Environmental practices and firm performance in emerging markets: the mediating role of product quality

Abstract

Environmental practices have not received as much research attention in emerging market contexts as traditional topics like quality. However, the importance of environmental practices for a firm’s production strategy has been increasing at an unprecedented level across the globe. Our research objective is, therefore, to investigate the interplay between environmental practices and quality in the pursuit of firm performance. Relying on 492 responses from Turkish manufacturers to test our hypotheses, we show that environmental practices directly improve the quality of products over and above the effect of quality management practices in emerging markets. Product quality, in turn, is important for increasing firm performance, acting as a mediator for the positive effects of environmental practices on performance. Thus, we reveal that product quality functions as an instrumental conduit between environmental practices and firm performance in emerging markets like Turkey where stakeholder pressures are weak, and regulations are often not properly enforced.

KEYWORDS:

• Environmental practices
• emerging markets
• firm performance
• product quality
• quality management

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Muhammad Usman Ahmed

Muhammad Usman Ahmed is an assistant professor at the University of Michigan-Flint. He holds a PhD in Operations Management and Information Systems from York University, Toronto, Canada, and a Masters of Business Administration from Lahore University of Management Sciences. His research interests include supply chain management, sustainable supply chains, business analytics, and logistics. His research has been published in the Journal of Operations Management, the International Journal of Operations and Production Management, and the International Journal of Production Economics amongst others.

Ismail Gölgeci

Dr. Ismail Gölgeci is an Associate Professor at the Aarhus University, Herning, Denmark. He holds a D.Sc. in Economics and Business Administration from University of Vaasa and M.Sc. in Supply Chain Management from Chalmers University of Technology. His research interests include global marketing strategy, global supply chain management, agility, and innovation. His research has been published in Journal of International Business Studies, Human Relations, Industrial Marketing Management, Supply Chain Management: An International Journal, Scandinavian Journal of Management, European Management Journal, Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, and amongst others.

Erkan Bayraktar

Dr. Erkan Bayraktar is the professor of Industrial Engineering at American University of the Middle East. He holds a PhD in Industrial Engineering from the University of Iowa. After working several years in industry as a consultant, he has been lecturing in business and engineering schools in various areas of production and operations management. His principal research areas include supply chain management, environmental management and information systems. His publications appeared in the leading international academic journals including Journal of the Operational Research Society, International Journal of Production Research, International Journal of Production Economics, and Journal of World Business among others.

Ekrem Tatoglu

Ekrem Tatoglu is a professor of International Business at Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul, Turkey. His research interests include global management strategies, operations management and strategy in emerging countries. He co-authored two books and over 80 academic articles in various internationally refereed journals such as Omega, Journal of World Business, International Journal of Production Research, Management International Review, Decision Support Systems, Journal of Business Research and Human Resource Management. He also served served on several editorial boards including Employee Relations, International Journal of Emerging Markets, European Journal of International Management and the International Journal of Multinational Corporation Strategy.