Stakeholder relations and sustainability practices of US small and medium‐sized manufacturers

Abstract

Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to investigate the adoption of sustainability practices by small and medium-sized manufacturing (SMM) firms, the ways these firms work with their stakeholders for social and environmental purposes, and the relationships between the adoption of sustainability practices, stakeholder interaction, and product and process innovation. Design/methodology/approach -This paper uses data from telephone interviews with 296 companies, a sustainability typology, and descriptive and statistical regression analysis. Findings -The majority of the firms are adopting sustainability practices at least to some degree, stakeholders such as community advocacy groups, employees, suppliers, customers, and the local media are influencing the adoption of sustainability practices, and firms with high adoption rates of environmental practices are more successful in product and process innovation. Practical implications -The results of this research can help firms and stakeholder groups with their joint efforts to develop sustainability strategies. Community advocacy groups, employees, suppliers, customers, and the local media are capable of motivating firms to give something back to the communities in which they conduct their business. Originality/value -This paper contributes new understanding of the adoption of sustainability practices by SMM firms, the ways these firms work with their stakeholders for social and environmental purposes, and the relationships between the adoption of sustainability practices, stakeholder interaction, and product and process innovation.

O Papel da Produção na Efetivação da Estratégia Competitiva em Uma Empresa de Confecções do Paraná

“…Distintas pesquisas, conforme descrito anteriormente, utilizam direta ou indiretamente ou ainda desenvolveram o modelo aqui utilizado (Hayes & Wheelwright, 1984;Ocampo & Ocampo, 2015;Theyel & Hofmann, 2012;Johansson & Winroth, 2010;Hallgren & Olhager, 2006;Rafii Relacionando o resultado obtido com a teoria utilizada para a análise (Hayes & Wheelwright, 1984) é importante salientar que no estágio 1 é o nível mais fraco, ocorre pouca contribuição na forma de produção, cujo processo mantêm-se voltada para dentro, reagindo pouco a mudanças internas e externas, contribuindo pouco significativamente para o sucesso competitivo da organização; ao passo que no estágio 2 é o momento no qual as empresas começam a comparar-se com empresas similares na função produção, agindo externamente neutra e há uma comparação com o desempenho dos concorrentes, podendo ou não resultar em melhores práticas.…”

Sustainability in Small and Medium-Sized Manufacturing Enterprises: An Empirical Study

“…Many examples exist in the literature of SD as it applies to SMEs based on the number of employees in the company (lower than 500) according to Theyel and Hofmann (2012). Sustainability definitions and better communication in the process toward SD were presented by Glavic and Likman (2007).…”

“…Lozano (2012) provided an analysis of the most widely known initiatives which aimed to embed sustainability into companies' systems. Theyel and Hofmann (2012) studied stakeholders' effects on companies' adoption of sustainability for social and environmental purposes by interacting with product and process innovation.…”

“…SMEs are poised to solve socio-economic problems in developing countries as the manufacturing sector is one of the most significant contributors to gross domestic product (GDP), in spite of the fact that SMEs are characterized and challenged by uncertain markets and high failure rates. On the other side of the economic spectrum, developed countries such as the USA have markets that are dominated by SMEs with fewer than 500 employees (Theyel and Hofmann 2012). Therefore, analysis and investigation of SD in SMEs is very important and should be appreciated.…”

A robust evaluation of sustainability initiatives with analytic network process (ANP)

“…These issues are associated with the interests of various stakeholders who are capable of influencing salient decisions of manufacturing firms (Pham and Thomas, 2012). These stakeholders, which include customers, employees, investors, suppliers, communities and governments (Theyel and Hofmann, 2012) directly or indirectly compel manufacturing firms to manage the performance of their products and processes in order to satisfy persistent issues on resource depletion, socio-economic concerns and human health problems. When these demands from stakeholders are integrated in mainstream decisionmaking, manufacturing firms could establish long term relations with these stakeholders (Harrison et al, 2010).…”