Abstract
The paper aims to determine the role of the financial situation of production companies in the relationship between their environmental initiatives and their factors of competitiveness. The paper takes advantage of primary and secondary statistical data. The former were gathered using the diagnostic survey method, whereas the latter were obtained from the companies’ financial statements. For the analysis of the primary data, structural modeling was applied. The data from the financial statements served to classify enterprises according to their financial situation. The classification was carried out with the use of Mączyńska’s discriminant model. The main findings highlight that more positive effects of environmental initiatives, such as companies’ increased competitiveness, were observed in cases of enterprises with good financial situations. In addition, a weaker impact of pro-environmental initiatives on the increase in companies’ competitiveness was noted in enterprises in poor financial conditions. The results of this research may be potentially applied in those production companies which build their competitiveness based on activities aiming at the protection of the natural environment. They draw attention to the key factors of the competitiveness of enterprises, which are improved as a result of actions for the protection of the natural environment. The originality of the presented research lies in determining the role of the financial situation in the development of the relationship between environmental actions and company competitiveness.
Highlights
The growing public awareness of environmental problems caused by business activities has resulted in increased political and social expectations for companies to reduce the negative impacts of their activities on the environment
In the case of the quality priority, it was not possible to estimate the structural model in the group of companies in a poor financial situation—due to the insufficient number of the lowest indications for the category of the indicator variable of product characteristics (j1)
A separate model for companies in a good financial situation was assessed, and its results were presented in comparison to the general model
Summary
Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Pollution-intensive businesses have often been criticized for their insufficient effort in protecting the natural environment (Govindan et al 2014; Shrivastava 1994) These businesses face increasing legal and social pressures to undertake more environmental actions. Among the results of an environmentally-friendly attitude of companies are less pollution, waste reduction, a limitation of raw material consumption. Cost means the ability to produce and a product at low by reducing the overall costscosts of production, laborlabor costs,costs, cost of raw offer a product at prices low prices by reducing the overall of production, cost materials and consumables, and reducing the duration of the production cycle Apart from these fundamental elements, different authors consider other priorities, for example, innovation, customer service, environmental protection, and other priorities, for example, innovation, customer service, environmental protection, and marketing elements, such as sales promotion, advertising, customer relations, and the marketing elements, such as sales promotion, advertising, customer relations, and the sales force.
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