The adoption of multiple certification standards: perceived performance implications of quality, environmental and health & safety certifications

This study assesses the combined impact of multiple certifications (i.e., ISO 9001, ISO 14001, OHSAS 18001) on perceived performance dimensions related to quality, environmental and occupational health and safety. Using survey data collected from 59 Irish manufacturing plants in 2014 we employed MANCOVA and regression analysis to test our proposed hypothesis. The results suggest that companies that are simultaneously ISO 9001, ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 certified are significantly better performers with regard to environmental and occupational health and safety compared to companies without multiple certifications. However, from a perceived quality performance perspective having these multiple certifications doesn’t seem to be an effective performance improvement tool.N/

Only the Brave: Product Innovation, Service Business Model Innovation, and Their Impact on Performance

Recent empirical findings concerning the performance effects of service business model innovation (servitization) and its interplay with product innovation are mixed. Using the lenses of the demand-based view on value creation and complementarity, the performance impact of two key service business models is examined: the product-oriented model and the customer-oriented model, implemented jointly with product innovation. Results indicate that the interplay between service business model innovation and product innovation results in long-term performance benefits coupled with a degree of short-term performance sacrifice. Service business model innovation in isolation from product innovation results in short-term profit gains but long-term knowledge loss and, thus, market performance decline. Our study suggests that firms need to look beyond the evidence on short-term effects in order to achieve superior performance in the long run.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Wiley via http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/jpim.1225

MHD Simulation of the Inner-Heliospheric Magnetic Field

Maps of the radial magnetic field at a heliocentric distance of ten solar radii are used as boundary conditions in the MHD code CRONOS to simulate a 3D inner-heliospheric solar wind emanating from the rotating Sun out to 1 AU. The input data for the magnetic field are the result of solar surface flux transport modelling using observational data of sunspot groups coupled with a current sheet source surface model. Amongst several advancements, this allows for higher angular resolution than that of comparable observational data from synoptic magnetograms. The required initial conditions for the other MHD quantities are obtained following an empirical approach using an inverse relation between flux tube expansion and radial solar wind speed. The computations are performed for representative solar minimum and maximum conditions, and the corresponding state of the solar wind up to the Earths orbit is obtained. After a successful comparison of the latter with observational data, they can be used to drive outer-heliospheric models.Comment: for associated wmv movie files accompanying Figure 7, see http://www.tp4.rub.de/~tow/max.wmv and http://www.tp4.rub.de/~tow/min.wm

Exploring the impact of stakeholder pressure on environmental management strategies at the plant level: What does industry have to do with it?

Stakeholder theory and empirical evidence confirm the positive relationship between stakeholder pressure and the implementation of environmental practices and strategies. However, the specific mechanisms and impact of selected stakeholder groups on environmental management strategies are relatively underexplored. In this paper, this shortcoming is addressed by exploring the impact of selected stakeholder groups on environmental management strategies taking the contingency factor industry into consideration (i.e., dynamic vs. static industries). Basing the arguments primarily on stakeholder theory, it is suggested that stakeholder pressures are perceived differently in plants in dynamic versus static industries. Similarly, it is suggested that the influence of stakeholder pressures on the implementation of environmental strategies is influenced by industry type. To test the proposed research model, primary survey data from 502 plants collected in the United States across multiple industries is used. Thus, this paper contributes to the sustainability operations management literature through exploring the relationship between stakeholder pressure, environmental strategy implementation and contextual factors (i.e., industry type) through hypotheses testing. Results indicate that industry type does indeed affect stakeholder pressure, and the relationship between stakeholder pressure and environmental strategy implementation. Plants situated in dynamic industries experience a significantly higher level of stakeholder pressures as opposed to plants situated in static industries across an array of environmental strategies