Do sustainable organizational practices and technologies reduce production costs within manufacturing companies?
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2019-08-13
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en
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Abstract
People are starting to realize that we have to become more sustainable. In order to achieve this, it is essential that the manufacturing industry makes a large contribution, since they are seen as one of the primary polluters and consumers of energy. However, many companies still believe that investing in sustainable technologies or practices will only cost them money. To encourage them to become more sustainable, the aim of this study was to demonstrate to what extent investments in sustainable technologies and sustainable managerial and organizational practices reduce energy consumption (improve environmental performance) while also decreasing production costs (improve economic performance). Therefore, the main research question of this study was:
To what extent do investments in sustainable managerial and organizational practices as well as in sustainable technologies reduce energy consumption as well as total production costs per unit?
To be able to answer the research question, three hypotheses tested. A quantitative study was conducted, based on the data regarding 177 Dutch manufacturing companies collected by the European Manufacturing Survey of 2015. The main conclusion of this study is that implementing sustainable technologies and/or sustainable managerial and organizational practices does not simultaneously enhance environmental performance as well as economic performance.
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Faculteit der Managementwetenschappen