This thesis is an empirical study of managerial responses to environmental issues in the UK food manufacturing sector. The research seeks to contribute to the literature on organisational greening to better understand the process and practices of managerial engagement with, and responses, to environmental issues. It examines the nature of environmental pressures and managerial responses and contributes to understanding the potential, and challenges, in moving beyond what might be viewed as 'business as usual' approaches. The research focuses on managerial perspectives and actions in relation to environmental issues while setting this within an understanding of the organisational and institutional contexts within which organisational actors operate and within which they are attempting to engage with environmental and broader sustainability issues. For this I "draw on Institutional Theory in understanding the institutional embeddedness of organisational action as well as the 'institutional work' of organisational actors around defining and defending appropriate act ion. The thesis suggests that environmental response in the UK food manufacturing sector can be characterised as chiefly reactive and defensive. I show the institutional work in which organisational actors engage that sustains this approach by analysing research participants' accounts of room for manoeuvre within their organisations and within the constraints of contemporary food industry arrangements and relations. The thesis raises important questions about the willingness and ability of organisational actors to effect the kinds of changes being called for in some quarters and questions the role currently being ascribed to business organisations as environmental problem-solvers.

This study provides an empirical assessment of the antecedents and outcomes of Environmental Supply Chain Management within the UK food industry. Sustainability has emerged as an important issue within the Operations and Supply Chain Management fields in recent years. The objective of this study is to contribute to the new and emerging field of Sustainable Supply Chain Management (SSCM) by considering some of its key recurring themes. An extensive literature review in chapter two highlights three key issues requiring further attention namely, environmental response (proactive or reactive), the role of stakeholder pressure and the performance outcomes of SSCM. On the back of this literature review, chapter three identifies a series of research questions in need of investigation and sets out a theoretical model for the task. Data was gathered from a sample of 1200 food manufacturing firms within the UK, generating a response rate of 12.4%. This data was then analysed using ,multiple regression analysis. The key findings were: (1) a proactive approach to environmental management is associated with a number of different environmental practices both internally and at the supply chain level; (2) firms mostly appear to be motivated to implement these practices as a result of their internalised commitment to the environment rather than due to external pressure from different stakeholder groups. Lastly, there was some evidence to suggest that environmental performance might benefit as a result of environmental management, however, improvements do not appear to penetrate to the level of operational performance. These findings contribute to existing research and thus help to further the development of the SSCM field.

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This research attempts to investigate the use & applicability of lean thinking concepts in the food industry & to develop a strategy for the productive adoption of lean thinking in the food industry. In . order to investigate the application of lean manufacturing concepts in the food industry, a lean manufacturing framework comprising of lean goals, lean principles and lean practices, has been developed through a systematic review of the literature. Considering that the food industry is not one industry but a collection of several types of industry producing a diverse range of products and employing a varied range of processes, a food industry classification system is proposed on the basis of visits to various food plants and the available literature. To investigate specific issues pertaining to the adoption of lean concepts in the food industry, a multiple case study research strategy approach is selected for the research investigation. This research investigation includes fifteen case studies. Except for one case study of a vehicle plant the rest of the case studies relate to food manufacturing plants. The case study of a vehicle assembly plant was selected in order to undertake a comparison with the food industry. The fourteen food manufacturing plants and the one vehicle assembly plant have been studied through a visit tour together with interviews, documentation and a questionnaire. Each case study has been described with regard to product, market, raw materials and process aspects of a plant. Subsequently the case studies have been assessed in order to understand the degree of leanness by examining the status of lean practices. All the cases pertaining to the food industry were mapped on the food industry classification scheme to identify specific food industry types of each of the food plants. It is observed that the lean model widely adopted in a discrete manufacturing environment, particularly automotive, is not applicable as such in the food sector. Therefore, a lean approach consisting of lean principles, lean practices and lean vision has been suggested for continuous, batch and assembly type of the food industry which would enable food industry to stay competitive. The major contributions of this research are, the development of a lean manufacturing framework consisting of goals, principles and practices which can be used to assess the leanness of any manufacturing plant, the development of a food industry classification system which would help researchers and managers to better understand the specificity of the production systems, an investigation of issues pertaining to the use and applicability of lean manufacturing in the food industry to help the food industry take advantage of operational improvement initiatives to stay competitive in today's global market, the development of a lean approach comprising of lean principles, lean practices and lean vision for the food industry which would enable the managers to transform their plants into lean plants.