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Porter Hypothesis (porter + hypothesis)
Selected AbstractsStrategic Responses to Environmental Regulation in the U.K. Automotive Sector: The European Union End-of-Life Vehicle Directive and the Porter HypothesisJOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY, Issue 4 2006Jo Crotty Summary As of 1 January 2006 all automotive OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) and component manufacturers operating within the European Union will need to comply with the End-of-Life Vehicle Directive (referred to hereafter as the EU ELV Directive). The EU ELV Directive compels all OEMs to take back and dismantle all motor vehicles for domestic use at the end of their useful lives. Each component part will then be either reused or recycled. To this end, the ultimate goal of the EU ELV Directive is that all motor vehicles for domestic use will have a reuse or recyclable content of 85% at the end of their useful lives, moving toward 95% by 2015. The burden of the EU ELV Directive falls on both the OEMs and their component manufacturers, forcing them to innovate and "design for disassembly." This being the case, it offers a unique real world example with which to test the Porter Hypothesis. Porter asserts that strict, correctly formulated environmental regulation can offer a firm secondary benefits through improved product design and the reduction of waste. This in turn allows the firm to offset the cost of compliance. Because the EU ELV Directive has been fashioned to force firms into a process of innovation and redesign, the magnitude of these so-called offsets can be judged. This article employs Rugman and Verbeke's 1998 strategic matrix of firm response to environmental regulation to examine qualitative details of the strategic response of automotive component manufacturers and OEMs in the United Kingdom to the demands of the directive to judge the volume of offsets generated. This analysis shows no support for the Porter Hypothesis and challenges the assumptions of Rugman and Verbeke's model. [source] Environmental awakening in the Swedish pulp and paper industry: pollution resistance and firm responses in the Early 20th century,BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 1 2009Kristina Söderholm Abstract The purpose of this article is to analyse in what way a conflict in the early 20th century (1904,1911) over a Swedish pulp mill's emissions into air and water impacted on the technology choices and strategies of the mill. The article also analyses what characterized the company's other responses to the complaints, in the form of counter-arguments, as well as engagement of experts. The access to information about the deliberations at the mill's board meetings is very rare in historical studies of company behaviour in relation to the environment, and provides us with a unique opportunity to comprehend in what way business strategies were developed during the course of the conflict. Technology choices are often characterized by the search for knowledge that enables a company to employ existing but not yet developed technical potentials, rather than choices between known technical solutions. We emphasize that this is particularly evident in a case where a company is forced to alter its technology in order to solve previously unknown environmental problems. In spite of a persistent search, the mill did not find any ready-made technological solutions to the environmental problems faced and was therefore forced to engage scientific expertise and even initiate basic scientific research. In 1911, the Swedish Supreme Administrative Court ordered the mill to undertake a number of pollution abatement investments. Interestingly , and partly in line with the so-called Porter hypothesis , the long-run economics of these investments turned out to be more favourable than anticipated prior to the verdict. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] Integrated environmental product innovation and impacts on company competitiveness: a case study of the automotive industry in the region of MunichENVIRONMENTAL POLICY AND GOVERNANCE, Issue 1 2008Ursula Triebswetter Abstract This paper examines the impact of integrated environmental product innovations on company competitiveness. In a regional case study about automotive, rail and commercial vehicle firms in Southern Germany it is found that integrated environmental product innovation is driven by factors such as regulatory pressure, the search for competitive advantages and technological lead as well as customer pressure. Regulatory pressure includes sector policies, such as emission standards, and wider non-sector energy conservation issues, at both national and international levels. For instance, EU directives on future use of renewable energy as well as national goals for reaching the Kyoto protocol play an important role in driving innovation. The study finds that integrated environmental product innovations driven by regulatory pressure produce similar competitiveness impacts as innovations undertaken voluntarily by companies. Such results yield supporting evidence for the so-called ,Porter hypothesis', which assumes that environmental legislation stimulates innovation and leads to ,win,win' situations , the simultaneous reduction of pollution and increase in productivity. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. [source] | ||||||||||