Green Service Practices: Performance Implications and the Role of Environmental Management Systems

Research on the effects of environmental management has largely neglected the importance of green service practices and their impact on environmental protection and cost reduction. There is also little knowledge on how service-oriented firms may leverage their efforts in providing green services to achieve performance improvement through their existing environmental management system (EMS). Grounded in the natural resource-based view in conjunction with the contingency theory, we develop a model linking two key green service practices, <i>green service delivery</i> and <i>green service support</i>, to cost and environmental performance. The model considers the moderating role of the existing EMS that may affect the performance results of green service practices. This differs from previous studies that focus on the direct performance impact of EMS. Using survey data from 206 service firms, results indicate that green service delivery and support contributed to cost reduction and environmental performance. However, performance impact was strengthened by the adoption of uncertified EMS instead of certified EMS. This study contributes to the conceptual development of green service practices, the understanding of their impact on cost and environmental performance, and the role of EMS in supporting service-oriented firms to achieve such performance.