Green human resource management and the enablers of green organisational culture: Enhancing a firm's environmental performance for sustainable development

Scholars have shown that green human resource management (GHRM) practices enhance a firm's environmental performance. However, existing studies fail to explain how GHRM initiatives can enable a green organisational culture or how such a culture affects the environmental performance and sustainable development of the firm. This paper examines the relationship between GHRM practices, the enablers of green organisational culture, and a firm's environmental performance. We conduct a large‐scale survey of 204 employees at Chinese manufacturing firms. Our findings suggest that proenvironmental HRM practices including hiring, training, appraisal, and incentivisation support the development of the enablers of green organisational culture. We suggest the key enablers of green organisational culture include leadership emphasis, message credibility, peer involvement, and employee empowerment. Our paper contributes to HRM theory in terms of originality and utility of research by explaining that the enablers of green organisational culture positively mediate the relationship between GHRM practices and environmental performance. Managers are provided with a detailed understanding of the GHRM practices needed to enable an organisational culture of environmentally aware employees. Finally, we address potential implications of this work for teaching green organisational culture to future generations of responsible managers.     

The association between environmental sustainable development and internalization of a quality standard

This work empirically examines the importance of the internalization of a quality standard for environmental sustainable development in Spanish hotels. It aims to examine the direct relationships between the internalization of a quality standard and environmental practices and performance and the mediating role of environmental practices on the relationship between the internalization of a quality standard and environmental performance. The work uses a sample of 176 hotels and applies the partial least squares (PLS) approach to test these relationships. The results show that (a) the internalization of a quality standard (through daily practices and continuous improvement) is positively related to environmental practices and performance and (b) environmental practices partially mediate the relationship between the internalization of a quality standard and environmental performance. The study extends the literature by explaining that the internalization of a quality standard strengthens environmental sustainable development.     

Measuring the impact of sustainability policy and practices in tourism and hospitality industry

This paper aims to investigate the impact of environmental policy and training aspects on hotels' sustainability practices, as well as the impact of these practices on their environmental and financial performance. Based on survey data from 312 managers operating in tourism and hospitality industry, this study applies structural equation modelling. Empirical results reveal that hotels' environmental policy and training aspects are positively related to sustainability practices. Environmental communication has almost equal degree of impact on resource and energy conservation, whereas both resource conservation and energy conservation have a significant positive impact on both environmental and financial performance. The main findings of this research highlight that hotels are increasingly considering sustainability issues in their business models and strategies. These findings provide practical managerial implications for the development of tourism and hospitality industry in emerging countries.     

Understanding variation in the relationship between environmental management practices and firm performance across studies: A meta‐analytic review

The relationship between environmental management practices and firm performance has continuously received much attention in academic research. As existing literature on the link of the two constructs is characterized by heterogeneous research characteristics and mixed empirical evidence, one interesting question arises: Do research characteristics affect the magnitude and direction of the relationship between environmental management practices and firm performance? Amassing a database of 92 studies, 199 effect sizes, and 72,258 firms, we examine this question by conducting a meta‐analysis. The characteristics investigated in this study include item number of performance measures, year of data collection, industry type, economic development, and Hofstede's five cultural dimensions. A meta‐regression reveals that environmental management practices are positively associated with firm performance and that the degree of this association depends on these contexts. Specifically, the environmental management practices–performance relationship increases with year of data collection, is stronger with multiple item measures, and is higher for firms in developed countries and in cultures characterized by high power distance, low individualism, low uncertainty avoidance, and low long‐term orientation.     

Formalized HR practices and firm performance: an empirical comparison of family and non-family firms

The influence of the family on human resource (HR) management structures creates important idiosyncrasies with potential implications in terms of firm performance. Based on the agency and socioemotional wealth perspectives, this paper examines the formalization and effectiveness of three basic HR practices – selection, training and compensation – in different contexts of family and non-family firms. Using a sample of 500 Spanish companies, the results show that a higher degree of HR formalization has a positive influence on firm performance, confirming the negative moderating influence of family involvement on the relationship between the formalization of training practices and the firm performance. In addition, the findings indicate that the mediating role of selection practices in the relationship between training and firm performance is smaller in family than in non-family firms.     

Sustainable environmental practices and financial performance: Evidence from listed small and medium‐sized enterprise in the United Kingdom

In this article, we investigate the financial implication of sustainable environmental practices on UK small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs)–traded firms. Existing literature indicates that there is a direct relationship between sustainable environmental practices and financial performance. However, studies looking at this relationship have focused mainly on large firms with little attention paid to SMEs. Further, those looking at environmental and financial performance relationships have often used a single measure of performance in their studies. This study bridges these research gaps by focusing on listed SMEs in the United Kingdom using multiple measures of sustainable environmental policy indices on a panel of 201 SMEs on the Alternative Investment Market from 2011 to 2016. Evidence from our panel data analysis suggests significant and a nonlinear (concave) relationship between sustainable environmental practices and firms' financial performance. Specifically, energy efficiency practices, greenhouse gases, material, and resource efficiency revealed an inverted U‐shaped relationship with financial performance. The results will offer guidance to management in terms of allocating resources to sustainable environmental practices investment.     

Environmental strategy and low waste operations: exploring complementarities

Organizations require guidance on the most effective functional areas in which to invest in order to improve and sustain environmental performance. As managerial practices progress from concerns with compliance towards practices seeking competitive advantage, more theory is needed regarding the manner in which corporate strategy and operational practices influence environmental performance. This research considers the potential for previously under‐researched complementarities between strategy and operations and the bridging role of environmentally specific practices such as the use of environmental experts as determinants of environmental performance. Using a sample of manufacturing firms, this study explores the relative contribution to environmental performance of strategic intentions, core operational practices such as data and quality management and environmentally specific practices that link strategy to operations. The most significant influence on environmental performance was found to be environmental expertise – which creates a bridge between strategy and operations – and information‐intensive practices such as quality and data management. Strategic intentions or core operational practices in isolation were not considered sufficient support to successfully maintain or improve environmental performance. This research provides a contribution to our understanding of interactions between those functions that have the greatest influence on environmental performance management in manufacturing firms. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Corporate governance beyond the shareholder–stakeholder dichotomy: Lessons from Japanese corporations' environmental performance

Although corporate environmental performance (CEP) is determined by corporate governance (CG) typified by board and ownership structures, in‐depth research on stakeholder‐oriented CG is sparse. This study seeks to fill this void and promote an alternative vision of good governance. Japanese corporations have often been criticized for their stakeholder‐oriented practices such as less independent boards and the dominance of stable domestic shareholders. However, these practices are not necessarily problematic if effective monitoring mechanisms are in place. Using a database of Japanese listed corporations over 2012–2015, this study shows that both board size and composition enhance CEP, confirming the advisory function of boards. Contrastingly, foreign blockholders, who are expected to play a monitoring role, significantly constrain CEP. Japanese corporations are evolving toward a hybrid CG that aims to narrow the shareholder–stakeholder divide, and the findings will offer useful lessons for the modification of shareholder‐oriented CG.     

Do board sustainability committees contribute to corporate environmental and social performance? The mediating role of corporate social responsibility strategy

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of board sustainability committees on environmental and social performance and to examine the mediating effect of corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategy on the relationship between the presence of board sustainability committees and corporate sustainability performance. Using data of U.K. listed firms for the period of 2009–2016, the study employs panel regression analysis and bootstrapping techniques to test study hypotheses. The results suggest that the presence of a sustainability committee improves the effectiveness of CSR strategies. The results also indicate that firms with effective CSR strategies exhibit better environmental and social performance. Further, the empirical results show that the effectiveness of CSR strategy explains the positive relationship between board sustainability committees and corporate environmental and social performance, thus supporting the theoretical framework of the study. The findings of the study shed new light on this research direction and could be of interest to board members, managers, practitioners, investors, policy makers, and regulators that plan to promote sustainability practices and strategies needed for sustainable development.     

Doing more and doing better are two different entities: Different patterns of family control and environmental performance

Family firms bear two types of agency costs, including type I and type II agency problems, in corporate environmental practices: (1) Outside executives at family firms hesitate to engage in environmental strategies, which can lead to drops in profits; (2) Controlling families employ opportunistically environmental management to achieve their interests. We argue that a primary cause for the agency problems lies on ineffective internal corporate governance at family firms, which can cause loss of managerial (or power) balance between outside executives and family executives. Our findings show that family firms with ownership and strategic control (FSC), which family executives and outside executives monitor and constrain each other, can achieve the highest environmental performance. Moreover, external controls, including product market competition and provincial environmental regulations, substitute effective internal control of FSC. The environmental performance premium of FSC is more prevalent when the production market competition is lower. Family firms with ownership, operational, and strategic control (FOSC) can achieve higher environmental performance within a province with more stringent environmental regulations.     

A Fresh Approach to Context Influence,Development and Performance in Environmental Management

Respect for the environment has rapidly gained importance in the context of firms, regardless of their pollution levels. Most of the existing research has related to the most polluting sectors and has been limited to the effect that the adoption of cleaner practices has on performance, primarily in terms of operations, financial performance and competitiveness. This paper expands the research towards a more complete picture of environmental management by examining context, development and performance to understand how other factors can influence the development of cleaner practices. In addition, we focus our research on the service sector. In our analysis, we differentiated between the affiliation and size of the studied companies to better understand their specificities. Based on a sample of 374 restaurants, the results show the importance of the influence of institutions and the limited influence of competitors in encouraging firms to adopt a strategic, clean approach, especially for the smallest firms. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

Banks' environmental policy and business outcomes: The role of competition

By integrating the two areas of competition–performance and environment–performance, this research explores if competition matters in the relationship between environmental practices and interest margins in the market. A panel of 458 banks from 74 countries for the period of 2006–2016 is used, and the sample is further divided into developed and developing countries. This paper uses the system Generalized Method of Moments estimator to tackle potential omitted variable bias, endogeneity, and simultaneity issues. Without competition, environmental practices only affect banks in developing countries; however, the results show a significant impact for the full sample, including developed countries, when the competition is taken into consideration, suggesting that competition might play a role in the relationship of environmental practices and interest margins. In the full sample, competition impacts the relationship negatively after a moderate level of competition is reached in the market. The environmental practices in developing countries are prone to competition in the market. In developed countries, the competition is found to be lightly positively moderating the impact of environmental practices on interest margins. Based on these findings, it is recommended that developing countries should have a low or moderate level of competition to encourage environmental practices. For developed countries, however, high competition should be preferred to encourage banks to consider environmental practices as one of their core business strategies. These findings are found robust to different statistical estimators.     

Standardize or Customize: The Interactive Effects of HRM and Environment Uncertainty on MNC Subsidiary Performance

This study examines the impact of customizing (as opposed to standardizing) human resource management (HRM) practices on subsidiary performance in multinational corporations (MNCs). We examine how this relationship is influenced by environmental uncertainty. Hypotheses were tested using data from 92 subsidiaries of a large MNC operating in 27 countries. The results showed an interactive relationship between the customization of HRM practices and subsidiary environmental uncertainty on both financial (net profit) and nonfinancial (customer satisfaction) objective measures of subsidiary performance. The results of this study provide important empirical insights for researchers and practitioners into how HRM can be best configured to drive multiple performance outcomes for MNC subsidiaries. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

How environmental innovation influences firm performance: A meta-analytic review

Coupled with the increasing concern toward sustainability and sustainable development issues, environmental innovation practices have been of burgeoning interest among both scholars and practitioners. Building on this, the main purpose of this study is to quantitatively aggregate the extant empirical research on eco-innovation and firm performance and to assess the role of moderating factors in this theoretical relationship by pursuing a meta-analytic approach. To serve this objective, 196 effects based upon 70 studies including more than 25,000 firms (N = 25,412) were meta-analytically examined. Quantitative evidence drawn from the meta-analysis indicates that organizational eco-innovation exerts the strongest influence on firm performance. Moreover, the meta-analytic findings suggest that significant variations in the correlation between eco-innovation and firm performance exist across different performance types, and the magnitude of the eco-innovation–firm performance association is stronger in developing compared with developed countries. This meta-analytic review is expected to considerably contribute to the pertinent literature by means of improving the understanding of the relevance of eco-innovation typology to firm performance.     

Climate Change and Financial Performance in Times of Crisis

Over the past years there has been a debate on the relationship between the environmental and financial performance of businesses, but researchers have not reached any agreement. This research attempts to explore this relationship, especially as in recent years there has been controversy about how this relationship has been affected by the global economic crisis. Taking into account that successfully limiting global climate change to safe levels in the long term is likely to require connecting climate change policies to sustainable development strategies, this paper focuses on the performance of environmental policies. We used a sample of 855 international companies in sectors of intensive greenhouse gas/CO₂ emissions. Specifically, we used data from the Forbes Global 2000 Index and Carbon Disclosure Project data from 2006 to 2009. The data analysis was performed using panel data methodology. The results obtained show that in times of economic crisis, the synergy between environmental and financial performance is higher, meaning that companies must continue to invest in sustainable projects in order to enhance relations with their stakeholders, leading to higher economic profits. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

环境治理、技术进步与绿色经济发展绩效

以2003—2020年我国30个省份作为研究样本，构建动态面板模型探讨环境治理和绿色经济发展绩效之间的关系，并利用中介效应模型研究环境治理通过技术进步影响区域绿色经济发展绩效的中介效应。研究结果表明，环境治理与区域绿色经济发展绩效之间存在正U型关系，即环境治理对绿色经济发展具有先抑制后促进的作用；技术进步在环境治理影响区域绿色经济发展绩效中发挥中介作用，且技术进步能够显著促进区域绿色经济发展绩效提升；环境治理对绿色经济发展绩效的影响呈现出地区差异性，南方地区表现出明显的正U型关系，而北方地区两者关系不显著。     

Do firms with different levels of environmental regulatory pressure behave differently regarding complementarity among innovation practices?

This study explores the complementary effects among environmental innovation, organizational innovation, and training for innovation and their effect on firm productivity, within a supermodularity framework. Furthermore, it attempts to understand whether different innovation practices are complements or substitutes for firm profitability according to the industrial environmental regulation context by distinguishing between clean and dirty industries. Using a Spanish technological innovation panel survey over the period 2008–2015, our findings indicate that the interrelationship between different innovation practices is complementary rather than substitutive, and the pattern of complementarity among innovation practices differs according to the environmental regulation under which an industry operates. Engaging in a broad range of innovation practices such as environmental and organizational innovations, clean industry can strengthen productivity. For dirty industries, our results indicate a greater affinity between training activities and environmental innovation than between environmental innovation and organizational innovation on firm productivity achievement. Taken all together, these results provide managers with considerable insights in terms of how to adapt the various combinatorial practices to the industrial environment in which they are embedded, taking market and regulatory pressure into account.     

What We Know About Environmental Policy: An Inductive Typology of the Research

Environmental performance is a multidimensional concept that is difficult to measure since it concerns the pollution generated by companies, their energy consumption and their different environmental policies. Academic research has used objective and/or non‐objective indicators to measure this performance, dealing with both its managerial and measurement dimensions. This paper provides an inductive typology of the academic work concerning environmental policy through a computerized content analysis of 151 articles from 1992 to 2014 related to the management and measurement of environmental performance. The results highlight four major themes around which the academic research is organized: the relationship between environmental and financial performance, environmental performance under stakeholder engagement and institutional pressures, the strategic management of environmental performance, and increasing awareness of the sustainable development issue. Environmental performance research has evolved from a quantitative towards a more managerial dimension, highlighting the integration of performance within the management of a corporate business strategy. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment     

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. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.