Systematic Review of the Environmental Performance and Sectoral - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Systematic Review of the Environmental Performance and Sectoral Competitiveness of Canada’s Forest Industry

Jennifer DeBoer, Rajat Panwar, Rob Kozak, and Ben Cashore

SWST 59 TH INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION, CURITIBA, BRAZIL

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Canada’s forest products industry is an important economic engine ►Provides high quality employment ►Contributes significantly to Canada’s GDP ►Promotes community well-being

Source: Natural Resources Canada, http://www.nrcan.gc.ca/forests/report/economy/16556

BACKGROUND

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How can a higher environmental performance help an industry to become more competitive globally?

BASIC MOTIVATION FOR THIS RESEARCH

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►Canada’s forest industry represents one of the most progressive examples of environmental stewardship ►Extensive research suggests higher environmental performance results in a competitive advantage ►Yet, empirical studies provides little evidence to support the claim that consumers reward firms based on their environmental performance

CONTEXT

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The primary objective of this systematic literature review is to strengthen our understanding of the link between environmental performance and industry competitiveness

►Specifically, we will: ►Consolidate extant literature ►Identify critical knowledge gaps ►Propose a future research agenda

OBJECTIVE

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►Two domains of environmental performance ►Regulatory dimension ►Voluntary dimension

ENVIRONMENTAL PERFORMANCE

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ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATIONS

►The effect of environmental regulations on industry competitiveness ► Porter Hypothesis ►Environmental regulations enhance firms’ competitive advantage ► Management research ►Empirical results have been mixed ► Forestry research ►Research is scant but ambiguous ►How and when do environmental regulations lead to winning innovations

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►The effect of firms’ voluntary environmental actions on industry competitiveness ►Management research ►Positive – brand reputation, consumer loyalty, risk management, market access, product differentiation ►Negative – increases cost of doing business ►Forestry research ►Positive – premium prices, market access ►Negative – consumers unwilling to pay premium prices ►How and when do voluntary environmental actions result in economic advantage?

VOLUNTARY ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIONS

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►Systematic Literature Review ►(unbiased) ►No protocols are available in the management or forestry literature ►We will follow the procedure in Kitchenham & Charters (2007) ►Step 1: Consult peers to develop comprehensive lists of keywords and appropriate journals ►Step 2: Use academic databases and logical connectors to conduct the keyword and journal search ►Step 3: Review the abstracts of all articles to identify studies to be used ►Step 4: Compare and synthesize findings based on articles pool

METHOD

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►Search parameters: environmental regulation keywords (19), voluntary action keywords (30), competitiveness keywords (29), management journals (31), forestry journals (17), environmental/sustainability journals (20), policy journals (12), and publication date (2005 – 2015) ►Preliminary search results = 1920 ►Abstract review search results ~ 475 ►Detailed review search results ~ 200

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

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►Preliminary research issues ►Lack of data ►Inadequate proxies ►Causality ►Over the next two months, I will further refine our results, analyze relevant studies, and synthesize studies’ findings ►Ideally, this literature review will allow me to provide a comprehensive and objective overview of the linkages (a) environmental regulations and (b) voluntary environmental actions have with industry competitiveness.

DISCUSSION & CONCLUSION

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Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council & Natural Resources Canada - Knowledge Synthesis Grant Competition

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thank you!

Jennifer.L.DeBoer@gmail.com