Petra Christmann

Effects of “Best Practices” of Environmental Management on Cost Advantage: The Role of Complementary Assets

Research on the effects on firm performance of “best practices” of environmental management, which are supposed to enable firms to simultaneously protect the environment and reduce costs, has so far ignored the roles of existing firm resources and capabilities. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm, this study analyzes whether complementary assets are required to gain cost advantage from implementing best practices. Results based on survey data from 88 chemical companies indicate that capabilities for process innovation and implementation are complementary assets that moderate the relationship between best practices and cost advantage, a significant factor in determining firm performance.

Multinational Companies and the Natural Environment: Determinants of Global Environmental Policy

This study analyzes the determinants of global standardization of multinational companies’ environmental policies. Survey data from the chemical industry show that MNCs standardize different environmental policy dimensions in response to pressures from different external stakeholders. MNC characteristics also affect environmental policy standardization. Findings demonstrate that the nature of stakeholder demands affects firms’ responses to stakeholder pressures. Because environmental policy standardization reduces MNCs’ ability to exploit cross-country differences in environmental regulations, these findings also have important implications for the self-regulation of MNCs’ environmental conduct.

Measuring theoretically complex constructs: the case of acquisition performance

Researchers face numerous challenges when measuring complex theoretical constructs. This article focuses on the tension between the benefits of measurement precision and the benefits of generalizability in the context of the acquisition performance construct. Achieving precision tends to lead to measurement proliferation, while achieving generalizability calls for measurement convergence. The authors perform qualitative and quantitative analyses to determine how the literature has dealt with this tension.They conclude that acquisition performance is a theoretically complex construct comprised of relatively unrelated dimensions and that there is often a misalignment between theory and measurement — resulting in missed opportunities to capture the benefits of precision or the benefits of generalizability. Based on their analyses, the authors’ develop a framework to help future acquisition researchers manage the tension between precision and generalizability. The approach is recommended for use by researchers studying other theoretically complex constructs.

ENVIRONMENTAL SELF-REGULATION IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY: THE ROLE OF FIRM CAPABILITIES

Globalization increases concerns about national governments’ ability to regulate firms’ environmental conduct because firms can avoid complying with stringent environmental regulations by locating polluting operations in countries with low regulations. Business self-regulation is increasingly seen as a force that can counterbalance the decreasing power of governments in the global economy. Previous research identified external stakeholder pressures as an important determinant of business self-regulation. In this chapter we explore how firm capabilities affect the likelihood that firms self-regulate their environmental conduct by adopting ISO 14000 environmental standards. Our findings show that firm capabilities are indeed an important determinant of self-regulation in the global economy. We discuss implications of this finding for governments, other stakeholders, and business decision makers.

Globalization and the Development of Competing Standards for Corporate Conduct

The world of multinational enterprises is changing dramatically. Their complex and dynamic international context presents them with special challenges – threatening their survival on one hand, and presenting them with unprecedented opportunities on the other. In this volume, international experts analyze different aspects of the transformations in global governance: ideological variations, trade governance, competition policy and the rise of civil society. They discuss the implications for multinational–government relations, multinationals’ self-governance, relations with NGOs and issues of competitiveness.