4.2Reponse Rate

4.2Reponse Rate

As described in previous chapter, a total of 90 questionnaires have been mailed to firms from manufacturing sector and consultants in equal proportion of 50 percent (45) to each. A total 34 out of 90 complete questionnaire received back which makes response rate approximately 38 % cumulatively, including both type of respondents which reveals the success of this research work. Failure response rate remained 62 % of total questionnaire sent. One reason of low response might be the unavailability of direct access to internet and limited time span.

 Figure4.2.1 shows that, the individual response rate received from consultants is higher as compared to manufacturing sector, given as 42.22 %( 19 response out of 45) and 33.37 % (15 response out of 45) accordingly. Limited time span is being considered a constraint of low response rate from manufacturing sector and consultant as well. Moreover, consulting firms are more conscious to response than industrial sector.

The response rate is considered to be a good as compare to other similar studies previously conducted by many other researchers. The data is broadly consistent with the major trends in the literature as survey conducted in many developing countries by authors. For example, Nee & Wahid (2010) with response rate 51.7 %; Tan (2005) with response rate 47.4 %, Massoud (2010) with response rate 40 % conducted their research. However, response rate is low as compared with similar research work but in connection with economical and technological advancement of the country in author’s point of view it is acceptable.

Figure 4.2.1 Individual response rate by sector out of total questionnaire sent

The result shows that a majority of respondents about 100 % consider that environment management system (ISO standard) is a tool for cleaner production and sustainable development. It is also perceived from feedback that personnel who are involved in EMS, having no adequate knowledge about environmental aspects and their impacts on environment.

As total 34 responses received from respondents and it shows 56% (19 out of 34) and 44 %( 15 out of 34) response rate which contribution to overall total response rate. An overall percent contribution of received result by individual sector is shown in the figure4.2.2 labelled below.

Figure 4.2.2 Breakdown of total response received by both sector overall

 The main aim of this study is to investigate the barriers and constraints in implementation of EMS in Pakistan. The main findings of this research work have been described in detail in next section. As described already, questionnaire comprises 15 questions which cover all aspects of study under discussion. By 91 % of respondents, the lack of infrastructure, week government policies and poor legislations with limited resources have been perceived the major constraint in implementation of EMS. As can be seen, lack of awareness with 82% ranking has been considered as a constraint in implementation of EMS. This study demonstrates a different angle of research taking consultants into account.

4-Findings and Discussion : 4.1 Brief about the Respondents:

4-Findings and Discussion

4.1 Brief about the Respondents:

This chapter reveals the findings of research work as described in previous chapter. The research focuses on two types of respondents having directly or indirectly link with each other. The respondents are divided into two categories like manufacturing sector and consultants. The manufacturing sector includes cement industry, refinery, and packages industry, fertilizer industry and metal manufacturers. The second participants are consultants who provide their services to industrial sector to cope with issues like quality management, environmental management, waste water treatment, environmental impact assessment, and training of the employees.

Table 4.1.1 General breakdown of respondents by sector and nature of business

Sector	Nature of Business
Manufacturing Sector	·         Fertilizer manufacturing ·         Paper and Packing industry ·         Polymer film manufacturing ·         Refinery ·         Cement manufacturing ·         Steel industry ·         others
Consultants	·         Consultant involve in implementation of EMS, QMS, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), Solution of environmental problems, Training and development of the employees. ·         Risk Assessment, Solid Waste Management, Air and Noise pollution Control and similar other environmental management related activities

Almost, all of the responding organization especially manufacturing organization are ISO 14001 certified like Pakistan Refinery limited, Century paper mill ‘Abbas steel Group’. These organizations have sound track environmental management system and environmental policies as per requirement of ISO 14001.

National Directory of Environmental Consulting Firms aims at providing services and facilities to individual and organization to resolve their environmental issues. This directory has been used as source of information for consultant selection based on their practical background and provision and reliability of services towards EMS adoption and implementation.

Likewise ‘National Engineering Consultants and other consulting firms are operating in Pakistan from last many years and contributing to sustainable development and cleaner production in industrial sector of Pakistan. These outside supporting bodies are providing services from government level to individual sector in order to suggest effective solutions of complicated issues associated with environmental degradation. Finally, a combination of results from consulting firms and industrial sector has been formed to assess the constraints in implementation of EMS in Pakistan.

Figure 4.1.1: Total number of ISO 14001 certifications achieved per year.

The response of adoption and implementation of EMS in Pakistan remained slow. Above labelled figure 4.1.2 represents the breakdown of ISO 14001 certification achieved by different organization in last one and half decade emerged from 10^th and 12^th ISO survey. Though companies are striving to adopt ISO standard in order to get competitive advantage at international level but still many barriers are in way to successful implementation. However, business community, government agencies and other supporting bodies are committed to follow the ISO standards but for this purpose awareness of EMS among all level of participants are vital.

3.6 Summary

3.6 Summary:

This chapter first represents introduction in section3.1 followed by the research strategy in section 3.2. Research strategy describes the research methods and its importance with outstanding benefit. In section 3.3 the research instrument and design of that instrument has been described.

 Questionnaire as a primary source of information has been designed which covers almost all aspects of the issues under discussion. In section 3.4 a brief about data collection and analysis has been represented. This chapter also describes the limitation and constraint of this research. Finally, the overall summary has been represented in section 3.6. The detail of findings and analysis has been described in next chapter under heading of ‘findings and discussion’.

3.5 limitations of Method

 Due to limited time and least cost effective method of acquiring same kind of primary data, questionnaire has been designed and sends through e-mail to target audience. However, few limitations are involved in this research work. First, only limited question can be asked through questionnaire and surveyor cannot get additional surrounding information about the topic. Moreover, absence of critical analysis by those firms who are lacking behind in implementation or made less progress is another drawback might result in weak opinion output.

Secondly, the quality of work can be affected by the characteristics of the target audience like experience, knowledge, interest. Other disadvantage might be poor comprehension of the question which may lead to ambiguity give birth of weak assessment of issue. Furthermore, the lack of help by surveyor at the time of assessment might lead to misinterpretation of meaning and missing of data. In future, a large scale survey in the same pattern targeting  individual manufacturing sector should be arrange to get more deep and exact information about the issue.

3.4 Data collection and Analysis

3.4 Data collection and Analysis

The collected data has been tabulated separately whether the respondent belongs to a consultancy or manufacturing sector. Moreover, the number of response against each question of survey questionnaire has been recorded in corresponding section depending upon the response nature. This methodology gives idea that who many respondents are saying ‘Yes’ or No; or commenting for their own views against each question.

At the end, the total number of respondents against each question has been calculated and rated out from total number of respondents. 

The overall data has been represented graphically for both type of respondents like consultants and manufacturing sectors. This provides direct comparison of respondent’s review against each question. Descriptive reliability analysis has been considered appropriate technique for this study.

3.3 Research instrument and design

3.3 Research instrument and design

Research design plays a vital role to link data with question under discussion and it sits between two. Basically, it is plan which includes research instrument, strategy, procedure and sampling &population (Zhang, 2000).

The aim of this research work is to pinpoint the barriers in implementation of environmental management system. As a primary source of information questionnaire as a research instrument has been designed that covers all aspect of this research work.

Firstly, an assessment of EMS and its implementation in industrial sector of Pakistan has been carried out. In this regarding information has been collected from Ministry of Environment, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA-Pak) , Ministry of textile , Ministry of commerce and Trade , Federal Chamber of Commerce , ISO consulting firms and Cleaner Production Centre besides with other similar information sources. After having information and analysis a questionnaire has been used as a source to collect primary source of data.

The focus and span of this questionnaire includes the questions about assessing the ‘role of EMS as tool for sustainable development’ constraints in implementation of EMS in manufacturing industry and its environmental and economic impacts. This Questionnaire is used as a primary source of information for survey on the basis of which further analysis and discussion has been carried out.

Questionnaire comprises total fifteen questions that covers three main area of research work labelled as

·         Is EMS a tool for sustainable development &cleaner production in organisations?

·         Identification of constraints in implementation of EMS in manufacturing sector and its environmental and socio-economic impact.

·         Perception about the benefits of EMS implementation and future trends regarding adoption of EMS.

Questionnaire sample has been labelled in appendix A.      

In first part of questionnaire, the respondents have been asked to express their views about the role of EMS as a tool for sustainable development and cleaner production. Question in the middle portion of the questionnaire belongs to barrier and constraints in implementation of EMS. Finally, last few questions composed to identify the awareness about the EMS implementation & adoption and perception about its impacts.

Participants has been requested to provide information about their designation (Massoud et al: 2010) and company, so that the reliability of the response can be assessed. Moreover, target audience has been asked to provide information about willingness of the companies to adopt EMS in future. The focus is to explore the experience of the industrial sector regarding the benefit enjoyed and constrained & barrier encountered in implementation of EMS (Christie et al: 1995).

Before conducting the actual survey, questionnaire has been reviewed and discussed with supervisor of this research work and necessary amendments has been made to ensure the quality and relevance with area of study.

Total sample of this research consists of 90 target audience. This audience has been divided into environmental consultants and industrial representatives with population of 45 and 45 percent accordingly.

3.2 Research Strategy

3.2 Research Strategy:

 Generally, two methods of research ‘qualitative and quantitative’ have been used for research depending on the nature and requirement of the investigation. Both methods have their strengths and weaknesses depending on the nature of research. According to Zhang (2000), the qualitative method allows to look into matter deeply and in detail while quantitative methods require a specific tools and instruments. One advantageous aspect of quantitative research is argued that the measurement of the reaction to limited set of question and specified criteria is the focus. On the other hand qualitative research method provides a wide range of information about much smaller people and cases.

 The nature of the study has reverence to investigation and analysis of the issue of implementation of EMS in manufacturing sector of Pakistan. In order to achieve the target two phase strategy is adopted for identification of constraints and for investigation of their impacts. Two types of target audience has been focused for study purpose like consultants and representative from manufacturing sector.

 Firstly, the information and literature relevant to implementation of EMS and constrains, has been reviewed and collected. On the basis of previous data and literature, as a primary source of information, a questionnaire has been designed.

Secondly, qualitative research methodology based on secondary source of information is used as supporting element.  These sources includes, previous case studies form books, journals and articles served as a supporting element to conceive outcome of this project in real, based on questionnaire survey.

According to Christie (1995) adoption of qualitative research methodology has a number of advantages, focusing on experience of the companies in implementation and adoption of cleaner production and EMS. This approach provides

·         “opportunity to identify key benefits and problems based on extensive company experience and reflection;

·         The potential for generalization on the basis of leading  edge experience;

·         The opportunity to draw on corporate in-house research and documentation.

In second phase, the data will be collected and interpreted to reach specific results. Qualitative research methodology will be used as a secondary source of information. Previous case studies in books and journals, articles, conference proceedings, and magazines are supporting element in this phase for discussion, analysis and conclusion

The main target focus of this questionnaire is manufacturing sector (refinery, cement industry, metal industry, fertilizer and pharmaceutical industry) and environmental management consultancies, with few firms having experience of ISO 9001 certification. The target audiences of this survey are those people who remained in touch directly or indirectly with environmental management department and in implementation of EMS.

The focus of target audiences are enough similar with the work done by Christie (1995). Target companies and consultants are selected for this survey due to following reasons.

·         Manufacturing sector is considered more responsible for environment with a sound track record of innovation and development. This urge the companies to develop environmental policies and adopt

Environmental management system and cleaner production

·         Chemical, cement and fertilizer industry has a long historical environmental innovation experience forces by legislative requirement.

·         ISO consulting firms plays a vital role in adoption and implementation of EMS. So, they are considered an authenticated source of information.

 The selected firms are ISO 14001 certified and pick randomly through internet search due to unavailability of specific information from any authoritative body from Pakistan.

The purpose of this division between consultants and manufacturing firms is to analyse the issues from two dimensions which focus on implementers (industrial sector) and observers or outside supporting bodies like consultants. The functional focus of this survey encompasses corporate level of analysis and plant level as well. This frame work can give the better picture of the issue under discussion. Due to scarcity of time and difficulty to access the respondent directly face to face, internet has been used to send questionnaire through e-mail rather than traditional method of postal mail.

The survey is sent to the firms information address due to unavailability of direct relevant person and it is also requested that direct this questionnaire to relevant person /department if you are not relevant person. Regarding the consulting firms the questionnaires have been sent on personal e-mail address listed for contact in directory.

3-Research Method

3-Research Method

3.1 Introduction

This chapter presents overview of research methodology and research design. In section 3.2, the research strategy about the research question and the study relevant to subject under discussion has been explained. 

Section 3.3, describes research design and instrument used for research. Data collection and analysis of the data has been described in section 3.4. 

Next section 3.5 describes the limitation of this study and finally, section 3.6 summarizes this chapter.

2.6 Summary

2.6 Summary:

 This chapter includes the introduction about the structure of this chapter. In next part of this chapter need for development of EMS and main stages of development has been discussed.  The role of EMS as a driving force for sustainable development has been explained with supporting evidence from previous work done. In order to remain competitive and sustainable, improvement and up gradation of existing programmes and policies are mandatory to compete at global level. Implementation of EMS has been considered as a tool to ease trade barriers (Massoud et al: 2010) and to gain competitive advantage over competitors.

 Followed by EMS as tool for sustainable development, the constraints in implementation of EMS have been discussed. Literature reveals different factors which hinder the implementation process of EMS have quite similarity with work done before. The environmental trends have gained the attention of stakeholders has gained attention of environmental experts.

In addition, lack of participation and information, lack of understanding and expertise, lack of infrastructure with poor top management commitment is considered as constraints in implementation of EMS. High cost involved in certification process and lack of best available technology is considered as barrier to implementation.  

A similarity has been found regarding constraints and implementation of EMS. Different strategies and critical success factors have been suggested by experts for successful implementation of EMS.

 Pfliegner K (Hillary: 1997 p43-5) proposed that Harmonization and non- discriminatory application of standard, development of infrastructure can ease the implementation process with mutual understanding, information sharing and participation of public sector, NGOs and other relevant bodies. 

In short this chapter provides information about the background of EMS, its role and constraints in implementation with recommendation and suggestions for further improvement in implementation. Finally, the overall benefits and incentives have been discussed that firms can gain through implementation of EMS. The research methodology will be discussed in next chapter in detail.

2.5 Benefits of EMS implementation

2.5 Benefits of EMS implementation:

6-Uncertainty about the Benefits:

6-Uncertainty about the Benefits: 

Most of the companies are not sure about the outcomes and benefits of EMS adoption and maintenance. Uncertainty about the benefits has been ranked on third 3.38 out of five on scale by respondent in a survey conducted by Babakri et al (2003 p 751). Adoption ISO standard can be boasted through incentives and rewards like reduction in tax, provision of soft loans. Such initiative definitely can result in improvement of product quality, reduction in cost, enhancement in company’s image, facilitation in non tariff trade barrier. Furthermore, implementation of EMS and maintenance can helpful to gain market share by attracting and gaining confidence of environment conscious buyers’ and builds pressure on competitors. Moreover, with sound environmental and business practices, not only the ties with insurance companies can be dealt with lower premium but also likewise benefits can improve the productivity and development of the organization (Quazi 1999).

As a supporting element Massoud et al (2010) points that the government agencies and institutes with financial assistance, provision of technical support, training and education, ease of capacity building are considered the significant aspects for positive impact.

Although, EMS is a voluntary, flexible system for the goodwill of the organization, yet its conformity is still a challenge for different countries even developed one like America, Japan. It is pointed that the ISO/TC207 is a willing to address the issues regarding EMS in future like changing corporate culture, theme of sustainable development, awareness about environmental issues and obstacles in implementation.

EMS basically provides foundation to identify the environmental aspects of the activities, products, processes and functions and their impacts on the environment, community and organization itself.

 Lawrence et al (2002) points that all environmental aspects has sound influence on aim and objectives of the organization set through corporate policy urge the top management to remain committed for continual improvement. However, it is argued that no technique is specifying for assessment and identification of aspects and their impacts.

. In addition, the elements as discussed in previous section as constraints have bad impact on the environment indirectly in terms of scarcity of EMS adoption by firms. Moreover, a significant point of EMS implementation is the identification of environmental aspect and investigation of its impact whether it is negative or positive. It is helpful in finalizing the objective and targets to prioritize the aspects (Zutshi and Sohal: 2004)