The Impact of Environmental Technologies on Manufacturing Performance

Abstract

Management of the natural environment is becoming an increasingly important issue to manufacturing firms, yet their managers are also challenged to implement changes that improve competitiveness. To meet this challenge, a new construct grounded in the resource-based view of the firm and manufacturing strategy has been developed: the environmental technology portfolio. The composition of a plant's portfolio—the pattern of its investment in environmental technologies in manufacturing over time—was found to significantly affect both manufacturing and environmental performance for a sample of manufacturing plants.