The impact of learning effects of environmental management system on performance of renewable energy firms

The climatic change problem has resulted in increased interest in sustainable development. Firms in renewable energy industry are currently facing challenges to maintain competitiveness while keeping minimal environmental impacts. Responding to the above challenges, environmental management system (EMS) has becoming more popular within organizational policies, programs, and operating agendas. Especially, in the knowledge-intensive industry, the learning efforts of EMS can effectively improve technological development, managing efficiency, and firm performance at the same time. Then, the aim of this article is to examine the relationships among strategic objectives, the learning effects of EMS, and firm performance in the renewable energy industry. After practical investigation, it shows that the gaps between strategic objectives and firm performance can be narrowed if suitable management skills are applied for different EMS approaches. On this basis, this article advises that suitable management controls should be employed under different EMS approaches. (c) 2015 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 34: 1106-1112, 2015