The impact of environmental management accounting and corporate social responsibility on firm performance

The lack of ability of conventional management accounting systems to provide full environmental/social cost information as well as low level of managers‘ understanding of the concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Environmental Management Accounting (EMA) have caused decisions and firm performance appraisal to be based on missing, inaccurate or misinterpreted information. This study aims to (1) answer whether more complete environmental/social cost information through employing EMA and CSR could bring higher level of performance for firms, and (2) determine the barriers which hinder firms from implementing EMA and CSR. Quantitative method was employed in this study. Data were collected by using questionnaires distributed to 452 (58 responded) Bursa Malaysia listed companies in industrial and consumer product sectors and then the data were analyzed using the Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) technique and Partial Least Squares (PLS) method. The findings show that the level of EMA is relatively higher than CSR among participated firms, while the level of CSR is at the average level. The results of path analysis show that CSR has positive effects on both financial and non-financial performance, while EMA has only positive and significant effects on process innovation as one of the non-financial performance dimensions. In addition, the managers have determined that rigidity of legislation and bureaucratic complexity, and reduced employee participation in decision-making are the most important external and internal barriers respectively in implementing EMA and CSR as two environmental management practices

The mediating role of process and product innovation in the relationship between environmental management accounting and firm’s financial performance

This study aims to investigate the mediating role of product and process innovation in the relationship between environmental management accounting (EMA) and firm's financial performance in Iranian companies. The paper adopted the structural equation modelling (SEM) approach to test the hypotheses. The findings are based on 118 Iranian manufacturing and consumer product firms in 2014. The findings reveal that the link between environmental management accounting and financial performance is a partial mediated relationship. Positive effect of environmental management accounting on financial performance is due to the positive effect environmental management accounting has on both product and process innovation on one hand and positive affect that innovation has on financial performance on the other. These findings suggest a role for environmental management accounting in indirectly promoting firm performance through enhancing innovation

Alignment of CSR Strategies with Business Objectives in IT Sector, Focusing on the Competitive Advantage

While numerous researchers have focused on examining the impact of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) on various aspects of business in different industries, there still remains a research gap in conducting comprehensive analyses of CSR strategies in Information Technology (IT) sector. Therefore, this study aims to address this gap by evaluating the effects of CSR on competitive advantage in the IT companies. In order to analyze data, AMOS structural equation modeling (AMOS-SEM) method was applied, and data were collected during February-April 2023 from 143 Iranian IT firms where CSR has not been appropriately dealt within theoretical as well as practical terms. The findings reveal that among the four components of CSR — legal, ethical, economic, and discretionary—, ethical, legal, economic, and discretionary dimensions have the most positive impact on competitive advantage, respectively. Taken together, these findings suggest a significant role for CSR in enhancing the level of competitive advantage in IT companies. In addition to the knowledge contribution, this study holds significant practical implications for IT company managers to strengthen their decision-making processes and develop effective CSR strategies

Moderating Effect of Environmental Management Accounting on Innovation and Firm Performance: Review of Contemporary Literature

This paper reviews the effect of EMA on relationship amid innovation and firm performance. Review of literature demonstrates that enhancement and improvement in cost information system through recognition of environmental cost lead to innovate new ways in production, and concurrently increases the sale and number of customers. Based on the findings of literature review, increasing number of customers leads to higher level of financial performance for firms. Therefore, this paper posits a framework that links the moderating effects of EMA on relationship amid innovation and firm performance for future empirification

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ACCOUNTING AND FIRM PERFORMANCE

Increasing awareness and concerns of environmental problems has led organizations to confront with environmental issues in their path process to better firm performance. This paper aims to have a comprehensive review on the relationship between environmental management accounting and firm performance and also explores the role of innovation and competitive advantage as two effective mediator variables in this relationship. This study presents a comprehensive picture of this path process which has previously been partially discussed in the literatures. Finally, this paper suggests a framework for future research on how EMA lead to firm performance through innovation and competitive advantageEnvironmental Management Accounting, Firm performance, Innovation, Competitive advantage

Moderating effect of environmental management accounting on innovation and firm performance: review of contemporary literature

This paper reviews the effect of EMA on relationship amid innovation and firm performance. Review of literature demonstrates that enhancement and improvement in cost information system through recognition of environmental cost lead to innovate new ways in production, and concurrently increases the sale and number of customers. Based on the findings of literature review, increasing number of customers leads to higher level of financial performance for firms. Therefore, this paper posits a framework that links the moderating effects of EMA on relationship amid innovation and firm performance for future empirification. KEY WORDS: Innovation, Environmental Management Accounting, Firm Performanc

How does corporate social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction

Direct relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm performance has been examined by many scholars, but this direct test seems to be spurious and imprecise. This is because many factors indirectly influence this relation. Therefore, this study considers sustainable competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction as three probable mediators in the relationship between CSR and firm performance. The findings from 205 Iranian manufacturing and consumer product firms reveal that the link between CSR and firm performance is a fully mediated relationship. The positive effect of CSR on firm performance is due to the positive effect CSR has on competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. The final findings show that only reputation and competitive advantage mediate the relationship between CSR and firm performance. Taken together, these findings suggest a role for CSR in indirectly promoting firm performance through enhancing reputation and competitive advantage while improving the level of customer satisfactio

Technological capabilities in the era of the digital economy for integration into cyber-physical systems and the IoT using decision-making approach

In the digital economy, innovators have to deal with the value-capture problem, which necessitates different capabilities. They need to be fully aware of the dynamics of platforms and ecosystems. Such capabilities are needed to enable technologies mainly focused on in the present study. The current digital economy (where businesses are experiencing a big shift from a traditional setting to a widely-digitalized setting) requires companies and enterprises to incorporate innovation into their performance. The present paper aims to offer a novel realm of modern technologies by recognizing the roles the technological capabilities could play in the digital economy regarding for integration of cyber-physical systems (CPS) and the Internet of Things (IoT) into the digital economy. This paper develops an integrated decision-making framework called the Pythagorean fuzzy (PF)- method based on the removal effects of criteria (MEREC)-rank sum (RS)-double normalization-based multiple aggregation (DNMA) model by combining the PF-MEREC-RS and PF-DNMA methods. In this framework, the PF-MEREC-RS method computes the subjective and objective weights of the technological capabilities of the digital economy for the integration of IoT and the CPS. The PF-DNMA method uses to obtain the firms’ preference order over various technological capabilities in the digital economy for integration of the IoT and the CPS. In addition, this paper involves an empirical case study evaluating the key technological capabilities in the digital economy for integration of the IoT and the CPS. Furthermore, comparison and sensitivity investigation are made to show the superiority of the developed framework

How does organizational leadership contribute to the firm performance through social responsibility strategies?

Despite the wide-ranging studies on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), firm performance, and Organizational Leadership (OL), there have been only a few studies examining the inter-relationship between them. Accordingly, this investigation has tried to investigate how OL contributes to the firm's performance through the CSR strategies. It has an internal orientation to CSR motivations compared to the existing studies that mostly considered the external factors in implementing of CSR in firms; also, it has a comprehensive view toward the firm's performance by considering both financial and non-financial aspects of performance. It could be said that this study has tried to answer the question of whether or not CSR can be as a mediator between the OL and firm performance. Data collection was performed from 285 manufacturing and consumer products firms located in Malaysia during the four-month period of June–September of 2020. AMOS Structural Equation Modeling (AMOS-SEM) method was applied to analyze the model. Following the Baron and Kenny approach in testing the hypotheses, it was found that the relationships of OL and financial performance, as well as OL and non-financial performance were partially mediated by CSR. In addition, the non-financial performance was found as a full mediator between the OL and financial performance. Further, the results revealed two full mediated relationships in this way that non-financial performance was a full mediator variable between CSR and financial performance, as well as CSR and non-financial performance which were found as two multiple full mediators between OL and financial performance. The results help Malaysian managers to understand their current status, capabilities, strong points and weaknesses in leadership regarding to CSR. Moreover, due to the positive effects of CSR on both firm's financial and non-financial performance, CSR is recommended to be integrated in leadership style and the organizational strategies in order to having better performanc