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This study aims to investigate the feasibility of integrating the social, environmental and innovation processes within the four-perspective sustainability balanced scorecard (SBSC) model by determining the extent of linkages between and within the four SBSC perspectives.

A survey collected responses from senior management and middle management of large Australian companies.

The findings support several positive significant associations. Direct associations are found between value-creating processes within the internal process perspective. These results support the feasibility of integrating environmental, social and innovation-orientated value-creating process into the internal process of the four-perspective SBSC model. The results also provide evidence about the extent to which direct or indirect associations exist between the four SBSC perspectives: first, direct association of human capital (learning and growth perspective) with value-creating processes (internal processes perspective); second, direct association of value-creating (internal processes perspective) with customer value (customer perspective); and third, direct and indirect associations of value-creating (internal processes perspective) with financial performance (FP; financial perspective).

Several limitations are acknowledged related to cross-sectional data, senior and middle managers’ perceptions and assumptions underpinning structural equation modelling.

The implications for practice from this study concern how organisational management should relate to their stakeholders while providing value in their FP.

These associations reflect the influence of stakeholders’ recognised needs on process and product innovation. These needs highlight the benefits of focusing on future-orientated environmental budgets and ongoing employee training that lead to customer value and FP.

This is an initial in-depth study of a four-perspective SBSC model that provides an effective means of integrating social, environmental and innovation processes within the traditional four SBSC perspectives.

This paper investigates similarities and differences in total quality management practices across different industry groups such as the service, manufacturing, and construction industries. The study also investigates the relationship between the quality management practices and business performance by industry category. A survey was conducted using Powell’s framework as a basis, and sent to Queensland businesses. A total of 140 responses were received – 58 from the service sector, 62 from the manufacturing sector, and 20 from the construction sector. The results suggest that there are some common factors including value chain integration, efficiency and employee involvement, though the composition of quality management practices comprising these factors differed somewhat between industries. The results reveal that value chain integration in particular appears to be an important factor for quality management in each of the industries examined. The results of MANOVA analyses suggest evidence of an association between some of the quality management practices and performance for the service and manufacturing industries but not for the construction industry.

A primary purpose of the voluntary administration legislation is to provide a flexible procedure by which a company can attempt to reorganise its affairs and continue trading. Informed decision‐making regarding which companies should attempt reorganisation is critical to the efficient operation of company rescue legislation. This paper explores decision‐making associated with the voluntary administration process, with a focus on the relevance of financial information to the reorganisation decision. Statistical models are developed to provide some insight into the reorganisation decision and the problem of identifying suitable (successful) reorganisation candidates from a pool of distressed companies. Additionally, insolvency experts’ decisions regarding companies’ prospects in reorganisation are examined. The decision accuracy of insolvency experts was found to be significantly lower than statistical model accuracy, indicating that further development of statistical models may be a useful aid to insolvency experts.

This study aims to investigate the association between a motivated and prepared workforce and environmental performance.

Self-administered surveys were used to collect data for the study from 300 organisations operating in Australia. Confirmatory factor analyses were used to test the robustness of the various measurement models, and structural equation modelling was used to test the two propositions for this study.

The results identify significant associations between affective commitment, employee performance process and training and enhanced environmental performance, which is mediated through the value-creating processes, work practices, process improvement and innovation process. Also, there is a set of sequential associations between work practices and process improvement and well as process improvement and innovation process.

The study has identified specific management practices that enhance environmental performance. The findings add to the body of knowledge because previous studies focused on general conceptual rather than actual management practices. The implications for practice are that organisations should enhance organisational affective commitment to their environmental strategy, tailor employee performance processes and provide regular, specific training to employees to improve processes that lead to better environmental performance.

Results, mentioned in findings above, provide some specificity to associations that had been illustrated and explained previously in an abstract or conceptual framework. A framework of identified associations provides a basis for future research and for practical application to assist with organisational environmental performance as part of a corporate sustainability strategy.

This study aims to investigate the impact of quality management practices on performance and the extent to which industry rivalry and entry barriers moderate the relationship between the implementation of quality management practices and quality management performance.

A survey questionnaire was administered for this research using Powell's quality management framework. The respondents were required to indicate their degree of implementation of quality management practices and to rate their TQM performance in relation to overall performance, the firm's competitive position and the nature of the impact of quality management on the organisation. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses.

The results show that firms with high levels of executive commitment to quality management and those that pay close attention to customer needs tend to improve their competitive position, view quality as being positive for the organisation, and improve overall performance. The results suggest that the degree of quality management implementation is positively associated with entry barriers, which would mean reduced level of threat from new entrants; whereas the industry rivalry issues were not significantly associated with either quality management or organisational performance. The findings also show that existing firms' ability to create entry barriers facilitates increased opportunities to improve their organisational performance.

The sample was relatively small, subjective measures of organisational performance were used which may be biased due to respondents' interpretation of their own firm's performances, and there is a possibility that many firms with low levels of QM implementation may not have participated in the study, leading to self‐selection bias. These factors may limit the generalisability of the research findings to other settings. Therefore further research is required to ascertain whether the same practices are evident across organisations of different sizes and industry groups within a broader sampling frame.

The findings suggest that quality management implementation by firms within an environment where higher levels of entry barriers exist results in higher organisational performance due to the firms' relative protection against new competitors.

This is one of the very few papers to investigate the role of Porter's industry analysis framework in relation to quality management implementation and firm performance.

Purpose – This paper extends the literature in the environmental disclosure area by examining annual report disclosure practices of Australian companies within the combined voluntary and mandatory environmental disclosure system. Design/methodology/approach – Content analysis was used to investigate the environmental disclosures over three consecutive years in the annual reports of companies that would be subject to environmental regulation and/or perceived to be environmentally sensitive. Findings – The study finds that Australian listed companies have a propensity to disclose higher levels of positive environmental disclosures in the voluntary sections of the annual report than in the statutory sections of the annual report. Research limitations/implications – These results suggest that regulatory authorities may need to acknowledge the usefulness of mandatory disclosure requirements as a potential means of counter‐balancing the voluntary disclosure system. It has been argued that the annual report is not the sole disclosure medium used by companies Further research may not only investigate these issues but also add weight to arguments for more environmental accountability. Practical implications – The results suggest that companies adopt different disclosure approaches when the disclosures are potentially under surveillance or increased scrutiny via legislated environmental disclosure requirements. Originality value – This research provides evidence that companies continue to use greater levels of self‐puffery within a voluntary reporting environment than within a mandatory reporting environment, and suggests that stakeholders may be more likely to receive information that is less favourable to the corporation (and potentially more decision‐useful to stakeholders) within a legislated disclosure environment.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the key “hard” and “soft” quality management factors used by Australian small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their association with organisational performance.

A survey questionnaire was constructed for this research using Powell's quality management framework. The respondents were required to indicate their degree of implementation of quality management practices and to rate their TQM performance in relation to overall performance, return on assets, market share and customer satisfaction.

The study found that improved overall performance appears to be favourably influenced by a combination of “hard” TQM factors such as benchmarking and quality measurement, continuous improvement, and efficiency improvement; and the “soft” TQM factors consisting of top management philosophy and supplier support, employee training and increased interaction with employees and customers. Furthermore, the TQM factors of employee training, efficiency improvement, and employee and customer involvement would appear to be important in maintaining customer satisfaction, whilst employee and customer involvement also appeared to be important in maintaining a competitive edge in terms of return on assets.

The findings show that it is necessary to focus on a combination of soft or behavioural aspects and the hard “systems‐oriented” aspects of QM to achieve an improvement in overall performance, and that to maintain customer satisfaction and return on assets it is just as important to focus on employee involvement and training, as it is to have a customer focus.

Investigates the key strategic approaches used by Queensland businesses in achieving their quality objectives. Finds that the highest ranked quality management techniques of total sample firms included a program for reduction in defects, commitment and communication of commitment to quality programs, an open trusting culture and interaction with customers and suppliers. Finds also that in excess of 65 per cent of Queensland businesses adopt some form of quality management techniques, of which ISO 9000 was found to be dominant. Quality management approaches used by businesses committed to quality management were compared with those which had no formal commitment to quality management. The results suggest that businesses committed to a quality management program are more inclined to have top executive support for, and organisational communication of, quality management principles, plus greater emphasis on better customer relationships, and that these quality management approaches are positively associated with organisational performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between organisations' sustainability performance management practices and sustainability performance.

Data for the study were collected from 314 medium to large organisations operating in Australia. A mailed printed questionnaire was used to collect the data. Personal interviews with 20 senior executives were conducted to pilot test and refine the questionnaire.

The results indicate the organisations apply eight sustainability performance management practices (SPMPs) to improve seven different sustainability performance indicators (SPIs). Each of the eight SPMPs is positively associated with at least one or more SPIs. The paper finds that customer value, new product development and information capital performance indicators are each associated with a single SPMP, while the other four performance indicators (environmental, employee value, social responsibility, and financial performance) are each associated with multiple SPMPs. Overall, the results indicate that increasing the level of an organisation's focus on its individual SPMPs is positively associated with its better performance under one or more SPIs.

This study provides empirical evidence concerning which SPMPs are positively associated with particular SPIs. A framework of the identified SPMPs and SPIs is developed with a view towards promoting future research and practical applications to foster organisational sustainability performance.