THE INFLUENCE OF ECO-CONTROL ON ENVIRONMENTAL AND ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE: A NATURAL RESOURCEBASED APPROACH

Alors qu'une littérature grandissante a examiné et démontré une influence directe de l'adoption des outils d'éco-contrôle sur la performance organisationnelle, peu de recherches ont tenté de comprendre la façon dont cette influence s'opérationnalise au sein des organisations. Se basant sur la Natural Resourced-Based View, l'objectif de cet article est d'ouvrir cette boite noire et d'examiner le potentiel des outils d'éco-contrôles à supporter les compétences environnementales et d'en analyser l'impact sur la performance environnementale et économique de l'organisation.Outis d'éco-contrôle, Natural resourcedbased view, compétences environnementales, systèmes de mesures de la performance environnementale, performance environnementale

Harnessing eco-control to boost environmental and financial performance

The article provides information on the concept of using eco-control tools in improving both the environmental and financial performance of organizations in Canada. Eco-control tools are accordingly aimed at incorporating environmental aspects in available tools, as they are also intended to isolate their effect on the organization. Meanwhile, charts depicting the usage index of environmental performance indicators (EPI), and the index of integration of environmental aspects are also presente

Eco-control : the influence of management control systems on environmental and economic performance.

Eco-control is the application of financial and strategic control methods to environmental management. In this study, we investigate to what extent eco-control influences environmental and economic performance. Using survey-data from a sample of Canadian manufacturing firms, the results suggest that eco-control has no direct effect on economic performance. A mediating effect of environmental performance on the link between eco-control and economic performance is observed in different contexts. More specifically, eco-control indirectly influences economic performance in the context of (i) higher environmental exposure, (ii) higher public visibility, (iii) higher environmental concern, and (iv) larger size. This study contributes to the management accounting literature by providing insight into the roles and contributions of management accounting in the context of sustainable development

The integrated Scorecard in support of corporate sustainability strategies

Organizations have increasingly recognized the importance and benefits of developing a sustainability strategy that incorporates environmental and social responsibilities. However, the simultaneous integration of the economic, environmental and social aspects remains a major concern for organizations. The Sustainability Balanced Scorecard (SBSC) represents one of the most promising strategic tools to help organizations face these challenges and support their sustainability strategy. However, past research has provided unclear, incomplete and even contradictory SBSC frameworks while offering little knowledge about how to integrate stakeholder management as well as environmental and social performance within the balanced scorecard to successfully support a corporate sustainability strategy. The aim of this study is to address these issues and limitations by proposing the Integrated Scorecard, a specific SBSC that integrates the three pillars of sustainability performance within four different perspectives, namely environmental, social and economic performance, stakeholder management, internal business processes, and skills and capabilities. This study provides a conceptual approach to the Integrated Scorecard and illustrates, through the use of two practical illustrations, the ability of this framework to support the corporate sustainability strategy by identifying the core sustainability objectives that organizations should achieve when creating value, facilitating the understanding of the contribution of environmental and social initiatives on economic performance, allowing the monitoring and measurement of the strategy's level of achievement, and creating synergy between sustainability performance management and reporting

Eco-control and corporate sustainability strategy

The aim of the thesis is to examine the role and contribution of eco-control to support a corporate sustainability strategy. It examines more specifically four main research questions: (i) to what extent the eco-control systems may support the corporate sustainability strategy formulation, (ii) to what extent the eco-control systems may facilitate the deployment of this strategy within the organization, (iii) to what extent the eco-control systems may assist in the conversion of strategic intentions into actions and (iv) to what extent the eco-control systems may contribute to the improvement of the environmental, social, and economic performance of the firm? Using three different articles, this thesis sheds light on the role of eco-control support the various phases of sustainability strategy formulation, implementation and realization. More specifically, this study provides insight into how eco-control systems may support strategy materialization in order to contribute to sustainability performance how the influence of eco-control on sustainmability performance may be operationalized within the organization. It also illustrates the synergetic and complementary role played by different types of eco-control systems to translate strategic intentions into tangible actions. Moreover, this thesis shows that the uniqueness of the sustainability strategy context may provide different results from what has been found for other types of strategies. Specifically, it demonstrates that the adoption of different types of sustainability strategies may influence not only the type of eco-control systems adopted by an organization, but also their level of deployment. Finally, this thesis sheds light on how the traditional management control systems could be adapted to support a corporate sustainability strategy by proposing a complete and comprehensive sustainability balanced scorecard (SBSC) conceptual framework for profit-seeking manufacturing adapted firms. Globally, this thesis provides insight into several of the numerous challenges faced by organizations and managers when attempting to adopt and implement a sustainability strategy. More specifically, this study shows that eco-control systems, such as surveillance and liaison mechanisms, may support the formulation of a corporate sustainability strategy, facilitate the deployment of this strategy within the organization, assist in the conversion of strategic intentions into actions and contribute to the improvement of the environmental, social, and economic performance of the firm. Moreover, this study illustrates that the eco-control systems, such as sustainability balanced scorecard, should be implemented by adapting existing systems instead of being developed in parallel. Furthermore, this thesis illustrates the important role palys by stakeholders in the context of corporate sustainability strategy. Finally, this study has important practical implications for management practices by providing concrete solutions for managers to support the implementation and the operationalization of the sustainability strategy within the firm. More fundamentally, this thesis shows that it is possible to improve the environmental and social performance of firms without compromising their economic performance. Hence, this thesis provides clear indications to managers that the use of eco-control systems is a key tool needed to face the numerous challenges related to a corporate sustainability strategy.(IAG 3) -- UCL, 201

The influence of the eco-control package on environmental and economic performance : a natural resource-based approach

While a growing body of literature has examined and demonstrated the influence of eco-control on organizational performance, little is known about how this influence occurs within the organization. Building on a natural resource-based view, the aim of this study is to investigate the extent to which the eco-control package supports environmental capabilities that, in turn, contribute to an organization's environmental and economic performance. Using survey data from a sample of Canadian manufacturing firms, the results of this study suggest that eco-control may constitute a mechanism that can support environmental capabilities in order to contribute to a firm's environmental and economic performance. More specifically, these results suggest that the eco-control package fosters eco-learning, continuous environmental innovation, stakeholder integration, and shared environmental vision capabilities that can, in turn, contribute both directly to the firm's environmental performance and indirectly to economic performance. Also, some evidence suggests that different eco-control practices support different environmental capabilities and that the simultaneous use of several eco-control practices seems to be necessary to support the implementation of a complete set of environmental capabilities

Eco-efficiency and organizational practices : an exploratory study of manufacturing firms.

As the pressure increases on organizations to improve their eco-efficiency, the identification of organizational practices that can support this improvement has become a major concern for managers and researchers. The aim of this exploratory study is to identify the association between organizational practices (ie managerial and operational) and eco-efficiency in manufacturing organizations. Combining survey and public data from a sample of Canadian manufacturing industries, the results suggest for managerial practices that environmental strategic planning, environmental administrative mechanisms, and incentives are associated with two eco-efficiency ratios—namely, the material intensity ratio and the environmental productivity ratio—while environmental performance indicators are associated with the material intensity ratio. Furthermore, the results suggest that three environmental operational practices—namely, product redesign, reduction, and alliances—are positively associated with the material intensity ratio. This study contributes to the sustainability and eco-efficiency literatures by exploring the role and contributions of organizational practices that support environmental and economic performance

Antecedents and consequences of eco-control deployment : evidence of Canadian manufacturing firms

Environmental issues have become an important consideration for a growing number oforganizations. Eco-control may represent a valuable tool to help organizations address suchissues. The aim of this study is to provide an overview of the eco-control practices adopted byCanadian organizations and to understand the antecedents and consequences of their adoption.More specifically, this study examines (i) the extent to which eco-control practices are deployedwithin organizations, (ii) the factors and motivations that lead organizations to implement eco-control practices, and (iii) the impact of adoption on firms’ managerial and operationalenvironmental actions as well as on environmental and economic performance. Using surveydata from a sample of 249 Canadian manufacturing firms, this article shows that environmentalmissions, environmental policies, environmental strategic planning, environmental budgets andenvironmental performance indicators are the most frequently adopted eco-control practicesamong the investigated firms, while environmental incentives seem to be less frequentlyadopted. The results of this study also suggest that competitive and ethical motivations as well assize, environmental exposure and stakeholder pressure are all important factors in explainingeco-control practice adoption by Canadian manufacturing firms. Moreover, the results of thisstudy show that organizations that have undertaken more intensive managerial and operationalenvironmental actions have also adopted more intensive eco-control practices. Organizationsadopting more intensive eco-control practices perform better both environmentally andeconomically performance than firms adopting less intensive eco-control practices.Les enjeux environnementaux figurent désormais parmi les préoccupations importantes d'un nombre croissant d'organisations. L’écocontrôle peut être un outil précieux pour les organisations en les aidant à traiter ces enjeux. Les auteurs ont pour but de donner un aperçu des pratiques d’écocontrôle adoptées par les organisations canadiennes et de définir les antécédents et les conséquences de leur adoption. Ils se penchent plus particulièrement sur i) l’étendue du déploiement des pratiques d’écocontrôle au sein des organisations, ii) les facteurs et les motivations qui poussent les organisations à instaurer des pratiques d’écocontrôle et iii) l'incidence de l'adoption de ces pratiques sur les mesures de gestion et d'exploitation que prennent les sociétés en matière de protection de l'environnement ainsi que sur leur performance environnementale et économique. À l'aide des données tirées d'un sondage effectué auprès d'un échantillon de 249 entreprises manufacturières canadiennes, les auteurs montrent que les missions environnementales, les politiques environnementales, la planification stratégique environnementale, les crédits budgétaires affectés à la protection de l'environnement et les indicateurs de performance environnementale sont les mesures d’écocontrôle les plus fréquemment adoptées par les sociétés étudiées, alors que les incitatifs environnementaux semblent l'être moins. Les résultats de l’étude donnent aussi à croire que les motivations éthiques et concurrentielles, de même que la taille, les risques liés à l'environnement et les pressions exercées par les parties prenantes, sont autant de facteurs explicatifs importants de l'adoption de pratiques d’écocontrôle par les entreprises de fabrication canadiennes. De plus, les résultats de l’étude indiquent que plus les organisations adoptent de façon importante des mesures de gestion et d'exploitation en matière de protection de l'environnement, plus elles adoptent des pratiques d'écocontrôle. De plus, les organisations qui adoptent de façon importante des pratiques d'écocontrôle affichent une performance tant environnementale qu'economique supérieure à celles qui adoptent dans une moindre mesure des pratiques d'écocontrôle

Environmental performance indicators : an empirical study of Canadian manufacturing firms

The aim of this exploratory study is to examine the importance of measurement and use of environmental performance indicators (EPIs) within manufacturing firms. Two research questions are investigated: (i) To what extent are firm characteristics associated with the importance of measurement of various categories of EPIs? (ii) To what extent are firm characteristics associated with global and specific uses of EPIs? More specifically, this paper examines four uses of EPIs (i.e. to monitor compliance, to motivate continuous improvement, to support decision making, and to provide data for external reporting) as well as four characteristics of firms, namely environmental strategy, International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14001 compliance, size, and ownership. This study contributes to the environmental management accounting literature by collecting and analyzing empirical evidence that provides a better understanding of the associations among firm characteristics and EPIs