Indian Business Sustainability in the Era of Globalization

Indian Business is going through one of its golden times when many Indian companies are going global. Some of them have managed to be listed in top Stock Markets of the world and the year 2009 has record industrial growth after 20 years though many countries are struggling to come out of a big economic crisis. Globalization and boundary-less market had forced Indian Corporations to change their survival strategy. We have analysed one of such strategy which worked wonders for many Indian Business Sectors. This is nothing but the steps taken towards corporate environmental sustainability and disclosing the environmental performance to the customers and other stakeholders. Many of the past literatures on corporate sustainability never speak aloud of or, remain silent on Corporate Environmental sustainability.Some of them even argue that the natural stock/capital remains stable all the time. But, the ongoing changes and disasters like Tsunami, water and food shortage, climate change, inequalities and so on cannot be ignored. In fact, the figure shows the corporations realising the environmental issues in business and interested to contribute to save the nature so as to get the global competitiveness. India being the heavily industrialized country with an increasing rate of consumption is always blamed and warned about the disasters in many international forums. This paper provides an insight of Indian Business Sustainability in the era of globalization through an analysis of economic performance of 3 Indian corporations while they are investing towards environmental sustainability

Natural Capital and Corporate Sustainability

Shift happens though people cannot accept it or take time to accept it. Many of the past literatures on corporate sustainability never speak aloud of or, remain silent on Corporate Environmental sustainability. Some of them even argue that the natural stock/capital remains stable all the time. But, the ongoing changes and disasters like Tsunami, water and food shortage, climate change, inequalities and so on cannot be ignored. In fact, the figure shows the corporations realising the environmental issues in Business and interested to contribute to save the nature so as to get the global competitiveness. This conceptual paper provides insight of corporate environmental sustainability and natural capital with clear definitions and it has also tried to answer the question “Why corporations need to be responsible or accountable towards sustaining the natural capital?” through case study discussions. The benefits that corporations get while going green and the underlying limitations and challenges towards environmental sustainability has also been analysed critically

Natural Capitalism: The next industrial revolution

This paper outlines different ontology and epistemologies of sustainability dimensions (strong and weak) and the concept of natural capitalism. It further analyses the current state of a volatile economy and the global call for a green recovery as a solution. In this context, strong sustainability believers think that natural capitalism can be the next industrial revolution. The principles and implementation of natural capitalism through “the natural step (TNS)” and “biomimicry” is analysed and business cases are cited in this paper. This paper can be a source of information and road map for young engineers to invent innovative green technologies and use the available green technologies more productively by following the principles of natural capitalism

Natural Capital & Corporate Sustainability

Shift happens though people cannot accept it or take time to accept it. Many of the past literatures on corporate sustainability never speak aloud of or, remain silent on Corporate Environmental sustainability. Some of them even argue that the natural stock/capital remains stable all the time. But, the ongoing changes and disasters like Tsunami, water and food shortage, climate change, inequalities and so on cannot be ignored. In fact, the figure shows the corporations realising the environmental issues in Business and interested to contribute to save the nature so as to get the global competitiveness. This conceptual paper provides insight of corporate environmentalsustainability and natural capital with clear definitions and it has also tried to answer the question “Why corporations need to be responsible or accountable towards sustaining the natural capital?” through case study discussions. The benefits that corporations get while going green and the underlying limitations and challenges towards environmental sustainability has also been analysed critically

Where do SMEs stand in Environmental Sustainability? An overview of past studies

This paper analyses the impact of business activities on the environment and the urge of sustaining the Natural Capital. Though there is a trend of growing numbers of corporations emphasizing on Environmental Sustainability as one of the dimensions of the corporate sustainability, the truth is that SMEs are far behind in this race. So the question arising here is “What are the problems that force SMEs not to take steps towards greening themselves”. In this paper, we tried to accommodate the environmental performance of SMEs from Europe and Asia. We have also analysed the literature to put forth some of the strong reasons for resistance towards Environment Sustainability by most of the SMEs, and a few solutions to overcome these issues or problems. This paper will also be used as a framework to work further on studying SME’s in Malaysia and their contribution towards environmental sustainability

Evaluating the correlation between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Effective Leadership (EL) among managers in Miri Shipbuilding Industry

This article investigates the correlation between Emotional Intelligence (EI) and Effective Leadership (EL) among project managers. Miri shipbuilding industry is chosen for the study due to the reason that the project managers of the shipbuilding companies are facing many challenges from the market right from supply chain to distribution. To retain subordinates and make them work for the success of the projects is the biggest challenge for the project managers of Miri shipbuilding industry. This study is conducted to help the industry find the correct measures to resolve the issues mentioned. Two sets of questionnaires were distributed to the project managers and their subordinates to determine the EI factors that contribute to effectiveness of the leadership quality of the project managers. Data was collected from 8 companies. 50 managers and 8 project managers participated in this study. Many studies have been done in this area in different industries and significant correlation is found evident in many studies. Based on Goleman’s EI indicators to determine effectiveness of leadership, this study also shows significant results. Motivation, an indicator of EI shows significant correlation with the effectiveness of the leader. EI and EL also show significant correlation

Environment Management Systems in Indian Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

This paper investigates the challenges small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) face in India with regards to their generally poor environmental management track record. In this context, the paper explores the status and effectiveness of Environmental Management Systems (EMSs) as a means of improving the environmental management performance of Indian SMEs as well as the applicability of the formal uptake of ISO 14001 (uncertified or certified). Indian SMEs are responsible for producing large amounts of waste affecting environmental quality but also firms’ international reputation in environmentally sensitive markets. While national policies support the greening of medium size enterprises (MSEs) by way of reimbursing firms 75 per cent of the cost of ISO 14001 certification, businesses are not supported with the cost for “continuous improvement”, which is a major barrier for Indian SMEs when implementing and building up an EMS. This paper is informed by a detailed review of international research on the SME experience with EMSs, examining whether EMS uptake can help SMEs not only improve their environmental performance but also assist in terms of becoming internationally competitive and gaining access to global export markets. This paper points to a need of a country-specific and sector-specific investigation of the relationship between small firms’ EMS uptake and their environmental management performance, based on an analysis of the international EMS experience and the status of EMS in Indian SMEs. Such a research agenda also ought to address the question of relevance and applicability of formal standards such as the ISO 14001 to the Indian context