Examining the impact of design for environment and the mediating effect of quality management innovation on firm performance

Sherry Avery Jackson, Venugopal Gopalakrishna-Remani, Rajat Mishra and Randy Napier

International Journal of Production Economics, 2016, vol. 173, issue C, 142-152

Abstract: This paper extends research on the relationship between quality management and sustainable operations initiatives. A functional quality system is widely regarded as a prerequisite for effective environmental management, but research on the interplay of specific quality management and sustainability techniques is scarce. This paper examines the relationships of design for environment (DFE) and quality management innovation (QMI) to environmental and economic performance. Quality management innovation is defined as those elements of TQM that specifically support or enhance innovation in products and processes. We examine these relationships with survey data from 492 manufacturing practitioners across a variety of industries. The results suggest a significant positive relationship between DFE and environmental performance, and find that this effect is significantly and positively mediated by quality management innovation. This study contributes to quality and sustainability literature while offering useful insight to practitioners.

Keywords: Design for environment; Quality management innovation; Environmental performance; Economic performance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (28)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925527315005344
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:proeco:v:173:y:2016:i:c:p:142-152

DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpe.2015.12.009

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Production Economics is currently edited by Stefan Minner

More articles in International Journal of Production Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().