Stakeholders Influence and Internal Championing of Product Stewardship in the Italian Food Packaging Industry

Summary Environmental management is becoming a top issue on managers' agendas in several industries. The adoption and implementation of a sound “green” strategy involves following product stewardship practices. Product stewardship is the idea that manufacturers, rather than consumers, governments, or waste companies, ought to take responsibility for the recycling and disposal of their products at the end of their life cycle. This article is aimed at investigating the relationships between the adoption of product stewardship practices and the involvement of different actors in the decision-making process. By means of discriminant analysis, 120 firms have been classified into two different environmental profiles. Results indicate that firms that are more committed to product stewardship differ from less-committed firms in the influence exerted by different stakeholders and in the supportive role played by the management at different hierarchical and functional levels. In general, it appears that top management involvement in the decision-making process is a critical condition for the successful championship of product stewardship. In addition, the effective implementation of product stewardship along the product life-cycle stages is correlated to a strong commitment on the part of chief technical officers and development engineers rather than of manufacturing or marketing managers.

[1]  A. Campbell,et al.  Corporate strategy: The quest for parenting advantage , 1995 .

[2]  James A. Fava,et al.  Elements of effective DFE program management and product stewardship , 1997 .

[3]  Alision Joyce Kirby.  Trade associations as information exchange mechanisms , 1985 .

[4]  J. Aragón-Correa.  Strategic proactivity and firm approach to the natural environment , 1998 .

[5]  S. Hart.  A Natural-Resource-Based View of the Firm , 1995 .

[6]  Thomas E. Graedel,et al.  Design for the Environment , 1996 .

[7]  Jean Garner Stead,et al.  Management for a small planet , 1996 .

[8]  Sándor Kerekes,et al.  Evaluation of corporate environmental management approaches: A framework and application , 1996 .

[9]  K. Chang,et al.  Industrial waste minimization and environment management system in MXIC , 1998, 1998 Semiconductor Manufacturing Technology Workshop (Cat. No.98EX133).

[10]  R. Freeman.  Strategic Management: A Stakeholder Approach , 2010 .

[11]  Laurie A. Rich.  How Environmental Pressures Are Affecting the R&D Function , 1993 .

[12]  Thomas J. Allen,et al.  Managing the flow of technology: technology transfer and the dissemination of technological informat , 1977 .

[13]  Andrea Coulson,et al.  Corporate environmental performance considerations within bank lending decisions , 1999 .

[14]  J. Aragón-Correa.  RESEARCH NOTES. STRATEGIC PROACTIVITY AND FIRM APPROACH TO THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT. , 1998 .

[15]  S. Hart.  Beyond Greening: Strategies for a Sustainable World. , 1997 .

[16]  William M. Pride,et al.  Environmental management:The construct and research propositions , 1994 .

[17]  M. Javad Paknejad,et al.  Environmental versus quality standards ‐ an overview and comparison , 1997 .

[18]  Sanjay Sharma,et al.  Proactive corporate environmental strategy and the development of competitively valuable organizational capabilities , 1998 .

[19]  Peter A. Strachan.  Is the Eco‐Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS) Regulation an effective strategic marketing tool for implementing industrial organisations? , 1999 .

[20]  H. Daly,et al.  For the Common Good , 1999 .

[21]  R. Roy,et al.  Successful recycling through value-chain collaboration , 1992 .

[22]  Anne Grafé-Buckens,et al.  Engaging the stakeholders: corporate views and current trends , 1998 .

[23]  Deb Chatterji.  Achieving Leadership in Environmental R&D , 1995 .

[24]  Umberto Bertelè,et al.  Exploiting green strategies for competitive advantage , 1994 .

[25]  G. Slowinski,et al.  Are You a Leader in Environmental R&D? , 1997 .

[26]  David T. Buzzelli,et al.  Time to Structure an Environmental Policy Strategy , 1991 .

[27]  Timothy W. Nix,et al.  Strategies for assessing and managing organizational stakeholders , 1991 .