The impact of environmental management systems on financial performance in fashion and textiles industries

With rising environmental concerns from consumers and stakeholder groups, environmental management has become an important responsibility for today's fashion and textiles manufacturers. The production of fashion and textiles related products often requires high levels of energy and water consumption, and emits large quantities of pollutants to the environment. Therefore, the adoption of environmental management systems (EMSs) is important and could have a significant impact on these firms' operational performance. This study presents empirical evidence on the performance impact of EMS adoption in the fashion and textiles related industries (FTIs). Although EMSs have emerged as a passport to business in the FTIs, their actual impacts on firms' financial performance have not been explored. We reveal that the adoption of ISO 14000, the most popular EMS, improves manufacturers' profitability in the FTIs over a three-year period as measured by return-on-assets (ROA). Based on our sample, we find that profitability improvement started during the implementation stage and continued at least one year after the firm obtained ISO 14000 certification. We also find that profitability improvement is mainly due to improvement in cost efficiency, measured by return-on-sales (ROS). Specifically, certified firms improved up to 2.9% in ROA and 3.3% in ROS over the three-year period since they implemented ISO 14000. We conclude that there is a positive impact of EMS adoption on firms' financial performance in the FTIs.     

突破性创新、互补性资产与企业间合作的整合研究

主导企业在技术变革中经历了技术劣势后，这种劣势在何种程度上转化为商业劣势取决于突破性创新的破坏幅度。如果新技术只破坏了主导企业的技术能力而没有破坏互补性资产的价值．那么主导企业的绩效将会改进：如果新技术同时破坏了主导企业的技术能力和互补性资产的价值．那么主导企业的绩效将会下滑。正是由于大量突破性创新属于前者并且主导企业控制了大部分的互补性资产．开发了突破性创新的新进入企业只能与主导企业建立合作关系．共同分享创新利润。     

Characteristics and diffusion of technological innovations

The paper examines fourteen post war innovations; five in the flour milling industry, four in the malting industry, and five in the dairy industry. The major work has been carried out in the flour milling industry, with supportive studies in the malting and dairy industries. Examination is made of the characteristics of the innovations as perceived by technical managers who are in a position to influence adoption or non-adoption. The research sets out to study the relationship between the perceived characteristics of the innovations and their diffusion times. It is hoped that the results will be of value to engineering designers and marketing managers in the capital equipment manufacturing industries by enabling them to develop a clearer understanding of adoptors and non-adoptors of innovations and also to study the inter-relationships between different sectors of the industries which they serve. Two forms of profiles of the characteristics of innovations are presented.     

Technological and non-technological innovations,performance and propensity to innovate across industries: The case of an emerging economy

Innovation in a firm may be non-technological, such as organizational and marketing innovation, and technological, such as product and process innovation. The aim of this article is to explore how different types of innovation affect the innovation development of the firm across industries. We chose Chile as an emerging market context. Our results show that only product innovations affect significantly innovation performance across industries. However, different types of propensities to innovate are affected differently by technological and non-technological innovations. We discuss implications for managers and policy makers in emerging economies, in which data tends to be scarce to develop new policy models and increase the effect of non-technological innovation on innovative performance.     

Effects of innovation types on firm performance

Innovation is broadly seen as an essential component of competitiveness, embedded in the organizational structures, processes, products and services within a firm. The objective of this paper is to explore the effects of the organizational, process, product and marketing innovations on the different aspects of firm performance, including innovative, production, market and financial performances, based on an empirical study covering 184 manufacturing firms in Turkey. A theoretical framework is empirically tested identifying the relationships amid innovations and firm performance through an integrated innovation-performance analysis. The results reveal the positive effects of innovations on firm performance in manufacturing industries.     

Price Competition and Market Structure: The Impact of Cartel Policy on Concentration in the UK

This paper examines the impact of firms' conduct on market structure. It studies the evolution of concentration in UK manufacturing following the abolition of cartels using a theoretical framework based on Sutton's theory of market structure and a panel data set of four-digit industries over 1958–1977. The econometric results suggest that the intensity of price competition has a positive effect on concentration in exogenous sunk cost industries as well as in advertising-intensive and R&D-intensive industries. The concentration-market size relationship, while negative in exogenous sunk cost industries, breaks down in industries with high advertising or R&D intensity.     

中国上市公司股权融资与债权融资成本实证研究

本文对中国上市公司IPO后的股权与债权的融资成本进行了实证研究。影响企业市场价值变化的主要因素是行业因素以及企业的初始市值，于是我们选取了家庭耐用消费品行业以及纺织和服装行业的上市公司，对同行业问各组匹配公司进行直接比较，从而发现：站在上市公司股东利益的角度考虑，债权融资成本低于股权融资成本。这主要是股权融资的软约束造成的企业经营业绩下滑，进而导致企业进行多次股权融资行为后市场价值下跌。     

When to Use Loose or Tight Alliance Networks for Innovation? Empirical Evidence

This study examines the impact of different degrees of organizational coupling among the members of innovation alliance project networks on the commercial performance of collaborative innovations. Specifically, we study how type of innovation (modular vs. architectural innovation) moderates this relationship. Using data from 664 product innovation networks from five different industries in the United States, we find that the degree of organizational coupling among innovation network members significantly affects the commercial performance of collaborative innovations and that the type of innovation has a significant moderating effect. More specifically, the impact on commercial innovation performance of organizational coupling is positive for modular innovations and negative for architectural innovations.     

Supply chain environmental investments in dynamic industries: Comparing investment and performance differences with static industries

Research linking investments in environmental practices to firm performance has matured over the past years. However, empirical research is still ambiguous on how and whether investments in environmental practices improve a plant's performance. We believe that contingency factors, especially the industry in which plants act has a significant role in the success of environmental investments. Using empirical data collected across a wide range of industries our results indicate that plants competing in dynamic industries such as apparel do on average invest less in supply chain environmental practices compared to plants in static industries. In addition, these environmental investments do not significantly improve operational performance in dynamic industries in terms of cost, quality, delivery and flexibility. However, in static industries environmental investments do significantly improve a plant's operational performance in terms of cost, quality and flexibility.     

基于行业数据的新型工业节能减排效率与技术创新研究

本文构建一种基于生产率的新型节能减排指数,测度2007～2013年我国36个工业行业的节能减排效率,并重点分析企业自主创新、国内创新溢出和国外技术引进对工业节能减排效率的影响。研究发现：我国战略性新兴产业、高新技术产业节能减排效率普遍较高,资源、资本、劳动密集型行业节能减排效率普遍较低;企业自主创新对高效率行业作用更明显,国外技术引进对低效率行业影响更突出,国内创新溢出对各行业效率的影响力度基本一致;环境规制、行业企业规模等也是影响节能减排效率的因素之一。     

环境成本内部化与产业国际竞争力

环境成本内部化是公认的纠正市场失灵的手段。作为达到可持续发展的必经之路，已经被政策制定者和环境学家广泛接受。虽然环境成本对竞争力影响的性质和程度主要是实证问题，但目前对环境成本内部化与产业国际竞争力的关系所做的经验分析存在许多困难和缺陷。所以，本文提出了一个新的分析框架，试图从成本和差异化两个方面对决定环境与竞争力关系的各个因素进行分析，并在对一些污染密集型产业进行实证分析的基础上，对发达国家和发展中国家各相关产业的国际竞争力受环境成本内部化影响的不同程度进行了比较，从而了解南北国家的出口产业在环境成本内部化影响下的脆弱程度。     

Social and organizational capital: Building the context for innovation

In the light of the key role intellectual capital has for firms' innovation capability, this paper analyzes the influence of two of their dimensions, organizational capital and social capital, on firms' product innovation, and the moderating role of radicalness. Unlike previous studies, the unit of analysis will not be the firm, but the R&D department. Thus, our research, conducted with a sample of Spanish industrial companies, provides a new insight with interesting results. First, our findings show that social capital favours firms' product innovation, especially under radical innovations. Second, organizational capital has an indirect effect on product innovation through positive influence on social capital. This implies that firms can stimulate communication and interaction among people, and therefore innovative activity, by means of explicit and codified knowledge (organizational capital).     

Structural and competitive determinants of a global integration strategy

Both structural determinants and competitive factors can work to define the relevant environment for strategy formulation within an industry. This study examines the effects of each of these two sets of factors on global integration strategies, and finds that their impacts vary considerably from one industry to another. The study also investigates the relationship between a business's global integration strategy and its performance, using an industry'specific perspective. In the aggregate, the businesses studied appear to be under-globalized. However, this relationship varied significantly by industry; four of the industries studied appeared to be under-globalized, while the remaining three industries were at or near an optimal level of globalization.     

How does institutional change affect heterogeneity among firms?

This paper examines the variation in performance of incumbents and entrants following the deregulation of prices and entry in the airline industry. Our approach is similar to earlier studies of interfirm performance heterogeneity across industries. Drawing on theories of industry evolution, we hypothesize that the performance of entrants will have higher variance than incumbents. Further, given the opportunities offered by price deregulation, we propose that incumbents will have higher variance in performance under deregulation than in the earlier regime. The findings indicate that entrant performance heterogeneity is significantly greater than incumbent performance heterogeneity following deregulation, but that the variation in performance among incumbents does not significantly change when deregulation occurs. The second result is surprising given the range of service and process innovations that incumbents initiated. These results suggest that the distinction between entrants and incumbents is critical to future studies of performance variation within and across industries. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The influence of firms' technological capabilities on export performance in supplier-dominated industries: the case of ceramic tiles firms

In this paper, we study the effects that firms' technological capabilities, as an expression of their technological innovation strategy, have on their international competitiveness. In doing so, we draw on export and international trade literature to justify the influence that the firms' technological activity has on their export performance. In addition, we use concepts derived from the literature on technological innovation to identify different capabilities that the firms may develop to manage their innovation process, i.e., those related to investment, production and co-operation. These constitute the basis of our hypothesis, in which the technological innovation capabilities identified are related to firms' export performance. Empirical work is carried out on a sample of 88 Spanish exporting firms belonging to the ceramic tiles industry, which is characterized as being a supplier-dominated industry. Data were mainly gathered through a postal survey directed at firm managers. Our findings show that technological innovation capabilities have a positive impact on export performance. Specifically, results show that investment in internal non-R&D innovative activities, such as engineering design and pre-production, exerts a positive influence on export performance. However, neither investment in R&D nor investment in external acquisition of technology exerts any influence on export performance. In addition, our findings show that production capabilities have a positive effect linked to both improvement and imitation of products and processes. Regarding co-operation, export performance is related to capabilities that derive from co-operation with universities and research institutes rather than co-operation with other companies.     

节能减排约束下中国制造业行业的效率和生产率的研究

本文运用SBM方向性距离函数和卢恩伯格生产率指标,对在资源和环境约束下我国26个制造业行业1999～2008年的效率和生产率及其构成进行了实证研究.结果表明:能源的过多使用以及SO2和COD的过度排放是环境无效率的主要来源;环境无效率水平最高的是原材料工业,环境效率水平最高的是机械设备制造业;环境全要素生产率的平均增长率低于市场全要素生产率的平均增长率,说明了环境管理的无效率;纯技术进步是中国制造业行业环境全要素生产率增长的主要推动力.     

改制对企业绩效影响的实证分析

本文运用来自竞争性行业的451家样本企业(1994—1999年)的数据研究了改制对企业经营绩效的影响。通过产权结构作为连续变量的分析，发现国有产权对企业绩效具有显著的负作用，而非国有资本具有积极的绩效效应，其中个人资本具有最为显著的提高效益的正相关作用。在不同资本控股权的分析中，个人资本相对控股权分组的利润率显著高于国有资本相对控股权的分组，并且经营者持股比例的增加可以显著提高改善经营绩效的可能性。     

Winning through innovation and marketing: Lessons from Australia and Vietnam

We examine the role of innovation and marketing, two functional capabilities that have the capacity to play a major role in creating superior marketplace performance in firms. Our study of the two capabilities and firms' marketplace performance also takes into account the contribution of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and market orientation (MO) to our focal functional capabilities and marketplace performance. The results of a study of firms in Australia and Vietnam show innovation capability, marketing capability mediate the effects of the firm's MO on its marketplace performance. The results also show that the interaction of innovation and marketing capabilities significantly influences firms' marketplace performance more than they do individually. Finally, our results show that MO partially mediates the relationship between EO and innovation and marketing capabilities.     

Developing Sustainable New Products in the Textile and Upholstered Furniture Industries: Role of External Integrative Capabilities

Environmental sustainability has become one of the key issues for strategy, marketing, and innovation. In particular, significant attention is being paid by companies, customers, media, and regulators to development and consumption of green products. It is argued that through the efficient use of resources, low carbon impacts, and risks to the environment, green products can be essential to help society toward the environmental sustainability targets. The number of green product introductions is rapidly increasing, as demonstrated by the growing number of companies obtaining eco‐labels or third party certifications for their environmentally friendly products. Hundreds of companies representing most of the industries, such as Intel, SC Johnson, Clorox, Wal‐Mart, and Hewlett–Packard, have recently introduced new green products, underlining the need to develop products that create both economic and environmental values for the firm and customers. A review of the literature shows that academic research on green product development has grown in interest. However, to date, only a few empirical studies have addressed the challenge of integrating environmental issues into new product development (NPD). Previous empirical works have mainly focused on a set of activities for the green product development process at the project level. After years of paying no or marginal attention to environmental sustainability issues, most of the companies now generally realize that it would require knowledge and competencies to develop green products on a regular basis. These knowledge and competencies can be varied, such as R&D, environmental know‐how, clean technology/manufacturing process, building knowledge on measuring environmental performance of products, etc., that may be developed internally or can be integrated through external networks. Adopting a resource‐based view of the firm, this article aims at (1) investigating the role of capabilities useful for companies to integrate knowledge and competencies from outside of the firm on green product development in terms of both manufacturing process and product design and (2) understanding whether green product development opens new product, market, and technology opportunities, as well as leads to better financial performance of NPD programs. To this end, a survey was conducted in two Italian manufacturing industries in which environmental issues are becoming increasingly important, namely textiles and upholstered furniture. A questionnaire was sent to 700 firms, and 102 useable questionnaires were returned. Results show that (1) companies engage in developing external integrative capabilities through the creation of collaborative networks with actors along the supply chain, the acquisition of technical know‐how, and the creation of external knowledge links with actors outside the supply chain; (2) external knowledge links play a key role in the integration of environmental sustainability issues into the manufacturing process, whereas capabilities such as the acquisition of technical know‐how and the creation of collaborative networks prove to be more important for integrating environmental issues into product design; and (3) the integration of environmental sustainability issues into NPD programs in terms of product design leads to the creation of new opportunities for firms, such as opening new markets, technologies, and product arenas, though not necessarily leading to improved financial performance of the NPD programs.     

Strengthening managerial approaches to improving technological capabilities

This paper draws on an extensive array of theoretical and empirical studies covering a variety of industries in the U.S. and elsewhere in order: (a) to review common shortcomings found in evaluating technological innovations both before and after adoption, as well as in generating proposals for new innovations; and (b) to suggest means of improving each of these efforts.