doctoral dissertation
Matjaž Maletič (Author), Boštjan Gomišček (Mentor), Jens J. Dahlgaard (Co-mentor)

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to present and test a conceptual framework to aid in understanding and explaining the relationship between sustainability practices and organisational performance. The relevant theoretical insights are presented first, followed by a discussion of the relationship between quality management and sustainability. An extensive literature review is conducted on key intersections of quality management and sustainability. The research further investigates the dimensions of sustainability practices through the review. It develops a reliable and valid instrument for the sustainability practice constructs, which could be beneficial for both practitioners and academicians. Based on the notion of exploitation and exploration concepts, the research delineates sustainability practices and proposes causal relationships between sustainability practices and organisational performance. Furthermore, the conceptual framework is further discussed in terms of different outcomes related to sustainability performance, quality performance and business performance. One of the primary propositions of this framework is that the alternative relationships between sustainability practices (exploitation and exploration) and organisational performance depend on different factors, including environmental uncertainty, competitiveness, long-term orientation and institutional approaches. Therefore, the research is an attempt to cover the relatively less empirically explored area of the dynamics of corporate sustainability and organisational performance. The empirical data for this study was drawn from a large-scale international survey based on the following countries: Slovenia, Spain, Serbia, Poland, and Germany. A total of 247 organisations participated in the survey. The outcome of regression analyses provides the evidence that sustainability practices positively and significantly influence organisational performance. Regarding the antecedents of sustainability practices, our findings suggest that the main enablers for the successful adoption of sustainable practices are the support of top management, the integration of sustainability into vision and strategy, and the establishment of a sustainability centred culture. Furthermore, empirical evidence from this research also confirmed the existence of ambidextrous orientation, suggesting that organisations that are able to simultaneously pursue exploratory and exploitative sustainability practices can also expect performance benefits. However, the results indicate that when organisations maintain relatively high levels of exploratory and exploitative practices, significant relationship between sustainability practices and organisational performance seems to disappear. The results of the MANOVA analysis indicate that there are significant mean differences in organisational performance measures for low and high levels of sustainability practices. Therefore, by focusing on exploration and exploitation practices, organisations can expect to achieve higher performance outputs and outcomes. In addition to the direct influence of sustainability practices on the organisational performance, results also revealed that the innovation performance serves as a mediator in the relationship between sustainability practices and financial and market performance. This suggests that greater engagement in sustainability exploration and sustainability exploitation leads to greater innovation performance, which in turn leads to greater financial and market performance. The results also support the contingency and institutional view with regard to the relationship between sustainability practices and performance rather than relying upon a ‘universal’ view of sustainability practices. For example, the results show that in moderate environmental contexts (moderate competitiveness and uncertainty) sustainability exploitation practices seem to be a predominant predictor of organisational performance. However, it appears that when the level of competitiveness increases, sustainabi

Keywords

corporate sustainability;sustainability exploitation;quality management;organisational performance;dissertation;

Data

Language: English
Year of publishing:
Typology: 2.08 - Doctoral Dissertation
Organization: UM FOV - Faculty of Organizational Sciences
Publisher: [M. Maletič]
UDC: 005.336.3:502.131.1(043.3)
COBISS: 8027667 Link will open in a new window
Views: 1347
Downloads: 107
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Other data

Secondary language: Slovenian
Secondary title: Vpliv managementa kakovosti ob vključevanju trjanostnega razvoja na uspešnost organizacije
Secondary abstract: Organizacije so dandanes soočene z zelo raznolikimi pričakovanji in zahtevami zainteresiranih udeležencev, vključujoč zahteve glede kakovosti, varstva okolja, zdravja in varstva pri delu in ne nazadnje odgovornega ravnanja do družbe v katerem deluje organizacija. V zadnjem času trajnostni razvoj organizacije pridobiva vse večjo pozornost, tako z vidika raziskovalnega področja, kakor tudi z vidika praktične vrednosti ter s tem povezanim iskanjem konkurenčnih prednosti. Glavni namen pričujoče doktorske disertacije je torej prispevati k poglobljenemu razumevanju interdisciplinarnega področja trajnostnega razvoja organizacije in potencialnih povezav z različnimi vidiki učinkovitosti in uspešnosti organizacije. V empiričnem delu doktorske disertacije je najprej obravnavana metodologija razvoja raziskovalnega instrumenta ter preverjena zanesljivost in veljavnost merskih lestvic konstrukta trajnostnega razvoja organizacije. V empiričnem delu disertacije so v nadaljevanju predstavljeni rezultati kvantitativne anketne raziskave, ki je bila izvedena v petih državah: Nemčija, Slovenija, Španija, Srbija in Poljska. V okviru spletne ankete je bilo pridobljenih 247 uporabnih odgovorov iz organizacij različnih dejavnosti in velikosti. Rezultati raziskave so pokazali, da so dejavniki implementacije trajnostnega razvoja organizacije, katerih konstrukt je bil koneptualiziran in operacionaliziran v kontekstu podpore in zavezanost vodstva, vključitve vidikov trajnostnega razvoja v vizijo in strategijo in vzpostavitve trajnostno usmerjene organizacijske kulture, pozitivno povezani z dejavnostmi trajnostnega razvoja organizacije. Rezultati regresijske analize potrjujejo pozitiven in statistično značilen vpliv dejavnosti trajnostnega razvoja organizacije na učinkovitost in uspešnost organizacije, tako z vidika sestavljenega (agregiranega) konstrukta učinkovitosti in uspešnosti organizacije, kot tudi z vidika posameznih dimenzij: finančna in tržna uspešnost, učinkovitost na področju kakovosti, učinkovitost na področju inovativnosti, okoljska učinkovitost, družbena učinkovitost. Prispevek dejavnosti trajnostnega razvoja organizacije k učinkovitosti in uspešnosti organizacije dodatno osvetljujejo tudi rezultati multivariatne analize variance (MANOVA). Rezultati kažejo na to, da obstaja statistično značilna razlika med aritmetičnimi sredinami posameznih merskih spremenljivk učinkovitosti in uspešnosti organizacije z ozirom na nizko in visoko stopnjo izvajanja dejavnosti trajnostnega razvoja organizacije. MANOVA torej potrjuje statistično značilen vpliv neodvisne spremenljivke (dejavnosti trajnostnega razvoja organizacije, SEI/SER) na vse odvisne spremenljivke (merske spremenljivke konstrukta učinkovitosti in uspešnosti organizacije). Navedene ugotovitve lahko dodatno podkrepimo še z ugotovitvami mediacijske analize, s pomočjo katere smo ugotovili, da je učinkovitost na področju inovativnosti mediator na povezavi med dejavnostmi trajnostnega razvoja organizacije (na primeru SEI in SER) in finančno in tržno uspešnostjo. Pomemben prispevek doktorske disertacije se izkazuje tudi v proučevanju vpliva kontingenčnih dejavnikov (konkurenčnost, negotovost in dolgoročna usmerjenost organizacije) in institucionalnega dejavnika (država izvora organizacije) na povezavo med dejavnostmi trajnostnega razvoja in učinkovitosti in uspešnosti organizacije. S tem disertacija prispeva k relativno manj empirično raziskanim področjem. Raziskava je pokazala, da organizacije, ki poslujejo v okolju kjer prevladuje zmerna stopnja konkurenčnosti in zmerna stopnja negotovosti, v večji meri pridobijo prednosti od izvajanja SEI, kot pa z angažiranjem glede izvajanja SER. Kot kažejo rezultati, z naraščanjem stopnje konkurenčnosti, SER vplivajo na učinkovitost in uspešnost organizacije v večji meri kot SEI. V kontekstu institucionalnega dejavnika lahko argumentiramo, da obstaja nekaj empiričnih dokazov glede vpliva institucionalnega mehanizma na izvajanje dejavnosti trajnostnega razvoja in
Secondary keywords: trajnostni razvoj organizacije;management kakovosti;učinkovitost in uspešnost organizacije;disertacije;
URN: URN:SI:UM:
Type (COBISS): Dissertation
Thesis comment: Univ. v Mariboru, Fak. za organizacijske vede
Pages: 244 str.
ID: 10940728