Anatomy of a Paradox: Management Practices, Organisational Structure and Energy Efficiency

Ralf Martin, Mirabelle Muûls (), Ulrich Wagner and Laure de Preux

CEP Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Performance, LSE

Abstract: This paper presents new evidence on managerial and organizational factors that explain firm level energy efficiency and TFP. We interviewed managers of 190 randomly selected manufacturing plants in the UK and matched their responses with official business microdata. We find that 'climate friendly' management practices are associated with lower energy intensity and higher TFP. Firms that adopt more such practices also engage in more R&D related to climate change. We show that the variation in management practices across firms can be explained in part by organizational structure. Firms are more likely to adopt climate friendly management practices if climate change issues are managed by the environmental or energy manager, and if this manager is close to the CEO. Our results support the view that the "energy efficiency paradox" can be explained by managerial factors and highlight their importance for private-sector innovation that will sustain future growth in energy efficiency.

Keywords: climate policy; energy efficiency; firm behavior; management practices; manufacturing; microdata; organizational structure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D22 M14 M20 Q41 Q54 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-eff, nep-ene and nep-env
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Anatomy of a paradox: Management practices, organizational structure and energy efficiency (2012)
Working Paper: Anatomy of a paradox: management practices, organisational structure and energy efficiency (2010)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cep:cepdps:dp1039

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