosure of environmental information.

Mixed-methods research was developed, combining a qualitative and quantitative approach. This study first used a qualitative content analysis of 15 companies’ reports, from the materials sector, which was scored in the CDP Climate A-List, in 2017, to identify the IM strategies adopted. Next, this study conducted a quantitative analysis to test the mean differences of water references between years, industry and region.

Three types of IM strategies are identified (justification and commitment, self-promotion and authorization). The references identified as self-promotion strategy increased in 2016. This indicates companies reacted to the programmes for voluntary disclosure of environmental information by increasing strategies of legitimization and image promotion.

Further research can be developed, focusing only on sustainability reports and extending the number of companies, the period and sectors under analysis.

This paper shows how the inclusion of a topic such as water security in an environmental ranking of companies, namely, CDP A-List, affects the use of IM strategies in voluntary disclosures.

This paper examines pre- and post-production water treatment practices among food processors and investigates factors, especially managerial perceptions of environmental pressure that encourage or preclude either process.

To consider potential spillover effects across two water-treatment practices, the bivariate probit model based on random utility theory is used to investigate how practices are influenced by managerial perceptions of environmental pressure and measured by manager perceptions on water costs, water availability, water safety and quality.

Results indicate that firms with a managerial perception that water costs are low are less likely to conduct both pre- and post-production water treatment practices, while the perception of high water quality has a negative effect on water treatment prior to use. This study also confirms the positive correlation of the pre- and post-water treatment practices among food processors. Practices also change with firm features including production scope, scale, target market and expected future sales growth.

This study provides unique insights about water treatment practices and generates knowledge to enhance food safety and environmental sanitation in the food industry. Results are helpful to design and provide additional training and educational programs that target the enhancement of environmental and water quality awareness among food company managers and modify food safety policy instruments and environmental regulations pertaining to surface water resources.

Research exploring water-treatment practices in the food industry has been limited. Using a representative sample of food processors in the city of Shanghai, this study contributes to the literature on the examination of internal drivers of voluntary environmental management (VEM) with a focus on managerial perceptions of environmental pressure, establishes the correlation between pre- and post-production water treatment practices and identifies and quantifies the effects of relevant factors.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the use of formal environmental management systems (EMSs) in wineries. It reports on the implementation of EMSs amongst New Zealand wineries and explores whether environmental, social, economic and marketing benefits can be gained through the implementation of one or more EMSs.

Wineries which had implemented the Sustainable Winegrowing New Zealand (SWNZ) programme were surveyed in order to evaluate their environmental performance and the benefits they received from implementing the SWNZ programme and any additional EMSs.

This study found that New Zealand wineries experienced improved environmental performance when implementing an EMS but disappointingly achieved few social, economic or marketing benefits. Further, almost half of the SWNZ programme wineries surveyed had also implemented additional EMSs, suggesting that wineries find the SWNZ programme is not sufficiently effective in meeting their environmental needs. Supporting this, the findings suggest that wineries with multiple EMSs have better environmental performance than those with a single EMS.

This paper suggests that NZ winegrowers need to make some improvements or additions to their SWNZ programme in order for it to more fully deliver benefits for wineries and reduce the need for implementation of additional EMSs.

This paper is the first to examine the environmental, social, economic and marketing benefits arising from implementation of one or more EMSs in wineries.

The growing public concern that private corporations should not only earn reasonable profits and provide fair returns to shareholders, but also operate as good corporate citizens and socially responsible organizations, has spread to the largest transnational corporations (TNCs), and seems to have been taken up by companies in both richer and poorer countries. Sustainable development calls for people and organizations to meet their present needs in such a way that does not hinder future generations’ ability to do the same. Many TNCs are creating voluntary environmental programs to manage more effectively the environmental impacts of their plants, facilities, and operations. These initiatives are especially important in developing countries with hazardous environmental conditions, social conditions, and non‐existent or poorly implemented regulatory protection.

This paper presents an analysis of the influence of “Joint Environmental Policy-making” (JEP) in the operation of the company Smurfit Kappa (SK) in The Netherlands, Austria and Denmark (NL&AD). The paper aims to answer the question: to what extend has different levels of jointness and voluntariness of cardboard packaging-chain agreements between federal, governmental and business actors led to different recycling performances within the same company?

JEP's analysis was framed under the model described by Mol, Volkmar and Liefferink by using information from mixed-methods throughout a semi-structured questionnaire for interviews and revision of relevant secondary data. This is a case of cross-national comparison for which origin and implementation level of JEPs were described per country, in accordance with those stages of the cardboard production chain.

Jointness and voluntariness amongst other actors from governmental areas and business ranked high for the Dutch packaging-chain agreements with a visible impact in SK's recycling rates. SK in Austria and in Denmark, in this order, had a lower implementation level of JEPs which could be reflected in a lower recycling performance than in the Dutch SK subsidiaries. The context matters, including both political and social conditions. In particular, the role of householders as a last link in the recycling chain. Based on this, the selected countries share some societal characteristics associated with the environmental public awareness and active social participation.

This paper fulfills an analysis of how environmental policy making is affected by the country context within the same company.

The paper aims to examine the competitive advantage of the environmental behaviour at a firm level and micro-cluster level, building the analysis on Harts model of natural resource-based view of the firm and by using Brown et al.'s framework for analysing contextual resources that would provide locational advantage based on environmental behaviour. The case study examines the drivers and the obstacles to environmental action and demonstrates how clustering has been important in progressing a sustainability agenda.

A case study of a single wine tourism cluster in Australia is undertaken using mixed methods.

The main drivers for environmental action are genuine concerns for the environment by the cluster participants, especially water conservation in the Australian context. Supporting this is the co-ordination of the Lovedale Chamber of Commerce which has promoted its “greening Lovedale” project as a source of regional identity and potential competitive advantage. The obstacles to action are those that are present when small firms dominate, a lack of resources and a lack of know how. Through clustering small businesses can share resources, access specialists and share knowledge.

A single cluster case study within the Australian and the wine tourism context confined to one point in time.

The clustering of firms in agricultural regions offers the opportunity to achieve individual and collective benefits. Clustering participation can reduce costs, achieve scale economies and share knowledge. These advantages are relevant for environmental actions. In the context of weak or absent government actions and regulations over the environment, regional clusters can utilise the advantages of clustering to meet environmental goals. These in turn can contribute to regional identity and regional comparative advantage. These issues are addressed through the study of the Lovedale wine cluster in Australia.

There are few studies of how clustered agricultural industries are addressing environmental challenges independently of central government directives or subsidies. Clustering enables small firms to participate in environmental programs despite being faced by resource and knowledge shortages.