Business Excellence, Vol. 4 No. 1, 2010.
Original scientific paper
Environmental performance of Croatian companies in relation to ownership type
Sanda Rašić
; Faculty of Economics, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
In the light of corporate social responsibility, company success is determined not
only by economic performance but also by social and environmental performance. Hence,
the value based environmental management improves corporate environmental performance
and enhances business excellence. Th e purpose of this paper is to examine the differences
in environmental performance among companies of various type of ownership
in Croatia (e. g. private ownership, state ownership, and foreign ownership), to compare
the main obstacles in achieving better environmental performance of these companies,
and to explore the infl uence of environmentally friendly products on important company
characteristics.
Within the secondary research, relevant literature covering this issue was consulted.
Within the primary research, a study was conducted on the sample of 350 Croatian
companies and 63 questionnaires were received. Statistical data analysis was done using
SPSS 13.0. Th ree ownership-type groups were compared by Chi-square tests and ANOVA
analysis.
According to our fi ndings, there are no diff erences among Croatian companies of
diff erent ownership types in the majority of environmental performance dimensions. Statistically
signifi cant diff erences can be established only in product/services environmental
features and device/equipment environmental features. Th e highest obstacles in achieving
better environmental impact are: weak government incentives, high purchasing costs of
clean technologies, insuffi cient legislation, and increased production costs of new clean
technologies. As regards the infl uence of introduction of environmentally friendly productson certain company attributes, the paper has shown that the highest infl uence of environmentally
friendly products is on the company image.
Keywords
environmental performance; ownership type; Croatia
Hrčak ID:
59540
URI
Publication date:
30.6.2010.
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