Abstract
This article discusses how to enhance corporate sustainability by simultaneously measuring operational and environment achievements. In past decades, most companies have made steady efforts to enhance their sustainability levels. However, they still have strategic space for improving sustainability. This research proposes a new use of environmental measurement by data envelopment analysis. We apply the approach to Japanese industrial sectors and obtain five implications. First, they maintain a high level of unified efficiency on resource allocation and energy usage under natural disposability (priority: operation). Second, the efficiency under managerial one (priority: environment) is generally lower than that of natural disposability. Third, among the industries with high operational achievement, only the pharmaceutical product industry presents high attainment on environmental protection. Fourth, the pulp and paper industry as well as the textile product industry have a potential for efficiency improvement by investing in green technology. Finally, desirable congestion indicates a potential of performance improvement by investing in green technology. Those results imply that the current business situation is different from the previous image on Japanese industries, often referred to as “Japan Inc.”, where all firms used to operate like a single entity under the governmental regulation.
Highlights
Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has recently proposed a new economic policy, referred to as “Abenomics,” which suggests various directions for Japanese productivity improvements.A report prepared by McKinsey and Company [1] has discussed a guidance regarding the Japanese industrial direction.Acknowledging the importance of such a new policy direction, we have two major concerns.One of them is that Japan has been gradually losing productivity growth in manufacturing industries
The purpose of this research is to measure the performance of Japanese manufacturing industries by Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA)
To examine the performance of Japanese manufacturing industries, this study introduces two disposability concepts, where each concept implies the elimination of inefficiency
Summary
Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has recently proposed a new economic policy, referred to as “Abenomics,” which suggests various directions for Japanese productivity improvements.A report prepared by McKinsey and Company [1] has discussed a guidance regarding the Japanese industrial direction.Acknowledging the importance of such a new policy direction, we have two major concerns.One of them is that Japan has been gradually losing productivity growth in manufacturing industries. Japan’s Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has recently proposed a new economic policy, referred to as “Abenomics,” which suggests various directions for Japanese productivity improvements. A report prepared by McKinsey and Company [1] has discussed a guidance regarding the Japanese industrial direction. Acknowledging the importance of such a new policy direction, we have two major concerns. One of them is that Japan has been gradually losing productivity growth in manufacturing industries. The Japanese firms are facing fierce competition with overseas firms. The Japanese manufacturing sectors need to improve their productivity. See a report by Nissay Asset Management [2]
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