Environmental Regulation and Competitive Advantage: A Study of Packaging Waste in the European Supply Chain

This study focuses in detail on the environmental compliance/competitiveness relationship with respect to the regulation of packaging waste. An important and innovative feature of the study is its emphasis on backward and forward linkages. An entire supply chain is considered: packaging manufacturers and suppliers, food processors and the food retail sector, to study the competitive effects of environmental standards on manufacturing companies and the vertical links and supply responses. A variety of regulatory regimes is represented by including within the study companies from Germany, Italy, the Republic of Ireland and the United Kingdom. While it is of note that the relatively strong regulation in Germany has indeed had effects on company behaviour, there is no evidence that environmental regulations hindered companies from achieving competitive performance.

Analyses consider: the response of individual firms to different levels of regulation; the cost of compliance; impact on employment; the influence of the supply chain on environmental and competitive performance; the importance of firm size and ownership; and the impact of regulation on competitiveness, and firm competitiveness on the efficiency of adjustment to regulation.

David Hitchens, Professor of Applied Economics, Queen’s University, Belfast, Esmond Birnie, Ulster University, the late William Thompson, formerly Queen’s University, Belfast, UK, Ursula Triebswetter, Department of Labor and Economics, State Capital Munich, Germany, Paolo Bertossi, Senior Research Officer, Eco and Eco, Bologna, Italy and Luciano Messori, Department of Management, Università di Bologna, Italy