IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sdk/wpaper/25.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Environmental Management Systems as soruces of competitive advantage

Author

Listed:
  • Knud Sinding

    (Department of Environmental and Business Economics, University of Southern Denmark)

Abstract

An increasing number of firms are adopting environmental management systems as a way of dealing with challenges from the natural environment. Many of these firms also decide to have their environmental management systems certified according to one or both of the available international standards, ISO 14001 and EMAS (The European Union’s Eco Management and Audit Scheme). Both the environmental management system and the certification process involve significant investment of financial resources and management effort, which raises the question of what benefits firms might derive from these activities. Three levels of strategic advantage are identified in this paper. The first level of advantage is transient on nature, being based on competitive preemption and development of first mover advantage. The second level involves development of valuable competencies and more durable resources inside the firm, while the third level advantage depends on the extent to which such resources can be extended and conserved when emphasis shifts from an internal pollution prevention focus towards life cycle oriented environmental management.

Suggested Citation

  • Knud Sinding, 2001. "Environmental Management Systems as soruces of competitive advantage," Working Papers 25/01, University of Southern Denmark, Department of Sociology, Environmental and Business Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:sdk:wpaper:25
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sdu.dk/~/media/Files/Om_SDU/Institutter/Miljo/ime/wp/sindi25.ashx
    File Function: First version, 2001-07
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sharfman, Mark & Ellington, Rex T. & Meo, Mark, 1997. "The next step in becoming "green": Life-cycle oriented environmental management," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 13-22.
    2. World Commission on Environment and Development,, 1987. "Our Common Future," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780192820808.
    3. Williamson, Oliver E, 1979. "Transaction-Cost Economics: The Governance of Contractural Relations," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 22(2), pages 233-261, October.
    4. Gabel H. Landis & Sinclair-Desgagne Bernard, 1993. "Managerial Incentives and Environmental Compliance," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 24(3), pages 229-240, May.
    5. Stuart L. Hart & Gautam Ahuja, 1996. "Does It Pay To Be Green? An Empirical Examination Of The Relationship Between Emission Reduction And Firm Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 30-37, March.
    6. Forest Reinhardt, 1999. "Market Failure and the Environmental Policies of Firms: Economic Rationales for “Beyond Compliance” Behavior," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 3(1), pages 9-21, January.
    7. Ingemar Dierickx & Karel Cool, 1989. "Asset Stock Accumulation and Sustainability of Competitive Advantage," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 35(12), pages 1504-1511, December.
    8. Konar, Shameek & Cohen, Mark A., 1997. "Information As Regulation: The Effect of Community Right to Know Laws on Toxic Emissions," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 32(1), pages 109-124, January.
    9. Jay B. Barney, 1986. "Strategic Factor Markets: Expectations, Luck, and Business Strategy," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 32(10), pages 1231-1241, October.
    10. S.A. Lippman & R.P. Rumelt, 1982. "Uncertain Imitability: An Analysis of Interfirm Differences in Efficiency under Competition," Bell Journal of Economics, The RAND Corporation, vol. 13(2), pages 418-438, Autumn.
    11. John D. Sterman & Nelson P. Repenning & Fred Kofman, 1997. "Unanticipated Side Effects of Successful Quality Programs: Exploring a Paradox of Organizational Improvement," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(4), pages 503-521, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Schultz, T. Paul, 2010. "Population and Health Policies," Handbook of Development Economics, in: Dani Rodrik & Mark Rosenzweig (ed.), Handbook of Development Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 4785-4881, Elsevier.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mehmet Ali Köseoglu & John A. Parnell & Melissa Yan Yee Yick, 2021. "Identifying influential studies and maturity level in intellectual structure of fields: evidence from strategic management," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 126(2), pages 1271-1309, February.
    2. Sharma, Sunil, 2015. "Relevance of Resource Based View Themes for Capability Evolution," IIMA Working Papers WP2015-03-30, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, Research and Publication Department.
    3. Julio Cesar Acosta Prado & Reynaldo Hernández Reyes, 2012. "Externalización de procesos de negocio en tecnologías de la información y la gestión estratégica del conocimiento. Una revisión de la literatura," Dimensión Empresarial, Universidad Autónoma del Caribe, December.
    4. Robert P. Garrett Jr. & Jeffrey G. Covin, 2015. "Internal Corporate Venture Operations Independence and Performance: A Knowledge–Based Perspective," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 39(4), pages 763-790, July.
    5. Colombo, Massimo G. & Garrone, Paola, 1998. "Common carriers' entry into multimedia services," Information Economics and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 10(1), pages 77-105, March.
    6. Iman Seoudi & Matthias Huehn & Bo Carlsson, 2008. "Penrose Revisited: A Re-Appraisal of the Resource Perspective," Working Papers 14, The German University in Cairo, Faculty of Management Technology.
    7. Wang, Chun-Ju & Wu, Lei-Yu, 2012. "Team member commitments and start-up competitiveness," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 65(5), pages 708-715.
    8. Phebo D. Wibbens, 2023. "A formal framework for the RBV: Resource dynamics as a Markov process," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 44(6), pages 1562-1586, June.
    9. Contractor, Farok J. & Ra, Wonchan, 2002. "How knowledge attributes influence alliance governance choices: A theory development note," Journal of International Management, Elsevier, vol. 8(1), pages 11-27.
    10. Hidemichi Fujii & Kimbara Tatsuo, 2012. "Environmental Management Mechanisms in U.S. and Japanese Manufacturing Firms," International Journal of Business Administration, International Journal of Business Administration, Sciedu Press, vol. 3(6), pages 13-24, November.
    11. Magnani, Giovanna & Zucchella, Antonella & Strange, Roger, 2019. "The dynamics of outsourcing relationships in global value chains: Perspectives from MNEs and their suppliers," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 581-595.
    12. Alain Asquin & Emmanuelle Reynaud & Marion Polgé, 2001. "Entrepreneurship: what are the typical capabilities to create competitive resources? A discussion from case studies," Post-Print hal-00379862, HAL.
    13. Jan-Erik Vahlne & Jan Johanson, 2017. "From internationalization to evolution: The Uppsala model at 40 years," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 48(9), pages 1087-1102, December.
    14. Stoelhorst, J. W. & van Raaij, Erik M., 2004. "On explaining performance differentials: Marketing and the managerial theory of the firm," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 57(5), pages 462-477, May.
    15. Manral, Lalit & Harrigan, Kathryn R., 2018. "The logic of demand-side diversification: Evidence from the US telecommunications sector, 1990–1996," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 127-141.
    16. Kirsten Foss & Nicolai J. Foss, 1998. "The Market Process and The Firm Toward a Dynamic Property Rights Perspective," DRUID Working Papers 98-14, DRUID, Copenhagen Business School, Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy/Aalborg University, Department of Business Studies.
    17. Nicolaï Foss & Nils Stieglitz, 2012. "Modern Resource-based Theory(ies)," Chapters, in: Michael Dietrich & Jackie Krafft (ed.), Handbook on the Economics and Theory of the Firm, chapter 20, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    18. Mohamed Mansouri & Cheklekbire Malainine & Hayat Souti & Ikram Cadimi, 2022. "Dynamic capabilities, competitiveness and performance of small and medium-sized enterprises: a systematic literature review [Capacités dynamiques, compétitivité et performance des petites et moyenn," Post-Print hal-03794567, HAL.
    19. Markus Gmür, 2003. "Co-citation analysis and the search for invisible colleges: A methodological evaluation," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 57(1), pages 27-57, January.
    20. Lien, Yung-Chih & Piesse, Jenifer & Strange, Roger & Filatotchev, Igor, 2005. "The role of corporate governance in FDI decisions: Evidence from Taiwan," International Business Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(6), pages 739-763, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sdk:wpaper:25. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Ulla H. Oehlenschläger (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/iehhsdk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.