Pressure and the value of the stakeholders in environmental
logistics
The preservation of the environment has become an unavoidable variable in industrial activity.While some firms have adopted a reactive strategy, limiting themselves to the prevailing legislation, others have chosen more proactive strategies, introducing voluntarily practices focused on reducing their environmental impact. In particular, many of these practices are carried out in the area of logistics, where there is great potential for contributing to the environmental performance of firms (Wu and Dunn, 1995). It is therefore interesting to know which contingencies lead firms to develop proactive environmental initiatives in this area of activity, i.e.what circumstances favour the implementation of environmental practices in logistics.
environmental logistics practices. Specifically, this paper analyses the effect of the perceived stakeholder environmental pressure and the environmental awareness of managers and explores the extent to which the interaction between these two variables exists and is relevant. In this second respect, this paper expressly analyses the extent to which the environmental awareness of managers moderates the relationship between the perceived pressure and the implementation of environmental logistics practices
and the extent to which this pressure mediates the relationship between managerial values and the implementation of environmental logistics practices.
First,environmental logistics practices
Different authors have pointed out that the environmental proactivity of firms is manifested not only through the transformation of their internal activities (product design and production processes) but also through the introduction of new practices in the logistics of supply and distribution that link them to other participants (suppliers and customers) in the value chain . A series of environmental practices has been identified or suggested for the management of physical flows that enter and leave an industrial organization, not only in the literature focused specifically on logistics , but also from the perspective of purchasing management or from the more generic and integrating perspective of the supply chain.
Transportation is another aspect of logistics with considerable environmental impact . One of the easiest measures to improve environmental performance in this area consists of
┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊装┊┊┊┊┊订┊┊┊┊┊线┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊prioritizing shipment consolidation in the planning and programming of flows . This allows the capacity of the vehicles used to be maximized an
d the emission of contaminating gases reduced. Another, more strategic measure,or the hiring of rail transport instead of road transport are some examples of environmental actions in this sense.
In the logistics of storage, manipulation and distribution, the aspects related to the packing,packaging and bottling of products are the ones with the most impact on the natural environment.Thus we must distinguish between primary, secondary and transport packaging (Livingstone and Sparks, 1994). The first refers to the direct packaging of the product, which the consumer uses until the product is consumed. The second refers to any additional packaging (boxes, bags…)used frequently with promotional aims or to facilitate the combined purchase of several units of the same product. Transportation packaging refers to the packaging used to facilitate the moving and storage of products (containers, boxes, pallets…). Primary and secondary packaging is what most directly affects the consumers’ intention of purchase, and therefore its modification responds more to commercial criteria than to logistic criteria. Efforts in this sense are usually focused on reducing the packaging and using recyclable materials or containers.
Second，the role of stakeholder pressure and managerial values In this section we analyze the role of stakeholder pressure and managerial motivation in the implementation of environmental logistics practices. Four research hypotheses are presented.This assumption, which turns out to be quite evide
nt for the tactical practices considered in this analysis, has received empirical support for the case of more strategic practices such as the integration of suppliers and customers .It implies that those contingencies that stimulate companies to reduce their environmental impact can also induce the adoption of environmental practices in logistics.
(One)Stakeholder Environmental Pressure
Stakeholders are individuals and groups which can affect the company’s performance or who are affected by a firm’s actions (Freema n, 1984). Clarkson (1995) distinguishes between primary stakeholders, those without whose participation and support the organization cannot survive(suppliers, governments), and secondary stakeholders, which affect and are affected by the organization but are not engaged in transactions with it and are not essential for its media, non-governmental organizations).
As regards corporate social responsibility and, in particular, environmental responsibility,stakeholders demand integrity, respect, standards, transparency and
┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊装┊┊┊┊┊订┊┊┊┊┊线┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊accountability . In fact, the environmental commitment of a firm implies harmonizing environmental performance with stakeholders’ expectations .
There is certain empirical evidence to this respect. Although with some nuances, the results of support the idea that environmental proactivity is associated with higher pressures from organizational stakeholders (e.g. customers, suppliers, employees,shareholders) and community stakeholders (e.g. non-governmental organizations, social groups),whereas environmental reactivity is associated with higher pressures from regulatory stakeholders (e.g. governments, trade associations) and the media. introduced the distinction between internal primary stakeholders (employees, shareholders and financial institutions) and external primary stakeholders (customers and suppliers) and observed that only the former group motivates environmental proactivity. This result was explained by arguing that the sample studied consisted of producers of intermediate products and had scarce vironmental practices in the hotel industry responds to a higher stakeholder pressure. influence as a contextual variable which was measured by two constructs: public interaction, which assessed to what extent managers gather opinions from and provide environmental information to the public; and awareness of environmental regulation, which assessed to what extent plant personnel are informed regarding environmental regulation and evaluated on regulatory compliance. Both constructs showed positive effects on the degree of environmental proactivity.reactive翻译
Another justification of the importance of stakeholders as motivators of the environmental strategies of
firms is that among the benefits attributed to environmental proactivity there is precisely improvement in the relationship with the different stakeholders and even the possibility of influencing some of them .
(Two)Managerial V alues: Environmental Awareness of Managers
Several papers point out the importance of the support and commitment of top management for the development of proactive environmental strategies . Other authors consider that the key question is not simply the existence of top management support for environmental initiatives.Rather, they propose that, de pending on the managers’ beliefs, expectations, perceptions and opinions, the company will become inclined to implement a certain set of environmental practices. Thus, the environmental awareness of managers,understood as the degree to which they consider imperative the active participation of industry in achieving sustainable development, might influence the environmental behaviour of a firm.In the case of logistics, the implementation of environmental practices requires additional effort since, as mentioned earlier, in many cases it requires not only an internal effort but also the collaboration of other agents
┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊装┊┊┊┊┊订┊┊┊┊┊线┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊┊participating in the value chain. Success does not depend only on the organization itself and putting these practices into effect often requires great effort at negotiation.
Previous empirical evidence in this respect has not been found in the literature on logistics,although, in the related fields of corporate social responsibility and purchasing management,Carter and Jennings (2004) found evidence of a positive relationship between the individual values of purchasing employees and purchasing social responsibility. Since one dimension of corporate social responsibility is environmental commitment, this result is consistent with the idea that the values and beliefs of people within the organization affect the development of environmental initiatives in purchasing.
(Three) Mediating Role of the Perceived Stakeholder Pressure
Some authors consider that the implementation of certain environmental practices and strategies depends on whether the management perceives environmental pressure and topics as opportunities or as threats. That is,these works suggest that the same environmental pressure or problems can be perceived differently and give rise to diffe rent responses according to how they are interpreted. In light of these considerations, it makes sense to ask ourselves what variables affect two fundamental questions: the perception of pressure and the response to these perceptions. Below we argue that the beliefs and values of the management (their level of environmental awareness, in particular) can affect environmental management in both aspects.
As refers to the first question, the perception of pressure, it could be thought that the values and beliefs of the management affect the effort made to perceive the opinions and demands of the milieu, i.e., the capability of perceiving signs in environmental matters affecting . In particular, managers who are more environmentally aware will be more open and receptive to environmental demands and will be more concerned with sounding out the stakeholders in this sense. They will make a greater effort to perceive the environmental demands of the stakeholders。
(Four) Moderating Role of Managerial V alues
As regards the second question, the response given to perceived pressure, it might be thought that the most environmentally aware managers would be more likely to introduce environmental practices in the face of greater demand from the milieu. Those least environmentally aware will resist the pressure of the stakeholders, will look for alternatives to distract them and delay any type of environmental changes, or will simply not consider these kinds of actions as a priority.
Third，methodology
(One)Data
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The approached population consisted of medium and large Spanish companies in three industrial sectors: chemical products, electronic and electrical equipment, and furniture and fixtures. The purpose was to choose sectors subjected to different environmental problems and pressures, and companies large enough to assure that the implementation of the diverse practices considered in the analysis makes sense. All the entries with more than 100 employees in each of the selected industrial sectors were extracted from the Dun & Bradstreet census of the 50,000 largest Spanish companies. Thus, the target population finally consisted of 428 companies, 156 of which were in the chemical sector, 211 in the electronic and electric equipment sector, and 61 in the furniture sector.
After a pre-test on 9 companies, an extensive postal questionnaire covering different aspects of environmental management was addressed to the production and operations manager of each company. In all the cases, the questionnaire was preceded by a phone call to identify the appropriate addressee, to announce the sending of the questionnaire and to ask for collaboration.A presentation letter was attached to each questionnaire and, some days after the mailing, a second phone call was made to all the companies that had not replied. This procedure yielded a total of 186 valid responses which represent a global response rate of 43.38%, which in turn corresponds to rates of 40.38%, 45.50% and 44.26% for the chemical, electronic equipment and furniture industries, respectively.
(Two) Measures
Environmental Logistics Practices: Each company was asked to score the degree of implementation of each environmental logistics practice included in Figure 1 according to a six-point scale . Only one factor resulted with an eigenvalue greater than 1. The indicators of reliability and validity (factor loadings) were appropriate.
Perceived Stakeholder Environmental Pressure: Each manager was asked to score the environmental pressure exerted by the stakeholder groups included from 1 to 6 . Principal components analysis was applied to the 10 items and two factors turned out to have eigenvalues higher than one,together accounting for 57.20% of the variance.All the items except governments and regulatory agents load on the first factor. The refore, factors were labelled as governmental pressure and non-governmental pressure, respectively. This result indicates that those companies in the sample that perceive high pressure from any non-governmental stakeholder tend to perceive high pressure as well from the other non-governmental stakeholders. In other words, all the non-governmental stakeholders tend to be perceived as a homogeneous group.

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