The effects of pollution prevention on performance

Impact of pollution prevention strategies on environment sustainability: role of environmental management accounting and environmental proactivity

Environmental sustainability involves meeting current needs without compromising the abilities of future generations. Practical steps must be taken to prevent pollution, decrease waste, and utilize resources. This study investigates the predictors of environmental sustainability in SMEs, focusing on the role of environmental management accounting and environmental proactivity in linking pollution prevention strategies to environmental sustainability using the natural resource-based view theory. This study surveyed 308 Pakistani SMEs employees and tested the data using SPSS v28 and AMOS v26. The results show that pollution control initiatives increased the usage of environmental management accounting, which in turn had a positive impact on environmental sustainability. The study also finds that environmental proactivity is significantly moderate and that environmental management accounting mediates these associations. To the best of our knowledge, this study is unique in that it is the first to provide sustainable implications based on the current framework. This study highlights the importance of implementing pollution prevention strategies, integrating environmental management accounting practices, and fostering environmental proactivity to enhance environmental sustainability performance in SMEs in Pakistan, ultimately leading to improved business competitiveness, positive environmental impacts, and a sustainable future. SMEs can focus on implementing proactive pollution prevention strategies such as waste reduction, energy conservation, and resource optimization. By adopting a proactive approach to pollution prevention, SMEs can reduce their environmental impact and enhance their sustainability performance.

Bibliometric Review on Corporate Social Responsibility of the Food Industry

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the food industry has received increasing attention in recent years. Many scholars have paid attention to case studies and other empirical analyses in this field, but there is no systematic or scientific literature review. The purpose of this study is to quantitatively evaluate the knowledge structure, research hotspots, and development history in CSR in the food industry. After searching, screening, and commenting, 498 articles were left for citation analysis, co-citation analysis, and co-word analysis. The main findings of the research are as follows: (1) The overall development status of the research in the field. The analysis of the three fields that constitute the knowledge structure. (2) Research in this field has become a hot spot, but the research is rather scattered, and the scholars and experts do not have a special research core. (3) The keywords’ cluster results in 9 clustering tags, which are further grouped into 7 groups. The research of the scholars focuses on the food supply chain, consumer perception, and social media communication. (4) The research topics in this field focus on environmental responsibility, nutrition and health, and food safety. The research results show that future research should be more in-depth and reflect the new characteristics of the Internet, digitalization, and big data.

Integrated quality environmental management implementation in food processing SMEs

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) of integrated quality environmental management (IQEM) and analyze their impact on operational performance (OP) and environmental performance (EP) in food processing Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Pakistan.

Design/methodology/approach

The study is based on collecting data using a survey questionnaire through snowball sampling technique. A total of 302 food processing SMEs operating in Punjab, Pakistan, responded to the survey. SPSS version-23 and SmartPLS-3 were used for data analysis.

Findings

The literature review identified leadership (LS), employee management (EM), strategic planning (SP), information management (IM), process management (PM), supplier management (SM) and customer focus (CF) as CSFs of IQEM. The results of this study found a significant relationship of all identified CSFs with operational performance in food processing SMEs whereas EM, IM, PM and SM were insignificant with the EP in the food processing SMEs.

Research limitations/implications

Although this study has collected data from one province, the Punjab province, it still relevant in identifying the CSFs for IQEM implementation within food processing SMEs to improve performance.

Originality/value

Despite the wide spread of integrated systems practices in the developed countries, little attention has been placed to implement and assess the IQEM initiatives by organizations in the developing countries. Thus, this study identified CSFs of IQEM based on empirical studies and analyzed their impact on OP and EP of food processing SMEs.

Interactions in sustainable supply chain management: a framework review

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the research conducted among the interim, dyadic interactions that bridge the stand-alone measures of economic, environmental and social performance and the level of sustainability, as suggested in the Carter and Rogers (2008) framework.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper conducts a systematic literature review based on the Tranfieldet al.(2003) method of the articles published in 13 major journals in the area of supply chain management between the years 2010 and 2016. Results were analyzed using an expert panel.

Findings

The area of research between environmental and social performance is sparse and relegated to empirical investigation. As an important area of interaction, this area needs more research to answer the how and why questions. The economic activity seems to be the persistent theme among the interactions.

Research limitations/implications

The literature on the “environmental performance and social performance (ES)” interactions is lacking in both theoretical and analytical content. Studies explaining the motivations, optimal levels and context that drive these interactions are needed. The extant research portrays economic performance as if it cannot be sacrificed for social welfare. This approach is not in line with the progressive view of sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) but instead the binary view with an economic emphasis.

Practical implications

To improve sustainability, organizations need the triple bottom line (TBL) framework that defines sustainability in isolation. However, they also need to understand how and why these interactions take place that drive sustainability in organizations.

Originality/value

By examining the literature specifically dedicated to the essential, interim, dyadic interactions, this study contributes to bridging the gap between stand-alone performance and the TBL that creates true sustainability. It also shows how the literature views the existence of sustainability is progressive, but many describe sustainability as binary. It is possible that economic sustainability is binary, and progressive characterizations of SSCM could be the reason behind the results favoring economic performance over environmental and social.