Supply Chain Sustainability—Drivers, Inhibitors, Solutions - Technology Management for Sustainable Production and Logistics - page 62

with the process of designing sustainable regulation appears to be a suitable
approach. Authors of regulation should take into account current and future direc-
tions of technology changes. The special case is a change in environmental policy
where politics clearly exceeds the given technological possibilities. The example
may be Top Runner approach which has been established in Japan in 1999 and
aims to reduce energy use in the commercial (for example in car industry), private
as well as transport sector (Leitner et al. 2010 ). The most energy-efficient prod-
ucts and systems are awarded annually. Among the product groups (e.g., passenger
cars), the most energy-efficient product (the “Top Runner”) becomes the basis of
the standard in three-12 years time, then the standards are used in the program of
law and tax scheme proposition. Top Runner focus on the quick diffusion of new
technologies and incremental innovations (Leitner et al. 2010 ). This is an interest-
ing example of good cooperation between innovators and authors of eco-regula-
tions and standards.
3.2 Expected Impact of Eco-Regulations
Most of the environmental regulations dedicated to the industrial sector have
direct impact on the operations and performance of firms. Generally, there are
many contrary views being expressed in the debate about the positive or negative
impact of environmental regulations on the competitiveness of particular
industry (Triebswetter and Wackerbauer 2008 ). In policy circles, the thesis of a
positive relationship between environmental regulations and competitiveness
became very popular in the nineties but is still controversial, primarily because
of the complexity of attributing regulation and the largely ambiguous empirical
evidence (Leitner et al. 2010 ). Many authors have found a positive relationship
between environmental regulations and improved performance. There are many
examples of positive effects. Zhu et al. ( 2007 ) have studied operations strategies
(in the form of green supply chain practices) and performance of Chinese
manufacturers in response to environmental and institutional pressures. They have
found that increased environmental pressure on Chinese manufacturers improved
performance of firms.
Khanna et al. ( 2009 ) argue that the mere anticipation of stringent environmen-
tal regulations is often enough to induce innovation and to have positive influ-
ence on industrial performance. In many cases the anticipation of rigid policies
may entice firms to become more innovative in order to gain a competitive advan-
tage by establishing industry standards and creating potential barriers to entry for
competitors.
Maxwell et al. ( 2000 ) argue that firms are more likely to eco-innovate in
anticipation of regulatory changes in cases where the threat of government
regulation is high, the marginal cost of eco-innovation is low, and most
importantly, the perceived marginal value by consumers for such environmental
improvements is high.