What makes companies green? Organizational and geographic factors in the adoption of environmental practices

In this paper we advance the hypothesis that organizational factors play a key role in the adoption of environmental innovations, referred to as envir onmentally conscious manufacturing (ECM) practices. We distinguish among th ree classes of organizational factors: organizational resources, organizati onal innovativeness, and performance monitoring systems. The research also explores the interplay of organizational factors and spatial or geographic factors (such as proximity to customers and suppliers) in the adoption of E CM practices. We employ a structured field research design, involving "matc hed pairs" of plants, to address these issues. The findings confirm the hyp othesis. Organizational factors matter significantly in the process of ECM adoption. Furthermore, two classes of organizational factors are particular ly significant to ECM adoption: organizational resources and performance mo nitoring systems. Performance monitoring systems composed of quantitative g oals and related metrics are a particularly key factor. The research finds that geographic or spatial factors have little effect on the adoption of EC M practices, reflecting the significant geographic distance between custome rs and suppliers in the sample. There may be reason to expect that geograph ic factors play a more significant role, but this is a subject for future r esearch.