nvironmentalism is no longer an issue of reluctant compliance with regulatory requirements. In the last decade, it has increasingly emerged as a potential mechanism for gaining competitive advantage and has become an important aspect of strategic management. ∗ E Being environmentally conscious involves detailed attention to a variety of issues, such as energy conservation, pollution prevention, and avoidance of ecological degradation. Our current levels of resource consumption and waste generation are unsustainable in the long run. A 1987 report by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) warns that current

research advice of Andrew King, Larry Singell and Stephen Johnson. Thanks also are due to

The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of the rapid growth by the newly industrializing countries (NICs) on their environmental management practices. Departing from the premise that NICs generally follow industrialized countries (ICs) in charting their development and “leapfrog ” new technologies as a function of their absorptive capacity, compatibility of the environmental management practices by the Turkish manufacturing companies with that of their American counterparts is explored. The results corroborated the significant progress made by the Turkish companies and manifested compatible approaches and performance indeed with respect to such variables as the management’s environmental orientation, environmental innovativeness, environmental competitive advantage, and the financial returns linked to environmental investments.

Researchers are invited to present ideas and research results in this forum to accelerate their application and to foster interdisciplinary discussion on knowledge, strategies and tools leading to sustainable management of Canada's boreal forest. Working Papers are published without peer review. Do not cite this Working Paper without the expressed written consent of the author(s).Shades of Green:

The purpose of this study is to examine the current practices of relatively large corporations concerning the relationship between environmental disclosures and financial performance. An examination of 469 firms listed in the 1994 Forbes 500 was conducted. The results showed that firms classified as high financial performers had higher incidences of environmental policies and/or descriptions of environmental commitment than firms classified as low performers. Firms classified as medium financial performers had the highest incidences of firm environmental policies and/or a description of their environmental commitment. Copyright

Le CIRANO est une corporation privée à but non lucratif constituée en vertu de la Loi des compagnies du Québec. Le financement de son infrastructure et de ses activités de recherche provient des cotisations de ses organisations-membres, d’une subvention d’infrastructure du ministère de l’Industrie, du Commerce, de la Science et de la Technologie, de même que des subventions et mandats obtenus par ses équipes de recherche. La Série Scientifique est la réalisation d’une des missions que s’est données le CIRANO, soit de développer l’analyse scientifique des organisations et des comportements stratégiques. CIRANO is a private non-profit organization incorporated under the Québec Companies Act. Its infrastructure and research activities are funded through fees paid by member organizations, an infrastructure grant from the Ministère de l’Industrie, du Commerce, de la Science et de la Technologie, and grants and research mandates obtained by its research teams. The Scientific Series fulfils one of the missions of CIRANO: to develop the scientific analysis of organizations and strategic behaviour.

the co-Editor of the Special Issue Anne Ilinitch, and three anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments at various stages of this work. All errors and omissions remain my own. Financial support

The resource-based view of the firm is an emerging framework that includes bundles of resources, barriers, and isolating mechanisms that help a firm’s competitive position to be stable and defensible. This existing theory can provide insight into environmental management policy and specifically Environmental Management Systems (EMS) as a source of competitive advantage. To date, little attention has been devoted to addressing the implications of EMS as a contributing factor to firm competitive advantage. Contrary to an often-expressed view, environmental management systems may do more than just add to the costs of operations. Environmental Management Systems are a corporate paradox. They can be major contributing factors to the isolating mechanisms that firms use for protection against new entrants and to enhance profits. However, many managers see such systems as costs, not opportunities. The result is that they invest only enough to meet regulatory requirements This paper explores the events leading up to the development of EMS and how EMS can bring about a competitive advantage. Moreover, it attempts to resolve the paradox by developing a theory-based framework. This framework shows that the benefits of an EMS are the result of endogenous and exogenous factors that impact a firm’s awareness of these strategic benefits. The framework is used to generate research propositions and questions to be tested later.

This paper considers the complex relationships between the human and ecological elements of sustainability that exist in the minds of stakeholders and argues that a sensemaking approach allows these to be better understood and compared. This is supported by the results of a study, set in a fi nancial institution, exploring the relationships between these non-fi nancial elements of corporate sustainability. The viewpoints of middle management, branch and contact centre employees, executives, a community consultative council, suppliers and a community partner of a large Australian bank obtained in in-depth interviews are analysed and compared utilizing an innovative methodology of semantic analysis. We fi nd that these stakeholders ’ perceptions of the human–ecological relationship differ by group, containing different mixes of trade-offs and synergies between the non-fi nancial elements of corporate sustainability. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP