Environmental Management and Business Performance Analysis

This report investigates the effect of environmental management on the business performance of manufacturing firms, focusing on the Australian context. The study begins with an introduction outlining the research background, justification, objectives, and questions, followed by a comprehensive literature review covering manufacturing units, lean manufacturing, environmental management practices (EMP), and factors influencing EMP implementation such as legal requirements, stakeholder pressure, and management commitment. The methodology section details the research philosophy, approach, design, data collection (using questionnaires), sampling, data analysis, and the conceptual framework. The findings, presented through frequency and correlation analyses, reveal a direct and positive impact of environmental management on business performance. The report concludes by addressing the research objectives, offering recommendations, acknowledging limitations, and suggesting future research directions, providing a valuable resource for understanding the link between environmental sustainability and business success.

Running head: THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ON THE BUSINESS
PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS
The effect of Environmental Management on the business performance of the Manufacturing
Firms
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ON THE BUSINESS
PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS
Abstract
This paper has been constructed in order to have an idea about the impact of environmental
management of the business performance of the manufacturing companies. The paper has
commenced by addressing the background of the study with the help of which an idea has been
obtained with the help of which effective results have been obtained. The justification for
undertaking research on this topic has even been provided in order to assist the readers in
understanding the relationship between the environmental management and the business
performance of the manufacturing companies in Australia. The paper has even provided the
research questions and the research objectives with the help of which an idea can be obtained and
accordingly the paper can move forward. The literature review has provided an insight about the
various processes that are related to this paper so that by relying on the literature provided by the
past researchers. The methodology of the paper has provided that the researcher has collected
primary data with the help of which quantitative data analysis would be undertaken. The
responses of the selected respondents have been taken by taking assistance of a close ended
questionnaire and thereby obtaining results that are suitable for this paper. The assessment of the
data that has been collected has gone through data analysis process and thereby the results have
indicated that environment management has direct and positive impact on the business
performance of the manufacturing companies in Australia.

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THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ON THE BUSINESS
PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS
Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................6
1.1 Research Background and Justification.................................................................................6
1.2 Research Objectives...............................................................................................................7
1.3 Research Questions................................................................................................................7
Chapter 2: Literature Review...........................................................................................................9
2.1 Manufacturing Units..............................................................................................................9
2.2 Lean Manufacturing.............................................................................................................10
2.3 Environmental Management Practices (EMP)....................................................................10
2.4 Factors that have an influence on the implementation of the environment management
practices.....................................................................................................................................11
2.4.1 Legal requirement and regulations...............................................................................11
2.4.2 Pressure from the stakeholder.......................................................................................12
2.4.3 Capabilities and resources............................................................................................13
2.4.4 Commitment of the management..................................................................................13
2.4.5 Personal experiences and attitudes...............................................................................14
2.4.6 Size of the firm.............................................................................................................15
2.4.7 Organizational Culture..................................................................................................15
2.8 Research Gap.......................................................................................................................16
2.9 Summary..............................................................................................................................16
Chapter 3: Research Methodology................................................................................................17

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THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ON THE BUSINESS
PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS
3.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................17
3.2 Rationale for the choice of methodology.............................................................................17
3.3 Research Philosophy............................................................................................................18
3.4 Research Approach..............................................................................................................18
3.5 Research Design..................................................................................................................18
3.6 Data Collection Process and Questionnaire Design............................................................19
3.7 Sampling and Sample Size..................................................................................................19
3.8 Process of Data Analysis.....................................................................................................20
3.9 Ethical Consideration...........................................................................................................20
3.10 Conceptual Framework......................................................................................................20
Chapter 4: Data Analysis, Results and Discussion........................................................................23
4.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................23
4.2 Frequency Analysis.............................................................................................................23
Answer to Question No 1......................................................................................................23
Answer to Question No 2......................................................................................................25
Answer to Question No 3......................................................................................................26
Answer to Question No 4......................................................................................................28
Answer to Question No 5......................................................................................................29
Answer to Question No 6......................................................................................................31
Answer to Question No 7......................................................................................................33

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THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ON THE BUSINESS
PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS
Answer to Question No 8......................................................................................................35
Answer to Question No 9......................................................................................................37
Answer to Question no 10.....................................................................................................39
Answer to Question No 11....................................................................................................41
Answer to Question No 12....................................................................................................43
Answer to Question No 13....................................................................................................45
Answer to Question No 14....................................................................................................47
Answer to Question No 15....................................................................................................49
Answer to Question No 16....................................................................................................52
Answer to Question No 17....................................................................................................54
Answer to Question No 18....................................................................................................56
Answer to Question No 19....................................................................................................58
Discussion..................................................................................................................................59
4.2 Correlation Analysis............................................................................................................60
Chapter 5: Conclusion, Recommendation, Limitation and Future Work......................................68
5.1 Conclusion (Addressing the objectives of the research)......................................................68
5.2 Recommendation.................................................................................................................69
5.3 Limitations of the Research.................................................................................................70
5.4 Future Work.........................................................................................................................70
Reference List................................................................................................................................71

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THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ON THE BUSINESS
PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS
Appendix........................................................................................................................................80
Questionnaire.............................................................................................................................80

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THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ON THE BUSINESS
PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Research Background and Justification
In the modern economy, the process of environmental management is one of the essential
elements and concerns for all the organizations that are functioning globally. The organizations
looks to develop and generate policies and plans by taking assistance of which they are able to
protect the environment along with maintaining effective performance of the business. The
manufacturing industries are the companies that look to product one of more products by making
use of the raw materials and converting them into finished products (Soto-Acosta et al., 2016).
The raw materials are collected from the neighbouring environment and therefore the companies
either directly or indirectly have been exploiting the natural resources. The organizations in order
to convert the raw materials into the final product make use of various extensive tools and
mechanisms and there are chances that these technologies that are used in order to manufacture
the final product may have adverse impact on the environment as well. The worries and the
concerns within the society is to take care of the environment and therefore several rules and
policies have been framed by the international bodies and the local government that asks the
manufacturing industries to construct environment management strategies and hence safeguard
the nature and the environment and with the help of these strategies they are able to maintain
satisfied and happy consumers within the society (Saeidi et al., 2015). In many scenarios, there
are chances that these strategies can have an impact on the business performance and hence, this
thesis paper has the intention of creating an understanding of the impact of environmental
management on the performance of the business in the manufacturing companies.
The manufacturing firms that are currently functional have their own and effective
environment management policies and there are several environmental strategies that are not

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THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ON THE BUSINESS
PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS
ideal in accordance to the operational activities that is seen in the current time period (Laari et
al., 2016). Hence, there are opportunities for improvement and growth in the environmental
management with the help of various strategies like the mitigation of waste and other factors that
can be helpful in understanding the impact on nature and performance of the business. The
current thesis paper therefore looks to highlight the effect of environment management of the
manufacturing firms and the work of this thesis is to find out the impact of environment
management on the performance of the business and the actions that can be undertaken in order
to enhance the same.
1.2 Research Objectives
This paper tries to assess the impact of environment management on the performance of
business in the manufacturing companies. The real aim and objective of the paper is to evaluate
the effect of environment management and performance of the business in accordance to the
financial, economic and social feasibilities. The effect is evaluated in accordance to
manufacturing industry in general. The differences observed in the environment management are
seen to be different for various departments of the manufacturing companies and therefore
performance of the business varies in all the departments. The evaluation of these elements
would be supportive in ascertaining the outcome that is demanded by the researcher.
1.3 Research Questions
The research questions are the questions that have been constructed by the researcher in
order to have an understanding of the current topic and thereby find out the results that is
demanded for concluding the thesis in a precise manner. The research questions that are
constructed by the researcher are as follows:

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THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ON THE BUSINESS
PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS
Q1. What is the effect of environment management on the performance of business of the
manufacturing firms?
Q2. What are the factors that persuade the implementation of environment management in the
manufacturing companies?

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THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ON THE BUSINESS
PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS
Chapter 2: Literature Review
This chapter of the thesis has the idea of addressing and evaluating the various articles
and the journals that are similar and comparable to the present topic and thereby gain an
understanding about what other researchers have commented about environment management
and how it can have an impact on the business performance (Leal-Rodríguez et al., 2015). This
thesis has the idea of associating with the manufacturing firms and thereby creates a comparison
of numerous journals and articles so that an understanding of the environment management and
business performance can be known.
An essential job for the intention of empirical justification is to assess the internal and
external validity. It is actually because of this factor that enhancement of the lucidity is
undertaken in order to assess what is required to be computed (Govindan et al., 2015). In this
thesis paper, a justified explanation of every one of the variables is done in accordance to the
essential features is done by taking help of a precise foundation of the literature review.
2.1 Manufacturing Units
The process of changing the raw materials into the finished goods and products is known
as manufacturing. In this process, the manufacturing companies collect raw materials and
thereby with the help of various technologies and processes process them into the final product
(Camisón, &Villar-López 2014). The manufacturing units make use of disciplined techniques by
taking help of which quality and precise manufacturing process is possible and thereby the
organizations are capable of retaining their competitive advantage and gain effective level of
revenue and profit. There are numerous final outputs that are seen in the manufacturing method
and there are numerous waste materials that is created which adversely can affect the
environment and the community (Gotschol et al., 2014).

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THE EFFECT OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT ON THE BUSINESS
PERFORMANCE OF MANUFACTURING FIRMS
2.2 Lean Manufacturing
The method of lean manufacturing focuses in the procedural elimination of the dumps
and wastes from the several operations of an organization with the assistance of synergetic
working mechanism in order to produce products and services with respect to the market demand
(Molina-Azorín et al., 2015). The lean manufacturing mechanism addresses the issues and the
ideas that are comprehensive in nature and can be grouped together as a distinct practice bundle
for any manufacturing company. The lean manufacturing technique includes the mechanisms and
the process like the human resource management, controlled process, total quality management
and maintenance. de Sousa Jabbour et al., (2014) addressed that lean manufacturing process is a
set of techniques and methods that focuses on the elimination of the dumps and waste materials
and the operations that are non-value adding from the perspective of the manufacturing
operations of an organization.
2.3 Environmental Management Practices (EMP)
The organizations that have reduced their extent of internal wastes in a successful manner
by taking assistance of the process of lean manufacturing have even implemented the practices
and the methods for a better and enhanced environment management process (Fullerton et al.,
2014). These types of processes improve the scope of the mitigation of the waste processes over
the efficiency within an organization (Chen et al., 2014). The availability of various kinds of
stakeholders have an impact in the process of decision making for an organization and their
corporate strategic processes.
The method of environment management surrounds around the development of the
services and the product and the final deliverance of the product in the market. The standards of
ISO 14000 is an essential component for the process of Environment Management system as it

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aids an organization in controlling, assessing, administering and coordinating the environmental
processes (Testa et al., 2014). The process of environment management is the programs and
events that improves the environmental practices and assesses the performance of the techniques
in order to manufacture products that have environment friendly product designs, recycling
process, life-cycle evaluation and waste management features (Dubey et al., 2015).
2.4 Factors that have an influence on the implementation of the environment management
practices
Paillé et al., (2014) cited that there are numerous factors that motivate the manufacturing
organizations to incorporate the Environment Management processes and the most significant
ones include the pressures from the stakeholders, regulation and the legal requirements,
capabilities and resources, management commitment, organizational culture or the size of the
company.
2.4.1 Legal requirement and regulations
The discovered rules and regulations are seen to be the fundamental drivers towards the
environment management processes. Dangelico, &Pontrandolfo(2015) assessed the impact of the
rules and regulations that have been created by the government and the incentives and the
remunerations that are seen in the pro-active environment management. There have been
numerous researches that have provided that the rules and regulations that have been framed by
the international bodies and the local governments have an influence on the implementation of
the environment management process that looks to focus on the utilisation of the various
recyclable techniques and designs that are environment friendly in the manufacturing process.
The governmental pressure forces the organizations to implement these techniques and methods
which then would be useful in enhancing the operational activities of a company. There are