Does environmental sustainability matter to small and medium enterprises? Empirical evidence from India

The governance factor: Mitigating carbon emissions through FDI and financial development in emerging Asian economies

This study investigates the influence of foreign direct investment (FDI), financial development (FD), and governance on carbon emissions in 15 emerging Asian economies (EAEs) from 2000 to 2021. It aims to assess how successful these nations have been in upholding ecological sustainability while promoting themselves as alternative manufacturing destinations to China and fostering domestic manufacturing through significant financial development. It creates a composite governance quality (GQ) measure and three subdimensions-EcoGov, InstGov, and PolGov-to assess its precise role in influencing the FDI-carbon dioxide (CO2) and FD-CO2 nexuses. Using fully modified ordinary least squares (FMOLS) and dynamic ordinary least squares (DOLS) panel cointegration techniques, this study yielded findings revealing that FDI and FD significantly enhance carbon emissions. The overall GQ significantly moderates the FD-CO2 nexus but fails to moderate FDI's detrimental environmental influence. More specifically, EcoGov significantly moderates FDI's and FD's influence on carbon emissions, whereas InstGov significantly enhances their influence on emissions. In contrast, PolGov is only found to moderate FD's impact on environmental quality since the Government frequently endorses liberal environmental regulations to facilitate FDI-led growth. The findings from this study are robust and carry distinct policy ramifications.

An integrated DEMATEL-MMDE-ISM approach for analyzing environmental sustainability indicators in MSMEs

The Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) face numerous environmental challenges encompassing resource and energy conservation; waste generation and disposal; water and air pollution; and so on. As a result, it becomes critical to implement policies, strategies, and technologies that can help in reducing the adverse impacts of manufacturing activities on the environment. In this context, the current study identified 15 critical environmental sustainability indicators to assess the impact of manufacturing activities on the environment by taking a case study of lock manufacturing MSMEs. To understand the interdependence among the selected indicators, the study further utilizes an integrated DEMATEL-MMDE-ISM approach to analyze the inputs of industry professionals. The results of the study highlighted that green product design, which facilitates the product to be disassembled, reused, or recycled and are free from hazardous materials, plays a significant role in enhancing the environmental sustainability of the concerned industry. Green product design significantly affects 12 other indicators out of 15 under consideration; thus, incorporating green practices in the design and development of a product leads to significant improvement in environmental sustainability. The study is expected to aid decision-makers (industry practitioners and academic researchers) to identify strategic areas in order to achieve higher environmental sustainability in manufacturing organizations.