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Business Strategy and Firm Reorganization: Role of Changing Environmental Standards, Sustainable Business Initiatives and Global Market Conditions

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  • Vivek Ghosal

Abstract

My study is framed against the backdrop of increasingly stringent environmental demands on the pulp and paper industry to reduce water and air pollution, and the changing global market conditions. I first present an observation‐based analysis conducted by visiting selected paper mills in Finland, the US, Germany and Sweden. Interesting differences and similarities emerge. Some of the observed differences lie in their focus on achieving incremental efficiency gains from better management of production processes, inventories, supply‐chain, product distribution and timing of modernization investments such as information technology. In the second part of the paper I present evidence on firms' productivity paths and the heterogeneity in productivity among relatively similar firms, and selected evidence of firms' investments in specific areas and how these affected productivity. My findings have implications for organizational behavior and business strategies employed by firms to improve their performance and productivity under changing environmental standards and market conditions. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment

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  • Vivek Ghosal, 2015. "Business Strategy and Firm Reorganization: Role of Changing Environmental Standards, Sustainable Business Initiatives and Global Market Conditions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 123-144, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:24:y:2015:i:2:p:123-144
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.1815
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    Cited by:

    1. Dongmin Kong & Xiandong Yang & Chen Liu & Wei Yang, 2020. "Business strategy and firm efforts on environmental protection: Evidence from China," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(2), pages 445-464, February.
    2. Sun, Xiuli & Li, Haizheng & Ghosal, Vivek, 2020. "Firm-level human capital and innovation: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 59(C).
    3. Bari L. Bendell, 2022. "Environmental investment decisions of family firms—An analysis of competitor and government influence," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(1), pages 1-14, January.
    4. Vivek Ghosal & Andreas Stephan & Jan F. Weiss, 2019. "Decentralized environmental regulations and plant‐level productivity," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(6), pages 998-1011, September.
    5. Indra Overland & Anatoli Bourmistrov & Brigt Dale & Stephanie Irlbacher‐Fox & Javlon Juraev & Eduard Podgaiskii & Florian Stammler & Stella Tsani & Roman Vakulchuk & Emma C. Wilson, 2021. "The Arctic Environmental Responsibility Index: A method to rank heterogenous extractive industry companies for governance purposes," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(4), pages 1623-1643, May.
    6. Päivi Luoma & Romana Rauter & Esko Penttinen & Anne Toppinen, 2023. "The value of data for environmental sustainability as perceived by the customers of a tissue‐paper supplier," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(6), pages 3110-3123, November.
    7. Chiou‐Fong Wei & Chang‐Tang Chiang & Tun‐Chih Kou & Bruce C Y Lee, 2017. "Toward Sustainable Livelihoods: Investigating the Drivers of Purchase Behavior for Green Products," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(5), pages 626-639, July.
    8. Ghosal, Vivek & Stephan, Andreas & Weiss, Jan, 2014. "Decentralized Regulation, Environmental Efficiency and Productivity," Ratio Working Papers 229, The Ratio Institute.
    9. Kuen‐Hung Tsai & Yi‐Chuan Liao, 2017. "Sustainability Strategy and Eco‐Innovation: A Moderation Model," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(4), pages 426-437, May.
    10. Marcus Wagner, 2020. "Global governance in new public environmental management: An international and intertemporal comparison of voluntary standards' impacts," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(3), pages 1056-1073, March.
    11. Manjot Singh Bhatia & Suresh Kumar Jakhar, 2021. "The effect of environmental regulations, top management commitment, and organizational learning on green product innovation: Evidence from automobile industry," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(8), pages 3907-3918, December.
    12. Muhammad Anwar & Shuangjie Li, 2021. "Spurring competitiveness, financial and environmental performance of SMEs through government financial and non-financial support," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(5), pages 7860-7882, May.

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