Environmental Regulation and Competitive Advantage A Study of Packaging Waste in the European Supply Chain

About this book

This study focuses in detail on the environmental compliance/competitiveness relationship with respect to the regulation of packaging waste. It emphasizes backward and forward linkages. An entire supply chain is considered: packaging manufacturers and suppliers, food processors and the food retail sector, to study the competitiveness effects of environmental standards on manufacturing companies and the vertical links and supply responses. A variety of regulatory regimes is represented by including within the study companies from Germany, Italy, the Republic of Ireland and the UK. Analyses consider the response of individual firms to different levels of regulation; the cost of compliance; impact on employment; the influence of the supply chain on environmental and competitive performance; the importance of firm size and ownership; and the impact of regulation on competitiveness, and firm competitiveness on the efficiency of adjustment to regulation.

Contents

The relationship between environmental performance and company competitiveness; environmental regulations relevant to the sample sectors; the supply chain - the European food packaging industries, food processors and retailing industries; hypotheses, research method, measurement of variables and sample selection; solid and liquid waste and other environmental initiatives undertaken by sample firms; number of initiatives, firm and plant characteristics; environmental initiatives, their drivers and form performance; the resource and performance effects of regulation and external pressures on solid waste initiatives; waste costs; waste costs, initiatives and firm and plant performance; environmental regulation, costs and company competitiveness; conclusions - policy, hypotheses and findings. Appendices: environmental regulations in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, Germany and Italy; description of environmental initiatives; description and examples of effects.

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