Gestão estratégica de operações sustentáveis: perspectiva institucional e abordagem dos stakeholders

Abstract

The aim of this dissertation is to incorporate the concepts of sustainability into the formulation of operation strategies. The proposed model is composed of five vertices: the external context, manufacture decisions and practices, operations value chain activities (with an emphasis on suppliers), organizational learning (internal and external knowledge exchange), as well as the manufacture performance (competitive dimensions). The main theoretical contribution of this model is sustainability being treated intrinsically, with its interaction with each one of the vertices, which expands traditional concepts. The main consensus that has been found in all the literature is the adoption of sustainable practices often driven by the influence of the external environment. Thus, this research has been based upon two organizational theories: the stakeholders’ theory and the institutional theory. Whereas the first aims at understanding specific demands for sustainable practices, the second one encompasses a system of broader and deeper values in the social structure. In order to empirically validate the proposed model, a cross-section survey was applied on the managers of the metalworking, electrical appliances and electronics industry. Such plants are located in Brazil, and have been exacted from the local industry directory database. Hence 277 plants were contacted one by one by telephone, and the survey addressed plant manager. Afterwards, the data were collected with a structured questionnaire, with scales previously validated in other studies in the operations research area, as well as with new scales that were formulated for this particular study. There were 62 valid respondents, which accounted for a response rate of 22%. The collected data were employed in two studies. The first study relates stakeholders’ pressure to the green manufacture practices that is the plant initiative for improving its environmental performance. The results shown that the most coercive stakeholders are the regulatory, through laws and norms, local and international clients, and shareholders. The second study deals with organizational learning and knowledge; the green management practices, green supply management, and manufacture performance. In order to assess the institutional factor, data from a previous research carried out in Canada have been incorporated into the second study. The Canadian dataset was collected with the same scales as the Brazilian one, addressing the same industries. In addition, that dataset shows the same characteristics both in the respondents profile and in the response rate: 18%. Thus, the variable “country” was set as a moderating factor in the relations. It has been verified that, in Brazil, where the labor cost is cheap and the production machinery is expensive, the internal knowledge exchange plays a pivotal role in the relations with green manufacture process and green supply management. In the Canadian plants, where the scenario is the opposite, expensive labor force and cheaper machinery, external knowledge exchange is important. The manufacture performance did not show differences, with both countries having the internal knowledge exchange influence the delivery performance. Also, in both countries, the external knowledge exchange has an impact on the new products development. This dissertation main contribution is to provide insights for the literature in operations as well as proper information to plant manager and practitioners in operations management.