IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v12y2020i2p655-d309410.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Role of Environmental Management Performance in Higher Education Institutions

Author

Listed:
  • Nicolas Roos

    (Sustainability Management and Environmental Accounting, Faculty of Business Management and Economics, Technische Universitaet Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany)

  • Xaver Heinicke

    (Management Accounting and Control, Faculty of Business Management and Economics, Technische Universitaet Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany)

  • Edeltraud Guenther

    (United Nations University Institute for Integrated Management of Material Fluxes and of Resources Dresden, 01067 Dresden, Germany)

  • Thomas W. Guenther

    (Management Accounting and Control, Faculty of Business Management and Economics, Technische Universitaet Dresden, 01069 Dresden, Germany)

Abstract

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are influential social institutions which educate future decision-makers and shape society as a whole. Motivated by new public management, the proliferation of business tools, and a rising awareness for responsible acting, environmental management has also become a matter for HEIs. Focusing on performance outcomes and improvement based mechanisms leads to a professionalization through the active management of environmental issues. Therefore, the support of management structures is an essential prerequisite when implementing environmental efforts. Thus far, little attention has been dedicated to environmental management performance and steering processes of environmental issues in HEIs, which marks the research gap of this study. This article presents results of a survey on the concept of environmental management performance (EMP) based on Trumpp et al. (2015) aiming to answer the research question of how HEIs conduct environmental management along the dimensions of EMP, which includes environmental policy, environmental objectives, environmental processes, organizational structures, and monitoring. The results show that, as of now, HEIs pursue no common practice when approaching EMP. Nevertheless, two thirds of the respondents show an orientation towards sustainability with particularly high values regarding issues of environmental policy.

Suggested Citation

  • Nicolas Roos & Xaver Heinicke & Edeltraud Guenther & Thomas W. Guenther, 2020. "The Role of Environmental Management Performance in Higher Education Institutions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-17, January.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:2:p:655-:d:309410
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/2/655/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/2/655/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Fabien De Geuser & Stella Mooraj & Daniel Oyon, 2009. "Does the Balanced Scorecard Add Value? Empirical Evidence on its Effect on Performance," European Accounting Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 18(1), pages 93-122.
    2. Armstrong, J. Scott & Overton, Terry S., 1977. "Estimating Nonresponse Bias in Mail Surveys," MPRA Paper 81694, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Van der Stede, Wim A. & Young, S. Mark & Chen, Clara Xiaoling, 2005. "Assessing the quality of evidence in empirical management accounting research: The case of survey studies," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(7-8), pages 655-684.
    4. C. Trumpp & J. Endrikat & C. Zopf & E. Guenther, 2015. "Definition, Conceptualization, and Measurement of Corporate Environmental Performance: A Critical Examination of a Multidimensional Construct," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 126(2), pages 185-204, January.
    5. Barbara M. Kehm & Ute Lanzendorf, 2007. "The Impacts of University Management on Academic Work: Reform Experiences in Austria and Germany," management revue. Socio-economic Studies, Rainer Hampp Verlag, vol. 18(2), pages 153-173.
    6. Barbara M. Kehm & Ute Lanzendorf, 2007. "The Impacts of University Management on Academic Work: Reform Experiences in Austria and Germany," management revue - Socio-Economic Studies, Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG, vol. 18(2), pages 153-173.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mohammad A. Alsharif & Michael D. Peters & Timothy J. Dixon, 2020. "Designing and Implementing Effective Campus Sustainability in Saudi Arabian Universities: An Assessment of Drivers and Barriers in a Rational Choice Theoretical Context," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(12), pages 1-23, June.
    2. Ahmed M. Asfahani, 2023. "Green HRM and Servant Leadership: Driving Competitive Advantage and Environmental Performance in Higher Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-18, May.
    3. Bror Giesenbauer & Georg Müller-Christ, 2020. "University 4.0: Promoting the Transformation of Higher Education Institutions toward Sustainable Development," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-27, April.
    4. William Horan & Bernadette O’Regan, 2021. "Developing a Practical Framework of Sustainability Indicators Relevant to All Higher Education Institutions to Enable Meaningful International Rankings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-15, January.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Sebastian Goebel & Barbara Weißenberger, 2016. "The Dark Side of Tight Financial Control: Causes and Remedies of Dysfunctional Employee Behaviors," Schmalenbach Business Review, Springer;Schmalenbach-Gesellschaft, vol. 17(1), pages 69-101, April.
    2. Sebastian Goebel & Barbara E. Weißenberger, 2017. "The Relationship Between Informal Controls, Ethical Work Climates, and Organizational Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 141(3), pages 505-528, March.
    3. Stefanie Einhorn & Bernhard Fietz & Thomas W. Guenther & Edeltraud Guenther, 2024. "The relationship of organizational culture with management control systems and environmental management control systems," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 18(8), pages 2321-2371, August.
    4. Sergeja Slapničar & Adriana Rejc Buhovac, 2014. "Identifying temporal relationships within multidimensional performance measurement," Journal of Business Economics and Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 15(5), pages 978-993, November.
    5. Bürgel, Tobias R. & Hiebl, Martin R.W. & Pielsticker, David I., 2023. "Digitalization and entrepreneurial firms' resilience to pandemic crises: Evidence from COVID-19 and the German Mittelstand," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 186(PA).
    6. Christin Seifert & Matthias Damert & Edeltraud Guenther, 2020. "Environmental Management in German Hospitals—A Classification of Approaches," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-24, May.
    7. Stevanov, Mirjana & Dobšinska, Zuzana & Surový, Peter, 2016. "Assessing survey-based research in forest science: Turning lemons into lemonade?," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 105-117.
    8. Lu Jiao & Graeme Harrison & Maria Cadiz Dyball & Jinhua Chen, 2017. "CEO values, stakeholder culture, and stakeholder-based performance," Asia Pacific Journal of Management, Springer, vol. 34(4), pages 875-899, December.
    9. Juan Manuel Ramon-Jeronimo & Raquel Florez-Lopez & Maria Angeles Ramon-Jeronimo, 2017. "Understanding the Generation of Value along Supply Chains: Balancing Control Information and Relational Governance Mechanisms in Downstream and Upstream Relationships," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(8), pages 1-31, August.
    10. Lueg, Rainer & Borisov, Boris Genadiev, 2014. "Archival or perceived measures of environmental uncertainty? Conceptualization and new empirical evidence," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 658-671.
    11. Holm, Morten & Kumar, V. & Plenborg, Thomas, 2016. "An investigation of Customer Accounting systems as a source of sustainable competitive advantage," Advances in accounting, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 18-30.
    12. Gonçalves, Tiago & Gaio, Cristina & Silva, Mariana, 2018. "Target costing and innovation-exploratory configurations: A comparison of fsQCA, multivariate regression, and variable cluster analysis," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 378-384.
    13. Sebastian Goebel & Barbara E. Weißenberger, 2017. "Effects of management control mechanisms: towards a more comprehensive analysis," Journal of Business Economics, Springer, vol. 87(2), pages 185-219, February.
    14. Juan Manuel Ramon-Jeronimo & Raquel Florez-Lopez & Pedro Araujo-Pinzon, 2019. "Resource-Based View and SMEs Performance Exporting through Foreign Intermediaries: The Mediating Effect of Management Controls," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-26, June.
    15. García-Lillo, Francisco & Seva-Larrosa, Pedro & Sánchez-García, Eduardo, 2024. "On the basis of research on ‘green’ in the disciplines of management and business," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 172(C).
    16. Matthias Mahlendorf, 2015. "Allowance for failure: reducing dysfunctional behavior by innovating accountability practices," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 19(3), pages 655-686, August.
    17. Faruk Bhuiyan & Tarek Rana & Kevin Baird & Rahat Munir, 2023. "Strategic outcome of competitive advantage from corporate sustainability practices: Institutional theory perspective from an emerging economy," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(7), pages 4217-4243, November.
    18. Sebastian Janssen & Klaus Moeller & Marten Schlaefke, 2011. "Using performance measures conceptually in innovation control," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 107-128, September.
    19. Thomas Schaefer & Thomas Guenther, 2016. "Exploring strategic planning outcomes: the influential role of top versus middle management participation," Journal of Management Control: Zeitschrift für Planung und Unternehmenssteuerung, Springer, vol. 27(2), pages 205-249, May.
    20. Marc Janka & Xaver Heinicke & Thomas W. Guenther, 2020. "Beyond the “good” and “evil” of stability values in organizational culture for managerial innovation: the crucial role of management controls," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 14(6), pages 1363-1404, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:12:y:2020:i:2:p:655-:d:309410. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.