Abstract
This paper examines the effect of resource availability and resource commitment on several important regulatory measures related to environmental risk and safety performance in petrochemical manufacturing. The research is grounded in Normal Accident Theory, and it controls for the effect of interactive complexity and a coupling on environmental reliability. The study is based on a sample (n 570) of petroleum refineries located in the United States during the five-year period, 1993‐97. A statistically significant (p 5.01) relationship between resource availability and the incidence of accidental hazardous substance releases was observed. The study also identified a significant relationship between plant safety as measured by Total Case Incident Rates (TCIR) and resource availability. Surprisingly, no significant relationships were observed between accidental hazardous substance releases or safety related performance outcomes as measured by Total Case Incident Rates and resource commitment as capital spending related to health, environmental and safety in this sample of refineries.
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