scholarly journals Outcomes of Sustainable Practices: A Triple Bottom Line Approach to Evaluating Sustainable Performance of Manufacturing Firms in a Developing Nation in South Asia

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 89 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Sapukotanage ◽  
B.N.F. Warnakulasuriya ◽  
S.T.W.S. Yapa

Maintaining sustainable operations has become a major responsibility of practitioners. Sustainable practices are executed to ensure sustainable performance. Many studies conducted to examine the outcomes of sustainable practices have focused either on the economic outcomes, social outcomes or environmental outcomes of such operations disregarding the Triple Bottom Line Approach to evaluating sustainable performance. Among them the majority have focused on environmental outcomes. Less focus is placed on developing countries or countries in South Asia. Against this background this paper aims to examine the outcomes of sustainable practices towards sustainable performance of manufacturing firms in a developing nation in South Asia. A study was conducted among 154 apparel manufacturing and exporting firms of Sri Lanka in relation to their sustainable practices and sustainable performance as members of supply chains. The sustainable practices were studied in relation to orientation, collaboration, continuity, risk management and pro-activity while sustainable performance was analyzed along economic performance, social performance and environmental performance of these firms. The findings were analyzed using Variance Based Structural Equation Modelling (Partial Least Squares) and it revealed that sustainable practices lead to sustainable performance even in the context of a developing nation in South Asia, highlighting the importance of the execution of sustainable practices irrespective of the level of development of a nation.

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 413-429 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavio Hourneaux Jr ◽  
Marcelo Luiz da Silva Gabriel ◽  
Dolores Amalia Gallardo-Vázquez

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to propose a minimum set of indicators to be measured by industrial companies to represent the triple bottom line (TBL) approach. Design/methodology/approach The research is both descriptive and quantitative. Three hypotheses establish associations among the degrees of use of TBL indicators and their different degrees of use in firms. The authors used confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to validate the scale and structural equation modelling to represent the final measurement model. The survey gathered 149 industrial companies. Findings The results pointed out that there are positive associations among the degree of use of environmental indicators and social indicators, economic, environmental and social indicators have different degrees of use in firms, a positive association between the degree of use of environmental and social indicators and the use of economic indicators was not confirmed. The findings suggest how to measure sustainable performance for industrial companies and highlight the differences in the degree of use for the three dimensions of TBL. Research limitations/implications The limitations refer to the non-probabilistic sample, applied in a specific context, industrial companies. Practical implications This set of indicators is intended to be used by industrial companies as a reliable instrument to sustainable performance assessment of the current stage of the TBL deployment and provide alternative approaches to address specific issues related to the environmental, social and economic sustainability. Social implications The results offer tangible results for measuring and reporting firm’s social and environmental performance. Originality/value This paper intends to offer an integrated and consistent way of measuring sustainability in industrial companies.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Zulkaif Ahmed Saqib ◽  
Qingyu Zhang

PurposeSustainability failures have increased the pressure for manufacturing firms to come up with innovative solutions to resolve the sustainable matters. Drawing on the resource-based theory, the purpose of this study is to examine how supply chain visibility moderates the effects of sustainable practices on sustainable performance.Design/methodology/approachThe data employed in the current work were collected from 355 small and medium manufacturing firms in Pakistan using a structured questionnaire. The structural equation modelling was applied to the collected data with AMOSS-23 and SPSS-25 packageFindingsThe results show that sustainable practices (for manufacturing, procurement and distribution) significantly influence the firm's sustainability performance, and this relationship is moderated by supply chain visibility.Originality/valueSustainable practices are necessary for small and medium enterprises to achieve sustainable performance, but the previously under-explored moderating effect of supply chain visibility generally indicates that sharing information for learning, sensing and co-ordinating activities plays an intensifying effect.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 622-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yinfei Chen ◽  
Injazz J. Chen

Purpose As supply chain sustainability has become more urgent than ever before, this study aims to provide a more nuanced understanding of how supplying firms’ sustainability motives influence their compliance and commitment, as well as sustainable performance, as they respond to buyers’ sustainable supplier management programs. Design/methodology/approach To investigate the intriguing links among sustainability motives, compliance/commitment and sustainable performance of supplying firms, this paper draws on multidisciplinary literature and collects empirical data from 281 supplying firms in China to test the proposed model and hypotheses using structural equation modeling. Findings Instrumental and moral motives make comparable contributions to compliance; moral motives exert stronger influence on firms’ commitment to sustainable practices. In addition, although compliance has a greater impact on economic and environmental performance, commitment is far more robust in improving environmental and social performance. Research limitations/implications Unlike most research on motives that has been theoretical, this study represents one of the few empirical analyses of how motives may affect sustainable performance. Examining the challenges from the perspectives of supplying firms, it also adds to the SSCM literature by making clear how compliance and commitment may differentially predict sustainable performance. Practical implications Although instrumental and moral motives can be complementary in advancing sustainable practices, it is imperative for firms to integrate moral considerations into sustainability decision-making and move beyond compliance, if they are to contribute meaningfully to a better society and cleaner environment. Originality/value This is the first large-scale empirical investigation on the links among motives, compliance, commitment and sustainable performance from the perspectives of suppliers.


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (9) ◽  
pp. 1142-1163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Wiengarten ◽  
Muhammad Usman Ahmed ◽  
Annachiara Longoni ◽  
Mark Pagell ◽  
Brian Fynes

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of complexity on the triple bottom line by applying information-processing theory. Specifically, the paper assesses the impact of internal manufacturing complexity on environmental, social, and financial performance. Furthermore, the paper assesses the moderating role of connectivity and shared schema in reducing the potential negative impact of complexity on performance. Design/methodology/approach Multi-country survey data collected through the Global Manufacturing Research Group were utilized to test the hypotheses. The authors used structural equation modeling to test the measurement and initial structural model. Furthermore, to test the proposed moderating hypotheses, the authors applied the latent moderated structural equations approach. Findings The results indicate that while complexity has a negative impact on environmental and social performance, it does not significantly affect financial performance. Furthermore, this negative impact can be reduced, to some extent, through connectivity; however, shared schema does not significantly impact on the complexity-performance relationship. Originality/value This study presents a comprehensive analysis of the impact of complexity on sustainability. Furthermore, it provides managerial applications as it proposes specific tools to deal with the potential negative influences of complexity.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1058
Author(s):  
Tze Ong ◽  
Boon Teh ◽  
Ah Lee

In the present world, there is a rapidly growing level of awareness of social and environmental activities. Consequently, a company’s profile is not substantiated purely in relation to financial issues, rather, a need for the inclusion of environmental and social perspectives arises. This is known as sustainable performance. Hence, there is a persistent need for the practice of sustainable performance measurements (SPMs). However, despite the implementation of sustainable performance in developed climes like Europe, the US and the UK, the relevance of sustainable performance is still at a low in developing societies such as Malaysia. The main purpose of this paper is to determine the critical success factors that are attributable to sustainable performance measurement practices for Malaysian electronics and electrical (E and E) companies, as their success is subject to intense scrutiny from their developed competitors, with respect to compliance with social and environmental regulations. A self-administered questionnaire survey was conducted on 217 E and E companies. The path analysis and test of the hypotheses were carried out through structural equation modelling. This study has successfully unveiled a comprehensive SPM model with unprecedented scope, stretching from factors to indicators of a SPM model for Malaysian E and E companies. The findings indicate that pressure from stakeholders and globalization are the driving forces for E and E companies to be more proactive in sustainable practices. In this context, stakeholders, especially policy makers, should play the leading political and social roles in encouraging the adoption of SPMs in developing nations. It must be noted that E and E companies are likely to transform their learning culture and technology in terms of working towards sustainable practices once they have realized the financial benefits of adopting SPMs. With these benefits, a compounding effect due to SPMs will be created among E and E companies, where excellent performance can be achieved continuously. A major limitation of this study is the adoption of the contingency theory, which is yet to have a wide application in this area of study. Meanwhile, future research can be longitudinal in nature in addition to focusing on non-profit organizations.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (05) ◽  
pp. 2050049 ◽  
Author(s):  
USAMA AWAN ◽  
ROBERT SROUFE

The impact of collaboration on innovation performance has been investigated in many studies. This study provides a unique view on innovation performance by exploring the mediating role of social performance between collaboration and innovation performance. For this, a structural model was tested through an empirical investigation with partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) using a sample made up of 239 export manufacturing firms. The results of the empirical study show that social performance appears to be a necessary condition for innovation performance. Our findings confirm the great potential of addressing social concern increasingly drive innovation performance. The next decade is likely to be a period of rapidly expanding social performance practices in the manufacturing firms. The managers could foster sustainable innovation by collaborating customers and enhance their firm social performance.


2012 ◽  
Vol 140 (1) ◽  
pp. 149-159 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Gimenez ◽  
Vicenta Sierra ◽  
Juan Rodon

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yasser Baeshen ◽  
Yasir Ali Soomro ◽  
Muhammad Yaseen Bhutto

Environmental degradation and global warming are major challenges to humankind in the twenty-first century. Thus, businesses are now adopting and incorporating more sustainable manufacturing methods to produce environmental products and services. It is inevitable for organizations to adopt green practices and achieve sustainable performance. This extant research addresses how to obtain sustainable development (SD) through green innovation (GRIN). The main purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive model by integrating natural resource-based view (NRBV) and triple bottom line (TBL) framework. Three antecedents namely green absorptive capacity (GAC), sustainable human capital (SHC), and organization support (OS) were selected, and their influence was checked on GRIN of the SMEs from manufacturing sector. This study included all three factors of TBL: environmental, economic, and social sustainability in terms of GRINs possible consequences. Data were randomly collected from 304 firms in the kingdom of Saudi Arabia through questionnaire. Convergent and discriminant validity analyses were conducted to assure validity and reliability, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to assess the relationships between variables using smartPLS 3.0 software. Further, firms were categorized into two groups based on company size—small and medium—to explore group differences. Hence, firm size was included as a moderator in the proposed model and multi-group analysis (MGA) was performed. The results indicate that GAC, SHC, and OS have positive influence on GRIN within SMEs. Further, results reveal GRIN had strong significant impact on all three variables of sustainable performance. The study concludes with MGA results that provided evidence of significant group differences, with a stronger relationship between GAC and GRIN in medium-sized firms compared to small-sized firms. Similarly, the relationship between GRIN and environmental performance was stronger in medium-sized firms than small-sized firms. This study is unique and provides practical and theoretical implications. This paper offers an integrative model for sustainability which may be of interest to scholars, marketers, and policymakers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3275
Author(s):  
Ghulam Raza Sargani ◽  
Deyi Zhou ◽  
Muhammad Haseeb Raza ◽  
Yuzhi Wei

The field of entrepreneurship is considered essential for the economy, and many researchers around the world have studied it from diverse perspectives. The outcomes of this research are not yet consensual. Today, it is gaining attention and consensus due to the increasing pressure of sustainable development, so there is a need for academic research to examine this field by incorporating sustainability value creation practices and the efforts of current entrepreneurs towards said goal, especially in the case of the agricultural sector. Accordingly, this study aims to address the problem of what drives students to incorporate sustainable agriculture in their entrepreneurial ventures. Moreover, we aim to determine whether the value placed in the triple bottom line affects the intention to establish sustainable businesses. The study is based on five antecedents of the Theory of Planned Behavior (TBP) and was designed to explore the mechanism underlying the intention to promote sustainable entrepreneurship in agriculture. The primary objective was to collect and analyze the data using the partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM) to test the determinants. The results revealed that the indicators of a favorable sustainable attitude, supportive subjective norms, control behaviors, adequate opportunity recognitions, and encouraging the triple bottom line had strong influences on the intention of promoting sustainability in entrepreneurship. Besides, the attitudes, subjective norms, opportunity recognition, and sustainability values can also predict students’ significant positive intentions toward sustainable agriculture in entrepreneurship. The research findings contribute to the literature by providing an empirical basis for the formulation of policies to encourage students to start an agribusiness, thereby improving the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education development programs and bridging the gap between sustainable entrepreneurial intentions and actions. Therefore, the insight into the determinants of sustainable entrepreneurship can be an essential step toward designing a practical and durable policy mechanism for the implementation of the triple bottom line when developing entrepreneurial agriculture education programs.


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