The competitive determinants of a firm's environmental management activities: Evidence from US manufacturing industries

Christian Hofer, David E. Cantor, Jing Dai

Research output: Journal PublicationArticlepeer-review

215 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Environmental management (EM) issues have received substantial attention in operations management. While the link between EM practices and firm performance has been well studied, little is known about the competitive drivers of a firm's EM activities. In this research, a Schumpeterian economics perspective is adopted to investigate competitive interactions among leader and challenger firms in the domain of EM, with a particular focus on operational EM activities. Using econometric methods, the empirical analysis of panel data from a broad cross-section of US manufacturing firms reveals that such rivalry does exist and that the effect of a rival's past EM activity on a focal firm's EM activity is greater for more profitable and smaller firms. In addition, firm characteristics such as market leadership, firm size and firm profitability are found to significantly affect the magnitude of a firm's EM activities. This study presents theoretical and empirical evidence of rivalrous behaviors in the domains of EM and OM and, thus, has interesting implications for operations management research and practice.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)69-84
Number of pages16
JournalJournal of Operations Management
Volume30
Issue number1-2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2012
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Competition
  • Environmental management
  • US manufacturing industries

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Strategy and Management
  • Management Science and Operations Research
  • Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'The competitive determinants of a firm's environmental management activities: Evidence from US manufacturing industries'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this