IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/lsprsc/v11y2018i2d10.1007_s12076-018-0206-5.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The relationship between lean manufacturing, environmental damage, and firm performance

Author

Listed:
  • Andrew S. Manikas

    (University of Louisville)

  • James R. Kroes

    (Boise State University)

Abstract

Prior research has found mixed results of leanness, with a counter idea being that slack allows flexibility to improve firm financial performance. We first seek to confirm empirically that leanness in manufacturing does in fact contribute to both lower environmental damage and to improve firm financial performance. With increased awareness of global environmental issues, we incorporate environmental damage measures from Trucost to assess how they may affect firm performance and are affected by leanness. The measures of leanness are calculated based on publically available financial data from Compustat. Based on a final sample of 406 manufacturing firms representing 3594 firm-year observations from 2002 to 2013, the proposed relationships of leanness to firm outcomes and environmental damaged are investigated. A key finding of this study is that a firm should aim its lean efforts to reducing environmental damage, which in turn has more of an effect on improving financial performance than other lean initiatives.

Suggested Citation

  • Andrew S. Manikas & James R. Kroes, 2018. "The relationship between lean manufacturing, environmental damage, and firm performance," Letters in Spatial and Resource Sciences, Springer, vol. 11(2), pages 141-155, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:lsprsc:v:11:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s12076-018-0206-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s12076-018-0206-5
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12076-018-0206-5
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s12076-018-0206-5?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Martin, Ralf & Muûls, Mirabelle & de Preux, Laure B. & Wagner, Ulrich J., 2012. "Anatomy of a paradox: Management practices, organizational structure and energy efficiency," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(2), pages 208-223.
    2. Stuart L. Hart & Gautam Ahuja, 1996. "Does It Pay To Be Green? An Empirical Examination Of The Relationship Between Emission Reduction And Firm Performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 5(1), pages 30-37, March.
    3. Juan Murguia & Sergio Lence, 2015. "Investors’ Reaction to Environmental Performance: A Global Perspective of the Newsweek ’s “Green Rankings”," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 60(4), pages 583-605, April.
    4. Arik Levinson, 2009. "Technology, International Trade, and Pollution from US Manufacturing," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 99(5), pages 2177-2192, December.
    5. James Kroes & Ravi Subramanian & Ramanath Subramanyam, 2012. "Operational Compliance Levers, Environmental Performance, and Firm Performance Under Cap and Trade Regulation," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 186-201, April.
    6. Andrew King & Michael Lenox, 2002. "Exploring the Locus of Profitable Pollution Reduction," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 48(2), pages 289-299, February.
    7. Yang, Ma Ga (Mark) & Hong, Paul & Modi, Sachin B., 2011. "Impact of lean manufacturing and environmental management on business performance: An empirical study of manufacturing firms," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 129(2), pages 251-261, February.
    8. Vedran Capkun & Ari-Pekka Hameri & Lawrence A. Weiss, 2009. "On the relationship between inventory and financial performance in manufacturing companies," Post-Print hal-00493163, HAL.
    9. Atle Blomgren, 2011. "Does corporate social responsibility influence profit margins? a case study of executive perceptions," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 18(5), pages 263-274, September.
    10. Simon Thomas & Robert Repetto & Daniel Dias, 2007. "Integrated Environmental and Financial Performance Metrics for Investment Analysis and Portfolio Management," Corporate Governance: An International Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 15(3), pages 421-426, May.
    11. Dongmin Kong & Shasha Liu & Yunhao Dai, 2014. "Environmental Policy, Company Environment Protection, and Stock Market Performance: Evidence from China," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(2), pages 100-112, March.
    12. Vedran Capkun & Ari-Pekka Hameri & Lawrence A. Weiss, 2009. "On the relationship between inventory and financial performance in manufacturing companies," Post-Print hal-00466392, HAL.
    13. Hong Chen & Murray Z. Frank & Owen Q. Wu, 2007. "U.S. Retail and Wholesale Inventory Performance from 1981 to 2004," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 9(4), pages 430-456, April.
    14. Glen Dowell & Stuart Hart & Bernard Yeung, 2000. "Do Corporate Global Environmental Standards Create or Destroy Market Value?," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 46(8), pages 1059-1074, August.
    15. Robert D. Klassen & Curtis P. McLaughlin, 1996. "The Impact of Environmental Management on Firm Performance," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 42(8), pages 1199-1214, August.
    16. Letchumanan, Raman & Kodama, Fumio, 2000. "Reconciling the conflict between the 'pollution-haven' hypothesis and an emerging trajectory of international technology transfer," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 59-79, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Kroes, James R. & Manikas, Andrew S. & Gattiker, Thomas F., 2018. "Operational leanness and retail firm performance since 1980," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 197(C), pages 262-274.
    2. Danquah Jeff Boakye & Ishmael TIngbani & Gabriel Ahinful & Isaac Damoah & Venancio Tauringana, 2020. "Sustainable environmental practices and financial performance: Evidence from listed small and medium‐sized enterprise in the United Kingdom," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(6), pages 2583-2602, September.
    3. Xiaoyang Li & Yue Maggie Zhou, 2016. "Offshoring Pollution While Offshoring Production," Working Papers 16-09r, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    4. Kroes, James R. & Manikas, Andrew S., 2014. "Cash flow management and manufacturing firm financial performance: A longitudinal perspective," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 37-50.
    5. Suhong Li & Thomas Ngniatedema & Fang Chen, 2017. "Understanding the Impact of Green Initiatives and Green Performance on Financial Performance in the US," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 26(6), pages 776-790, September.
    6. Zhang, Bin & Lai, Kee-hung & Wang, Bo & Wang, Zhaohua, 2017. "Shareholder value effects of corporate carbon trading: Empirical evidence from market reaction towards Clean Development Mechanism in China," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 410-421.
    7. Kimitaka Nishitani & M.B. Haider & Katsuhiko Kokubu, 2014. "Corporate Environmental Initiatives and Shareholder Value: Focusing on the Role of Environmental Information and Its Credibility," Discussion Paper Series DP2014-13, Research Institute for Economics & Business Administration, Kobe University.
    8. Elsayed, Khaled & Paton, David, 2005. "The impact of environmental performance on firm performance: static and dynamic panel data evidence," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 16(3), pages 395-412, September.
    9. Andreas Ziegler, 2012. "Is it Beneficial to be Included in a Sustainability Stock Index? A Panel Data Study for European Firms," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 52(3), pages 301-325, July.
    10. He, Wenlong & Liu, Chong & Lu, Jiangyong & Cao, Jing, 2015. "Impacts of ISO 14001 adoption on firm performance: Evidence from China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 43-56.
    11. Wolfgang Schultze & Ramona Trommer, 2012. "The concept of environmental performance and its measurement in empirical studies," Metrika: International Journal for Theoretical and Applied Statistics, Springer, vol. 22(4), pages 375-412, January.
    12. Xiaoyang Li & Yue Maggie Zhou, 2016. "Offshoring Pollution While Offshoring Production," Working Papers 16-09, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    13. Kimitaka Nishitani & Shinji Kaneko & Satoru Komatsu & Hidemichi Fujii, 2011. "Firm's reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and economic performance: analyzing effects through demand and productivity," IDEC DP2 Series 1-1, Hiroshima University, Graduate School for International Development and Cooperation (IDEC).
    14. Urs von Arx & Andreas Ziegler, 2008. "The Effect of CSR on Stock Performance: New Evidence for the USA and Europe," CER-ETH Economics working paper series 08/85, CER-ETH - Center of Economic Research (CER-ETH) at ETH Zurich.
    15. James Kroes & Ravi Subramanian & Ramanath Subramanyam, 2012. "Operational Compliance Levers, Environmental Performance, and Firm Performance Under Cap and Trade Regulation," Manufacturing & Service Operations Management, INFORMS, vol. 14(2), pages 186-201, April.
    16. Basil Al‐Najjar & Aspioni Anfimiadou, 2012. "Environmental Policies and Firm Value," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(1), pages 49-59, January.
    17. Angeloantonio Russo & Stefano Pogutz & Nicola Misani, 2021. "Paving the road toward eco‐effectiveness: Exploring the link between greenhouse gas emissions and firm performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 3065-3078, November.
    18. Kimitaka Nishitani & Katsuhiko Kokubu, 2012. "Why Does the Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Enhance Firm Value? The Case of Japanese Manufacturing Firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 21(8), pages 517-529, December.
    19. Semenova, Natalia & Hassel, Lars, 2008. "Industry Risk Moderates the Relation between Environmental and Financial Performance," Sustainable Investment and Corporate Governance Working Papers 2008/2, Sustainable Investment Research Platform.
    20. Nahyun Kim & Jon J. Moon & Haitao Yin, 2016. "Environmental Pressure and the Performance of Foreign Firms in an Emerging Economy," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 137(3), pages 475-490, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Lean manufacturing; Environmental performance; Financial performance; Mediation;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • M14 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - Corporate Culture; Diversity; Social Responsibility
    • O14 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Industrialization; Manufacturing and Service Industries; Choice of Technology
    • M10 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Business Administration - - - General

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:spr:lsprsc:v:11:y:2018:i:2:d:10.1007_s12076-018-0206-5. 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: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.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.