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Article
Publication date: 26 December 2023

Yun-Chen Morgan, Lillian Fok and Susan Zee

This study examines the direct and indirect effects of organizational environmental orientation (EO)/culture, quality management practices (QMP) and sustainability experience (SE…

Abstract

Purpose

This study examines the direct and indirect effects of organizational environmental orientation (EO)/culture, quality management practices (QMP) and sustainability experience (SE) on the relationship between organizational green practices (GP) and the triple bottom line (TBL) of sustainability performance (SuP).

Design/methodology/approach

To test the seven hypotheses, a structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The responses of 365 managers from various USA businesses in the service industries were analyzed using IBM SPSS and structural equation modeling (SEM)-AMOS.

Findings

The empirical results indicate that positive SuP in the economic, environmental and social dimensions and organizational GP can be improved by a strong culture of EO, effective QMP and substantial SE.

Practical implications

This research fills the gap in existing research between important organizational and environmental priorities and SuP. Consequently, the study provides managers with important strategic guidance: for environmental practices to achieve profitability and sustainability success, companies must promote an environmental-mindful culture and strategically invest in integrated QM systems.

Originality/value

This research is one of the first that explores how organizational environmental culture and QMP affect directly and indirectly the relationship between GP and SuP. These results provide empirical evidence to support the claim that environmental culture and QMP have significant direct and indirect effects on the relationship between GP and SuP dimensions.

Details

International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0401

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 December 2022

Lillian Fok, Yun-Chen Morgan, Susan Zee and Valerie E. Mock

This study aims to examine the direct and indirect effects of organizational culture (OC) and total quality management practices (TQMPs) on the relationship between green…

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the direct and indirect effects of organizational culture (OC) and total quality management practices (TQMPs) on the relationship between green practices (GPs) and sustainability performance (SP) by using structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis.

Design/methodology/approach

This study proposed a conceptual research model of the relationships and formulated six hypotheses. This study used a structured questionnaire based on previous studies to collect relationship data to test these hypotheses, and 441 full-time managers from various US businesses responded. The complete and valid survey responses were then tested against the hypotheses using IBM SPSS Statistics and SEM-AMOS.

Findings

Results supported the relationships proposed in the research model. They indicated that a strong supporting OC and TQMPs might improve positive SP and GPs. Additionally, the more managers are aware of their companies' GPs, the more likely they will feel positive about the organization's SP.

Research limitations/implications

A larger sample size to ensure statistically minimum representation in several major industries would better validate the findings and help identify significant differences in industry-specific OCs, TQMPs, GPs and SPs. Similarly, ensuring a varied geographical representation (both within the USA and internationally) would help determine if the findings vary according to the respondent's location. Furthermore, collecting the data during Year 1 of the COVID-19 pandemic may have skewed the results. Thus, once the working environment has been normalized, the survey should be repeated to determine if the findings are valid post-pandemic.

Practical implications

The findings of this study provide important strategic guidance for managers who work to balance the implementation of corporate GPs and the triple bottom line dimensions of SP. For practitioners, the results showed that companies could accomplish both profitability and sustainability if they are willing to continuously pay attention to environmental issues and strategically invest in cost-efficient and eco-friendly initiatives.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this research is one of the first to explore how OC and TQMPs, directly and indirectly, affect the relationship between GPs and the triple bottom line dimensions of SP. These results imply that OC and TQMPs have a significant indirect impact on the relationship between GPs and the SP dimensions.

Details

International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, vol. 40 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0265-671X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2022

Lillian Fok, Susan Zee and Yun-Chen Tsai Morgan

The purpose of this study is to examine the direct and indirect effects of organizational culture and quality improvement practices on the relationship between green practices and…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to examine the direct and indirect effects of organizational culture and quality improvement practices on the relationship between green practices and sustainability performances by using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach.

Design/methodology/approach

Structured questionnaires were used to collect data from 330 full-time managerial employees in established businesses. The relationships depicted in the proposed conceptual model were tested through six hypotheses. IBM SPSS Statistics and SEM-AMOS were used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

The results supported proposed relationships in the model, except the one between organizational culture and green practices. The findings indicate that the more employees are aware of companies’ green practices, the more likely they are going to feel positive about the sustainability performance of the organization. Additionally, a strong organizational culture that supports the green movement and quality improvement practices lead to positive sustainability outcomes.

Research limitations/implications

A larger sample size in several major industries would allow the development of industry-specific sustainability strategies and best practices. In addition, a study based in a different geographical location in the USA or in a different country is recommended to see if the findings can be generalized across different industries, geographical locations or countries.

Practical implications

Sustainability has undoubtedly become a major concern for many companies today. The findings of this study provide important guidelines for practitioners to balance the implementation of green practices, organizational culture, quality improvement practices and sustainability performance dimensions. Profitability and sustainability can be achieved together when companies are willing to continuously pay attention to environmental issues and strategically invest in initiatives that are cost-efficient and eco-friendly.

Originality/value

This study is one of the first that explores how organizational culture and quality improvement practices affect directly and indirectly the relationship between green practices and sustainability performance. The results imply that organizational culture and quality improvement practices significantly affect the relationship between green practices and the sustainability performance dimensions.

Details

Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, vol. 33 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-038X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1997

Peihwang Wei and Susan M.L. Zee

This paper tests the product quality theory of trade credit with 1993 year‐end data for Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and United States. The results are inconsistent with the…

Abstract

This paper tests the product quality theory of trade credit with 1993 year‐end data for Germany, Japan, United Kingdom, and United States. The results are inconsistent with the transaction and financing theories of trade credit, since the evidence indicates that firms with high sales relative to their assets and firms with larger sizes extend less credit. However, the quality theory of trade credit is not uniformly supported by the data. Moreover, the evidence suggests wide variations of trade credit policies across countries and industries.

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. 23 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

Article
Publication date: 8 April 2020

Robert Martens, Susan K. Fan and Rocky J. Dwyer

The purpose of this qualitative, multiple-case study was to explore the successful strategies that managers of light and high-tech small and medium-sized manufacturing companies…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this qualitative, multiple-case study was to explore the successful strategies that managers of light and high-tech small and medium-sized manufacturing companies in the Netherlands, use to adopt additive manufacturing (AM) technology into their business models.

Design/methodology/approach

A qualitative, multiple-case study approach was used. The participants for this study consisted of executive-level managers of light and high-tech manufacturing companies in the Netherlands. Company documents were studied, and individual interviews were undertaken with participants to gain an understanding of the strategies they used to adopt AM technology into their business models.

Findings

Three significant themes emerged from the data analysis: identify business opportunities for AM technology, experiment with AM technology and embed AM technology.

Research limitations/implications

The findings of this study could be of advantage to industry leaders and manufacturing managers who are contemplating to adopt AM in their business models.

Originality/value

This study may contribute to the further proliferation of AM technology. Industry leaders may also gain a clearer understanding of the effects of 3DP on local employment. The results of the study may also work as a catalyst for increased awareness for manufacturing firm leaders who have not yet considered the opportunities and threats AM technology presents to their organizations.

Details

World Journal of Entrepreneurship, Management and Sustainable Development, vol. 16 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-5961

Keywords

Open Access
Book part
Publication date: 16 October 2020

Abstract

Details

Gender and the Violence(s) of War and Armed Conflict: More Dangerous to Be a Woman?
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78769-115-5

Book part
Publication date: 13 December 2018

Patrick Bond

The World Bank report Changing Wealth of Nations 2018 is only the most recent reminder of how much poorer Africa is becoming, losing more than US$100 billion annually from…

Abstract

The World Bank report Changing Wealth of Nations 2018 is only the most recent reminder of how much poorer Africa is becoming, losing more than US$100 billion annually from minerals, oil, and gas extraction, according to (quite conservatively framed) environmentally sensitive adjustments of wealth. With popular opposition to socioeconomic, political, and ecological abuses rising rapidly in Africa, a robust debate may be useful: between those practicing anti-extractivist resistance, and those technocrats in states and international agencies who promote “ecological modernization” strategies. The latter typically aim to generate full-cost environmental accounting, and to do so they typically utilize market-related techniques to value, measure, and price nature. Between the grassroots and technocratic standpoints, a layer of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) do not yet appear capable of grappling with anti-extractivist politics with either sufficient intellectual tools or political courage. They instead revert to easier terrains within ecological modernization: revenue transparency, project damage mitigation, Free Prior and Informed Consent (community consultation and permission), and other assimilationist reforms. More attention to political-economic and political-ecological trends – including the end of the commodity super-cycle, worsening climate change, financial turbulence and the potential end of a 40-year long globalization process – might assist anti-extractivist activists and NGO reformers alike. Both could then gravitate to broader, more effective ways of conceptualizing extraction and unequal ecological exchange, especially in Africa’s hardest hit and most extreme sites of devastation.

Details

Environmental Impacts of Transnational Corporations in the Global South
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-034-5

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 21 August 2015

Susan Archer Mann

This chapter focuses on how the repression of political ideologies can silence feminist voices. It examines how writings by women working with the U.S. Communist Party in the…

Abstract

Purpose

This chapter focuses on how the repression of political ideologies can silence feminist voices. It examines how writings by women working with the U.S. Communist Party in the 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, and early 1960s have been overlooked even though they presaged important linchpins of U.S. second-wave feminist thought.

Methodology/approach

This study is based on historical and archival research.

Findings

Decades before the rise of second-wave feminism, women in the CPUSA had: (1) produced a political economy of domestic labor; (2) employed an intersectional analysis of the interlocking oppressions of race, gender, class, and nation; and (3) called for a global feminist analysis that linked these multiple oppressions to colonialism and imperialism.

Social implications

This study illustrates the costs of political repression and how the canon of feminist thought can be enhanced by resuscitating subjugated knowledges.

Originality/value

Too little attention has focused on the silencing of women because of their political ideologies. This chapter addresses this lacuna in feminist studies and calls into question the oft-repeated notion that the periods between the waves of U.S. feminism were times of movement stagnation. It shows how theory construction can flourish even when feminist activism wanes.

Details

At the Center: Feminism, Social Science and Knowledge
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78560-078-4

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 November 2023

Susan Whatman, Jane Wilkinson, Mervi Kaukko, Gørill Warvik Vedeler, Levon Ellen Blue and Kristin Elaine Reimer

In these uncertain and risky times, the work that educators and educational researchers carry out may feel inconsequential. In preparing young people to live well in a world worth…

Abstract

In these uncertain and risky times, the work that educators and educational researchers carry out may feel inconsequential. In preparing young people to live well in a world worth living in, educators must consider, firstly, what roles they can play in a global environment riven by volatile economic, social, and environmental contexts, and secondly, the responsibilities they bear as researchers to produce forms of understanding, modes of action, and ways of relating to one another and this world.

In this chapter, we introduce the pedagogy, education, and praxis (PEP) network and how it is that we, as researchers from around the world, came together to discuss our researching practices in coming to know and explore educational research problems concerning equity, diversity and social justice within and across different cultural settings. We share short stories of ourselves to reveal how it is that we have come to know, be, and act as researchers in our projects and how working alongside each other – our mutual relatings – have generated further understanding about our own and each other’s researching practices.

This chapter establishes the purpose of the book, where we share empirical work through the lens of practice architectures. For instance, what is considered to be an educational equity problem across international or cross-cultural sites? What are considered acceptable forms of evidence of coming to understand educational inequity in its diverse forms in different sites? How are taken-for-granted research practices enabling and/or constraining different forms of understandings about educational inequity, including the issues to be researched and/or the direction of the research project? We then provide an overview of the remaining chapters.

Details

Researching Practices Across and Within Diverse Educational Sites: Onto-epistemological Considerations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-871-5

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 6 November 2023

Susan Whatman and Juliana McLaughlin

This chapter focusses on the research methodology of the completed project, drawing on what Martin (2008) described as ‘Indigenist’ research traditions or practices. The project…

Abstract

This chapter focusses on the research methodology of the completed project, drawing on what Martin (2008) described as ‘Indigenist’ research traditions or practices. The project drew upon tenets of critical race theory which developed over the life of a university teaching and learning project to support the praxis of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander, or Indigenous,1 pre-service teachers on their final internships prior to graduating.

The broader project was conceptualised and framed within our prioritisation of Indigenist standpoint and critical race theory. Our project was designed to amplify the perspectives and voices of Indigenous students in situations where White, hegemonic relations appeared to constrain their potential achievement on practicum in socially unjust and often racist ways. Research into the achievement and success of Indigenous education graduates in Australia is dominated by non-Indigenous reporting, framed in deficit language of Indigenous ‘underachievement’, ‘barriers’, ‘lack’, and ‘disengagement’, rather than from their experience of injustice in their professional preparation as teachers.

The research design troubled how researchers like us ‘come to know’ Indigenous achievement in the higher education sector through the pre-service teachers’ words, impelling us to listen to stories of discrimination, rather than to official accounts of how they ‘failed’ to measure up to teacher standards. The attention to detail in the multi-site, micro-level practices in teacher education and the ways these unfold in situ for Indigenous students would not be possible without the Indigenist research methodology developed in partnership with Indigenous research colleagues and student co-researchers.

This chapter then serves to remind educational researchers that research is a practice and has practice architectures with particular hegemonic arrangements which have not transpired to serve the interests of Indigenous peoples. Honouring Indigenist standpoint and employing critical race theory in research design thus means paying particular and careful attention to the work that research practices do, on, to, and with communities, not normative (colonial) crafting of the praxis research problem.

Details

Researching Practices Across and Within Diverse Educational Sites: Onto-epistemological Considerations
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80071-871-5

Keywords

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