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3 Total Quality Environmental Management: Adoption Status in
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5 the Chinese Manufacturing Sector
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Purpose - To address the critical sustainability challenges currently faced by China,
13 manufacturers in this country have committed to improve their environmental
14 performance. To support this commitment, evidence suggests that Chinese
15 manufacturers have mainly turned to the implementation of environmental
16 management approaches such as ISO 14001, cleaner production, green supply chain
17 management, circular economy and green lean. However, the adoption of other
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approaches such as Total Quality Environmental Management by Chinese
19 manufacturers is less clear. This paper fills this gap by providing light into
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fundamental issues regarding the implementation of TQEM in the manufacturing
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sector of China.
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23 Methodology/design/approach - A survey-based exploratory study was conducted

24 based on 119 Chinese manufacturing companies and the data obtained was analysed
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25 using a combination of descriptive and inferential statistics.

26 Findings – The results revealed that in general, there is less awareness of TQEM in
27 the Chinese manufacturing sector than other environmental and quality/operations
28 improvement approaches such as green supply chain management, reverse logistics,
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ISO 9000, Six Sigma and lean six sigma. Thus, its degree of implementation is also
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lower than these approaches as well as ISO 14001. The results also indicate that
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although a company’s size is not associated to the implementation of TQEM, it is
mainly large organisations and those that have adopted TQM those which will be
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34 mainly aware and have implemented TQEM. The study also reveal the drivers, results
35 and challenges of TQEM implementation.
36 Originality/value - The paper extends the currently limited knowledge on TQEM, and
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37 its results are beneficial for managers who aim at effectively adopting TQEM to
38 simultaneously improve the environmental, operational and financial performance of
39 their organisations. The paper can also motivate organisations not currently embarked
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on the “green wagon” to contemplate the benefits that implementing TQEM, or any
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other environmental management approach, may bring to their operations and
43 business.
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45 Keywords: China; Environmental Management Systems; EMS; Manufacturing; Total
46 Quality Environmental Management; TQEM.
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49 1. Introduction
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51 China’s manufacturing industry has not only become a main driving force of social
52 development and economic growth for this nation (Zeng et al., 2010), accounting for 32.5%
53 of the GDP of this country (Wei and Balasubramanyam, 2015), but it has also transformed
54 the world’s economy. For example, nowadays China manufactures about 70% of the world’s
55 mobile phones, 80% of its air conditioners, and 60% of its shoes (The Economist, 2015),
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greatly contributing to the output of “Factory Asia”, which now produces almost half of the
58 world’s goods.
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3 Despite its enormous economic contribution, the Chinese manufacturing industry is often
4 criticized for being a major cause of environmental degradation, climate change, and natural
5 resources scarcity (Zeng et al., 2008). China’s current environmental challenges have been
6 demonstrated by the fact that 16 of the 20 world’s most polluted cities are located in China,
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rendering 8% to 12% of its annual GDP consumed to manage those issues (Economy, 2011).
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9 According to Wang et al. (2004), 40% of water pollution and 80% of air pollution in this
10 country are generated by its manufacturing industry. In addition, Liu et al. (2016) found that
11 products manufactured in China are associated with significantly higher CO2 emissions than
12 the same goods produced elsewhere. These characteristics accentuate the environmental
13 challenges currently faced by the Chinese manufacturing industry and the sustainable balance
14 that it must achieve between serving as an engine of economic and social development while
15 still preserving the environment.
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17 In recent years, many Chinese manufacturing companies have committed to improve the
18 environmental performance of their operations and actively respond to environmental
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19 regulations (Tseng et al., 2009). To support this commitment, the scholarly literature shows
20 that Chinese manufacturers have adopted environmental management approaches and
21 practices related to ISO 14001 (e.g. Zhang et al., 2014; Zhu et al., 2012), cleaner production
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(e.g. Chung et al., 2016; Geng et al., 2010), green supply chain management (e.g. Zhu et al.,
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2008; Zhu et al., 2005), circular economy (e.g. Zhu et al., 2010; Yuan et al., 2006), reverse
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logistics (e.g. Abdulrahman et al., 2014) and green lean (e.g. Zhan et al., 2016). However, the
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26 adoption of other also well-known environmental management approaches such as Total
27 Quality Environmental Management (TQEM) is less clear. TQEM is a method which
28 integrates Total Quality Management (TQM) principles and environmental strategies to
29 eliminate waste and pollution to improve environmental performance (Curkovic et al., 2007).
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30 Empirical evidence suggests TQEM as an effective approach to improve the environmental

31 performance of organisations by contributing to the elimination of waste and pollution as
32 well as to achieve compliance with environmental regulations and quality strategies
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(Curkovic et al., 2008; Hanna et al., 2000). Additionally, the adoption of TQEM practices has
35 also been associated to the achievement of cost savings by conserving and recycling energy
36 as well as lowering future costs by mitigating environmental problems in advance (Curkovic
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37 et al., 2008).
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Nevertheless, despite the relatively high degree of adoption of TQEM by Western
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manufacturing organisations (Harrington et al., 2008; Florida, 1996), there is very limited
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41 evidence of the level of implementation of this specific environmental management approach
42 by Chinese manufacturers. Therefore, the main contribution of this paper lies in filling this
43 research gap by providing evidence of the degree of adoption of TQEM in the Chinese
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44 manufacturing sector. In addition, TQEM seems to have received less attention in the
45 academic literature, especially when compared to the relatively high volume of publications
46 on other environmental management approaches such as green supply chain management,
47 reverse logistics, ISO 14001, and lately green lean and circular economy. For this reason, this
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paper also contributes by expanding the limited body of knowledge on TQEM found in the
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50 academic literature when compared to that of other environmental management approaches.
51 To achieve this, the paper addresses the following fundamental research questions:
52 What is the degree of awareness of TQEM among Chinese manufacturing organisations?
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54 What is the degree of adoption of TQEM among Chinese manufacturing organisations?
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What has stopped Chinese manufacturing organisations from more widely adopting TQEM?
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3 The rest of the paper is divided as follows: Section 2 discusses previous works conducted
4 regarding the adoption of TQEM and highlights the limited volume of scholarly research
5 carried out in this area; Section 3 presents the research methodology followed to address the
6 formulated research questions; the results of the study are outlined and discussed in Section
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4; whereas Section 5 presents the concluding remarks, limitations of the research and future
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9 research.
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11 2. Literature review
12 Manufacturing organisations have been traditionally driven by prevailing objectives that
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include efficiency, profitability, customer satisfaction, responsiveness and quality (Garza-
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15 Reyes, 2015). In particular, quality has been widely considered a determinant factor for the
16 success and competitiveness of manufacturing companies (O’Neill et al., 2016; Garza-Reyes
17 et al., 2015a). However, despite the importance of quality, and other operational objectives,
18 environmental regulations and customer demands for greener products and services have
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19 forced manufacturing organisations to rethink these objectives by also considering the
20 environmental impact of their operations. Thus, sustainable and green objectives are now
21 well embedded as part of the corporate agenda of many manufacturing organisations, and
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these are hence required to be balanced with the traditional objectives. In this context, the
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academic literature suggests the existence of some synergy between some of the traditional
organisational objectives, e.g. quality, and environmental sustainability. For instance, various
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26 authors such as Wiengarten and Pagell (2016), Narasimhan and Schoenherr (2012), Curkovic
27 and Sroufe (2007) and Curkovic et al. (2000) have highlighted the importance of quality
28 management systems and practices as facilitators of environmental management systems and
29 as enablers to obtain higher returns from environmental management practices. The synergies
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30 between quality and environmental objectives, and the natural evolution of the quality and
31 environmental management systems fields have contributed for these two fields to “intersect”
32 and propose approaches which have evolved from previous evolutionary stages and both
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fields, see Figure 1. In this line, TQEM is an approach which has evolved from TQM and to
35 support sustainability/environmental initiatives. Thus, TQEM intends to synergise the
36 implementation and effects of quality management and environmental management systems
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37 to overcome common challenges when implemented separately, for example, conflicts for
38 resource allocation and priority attention (Griffith, 2002).
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Figure 1. Evolution of the Quality and Environmental Management Systems fields (adapted
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8 TQEM was developed in 1992/1993 by the Global Environmental Management Initiative
9 (GEMI), a group of then 21 companies formed in 1990, including IBM, AT&T and Kodak, to
10 foster environmental excellence in businesses (GEMI, 2017; Love et al., 2000). In this
11 context, TQEM was born from the GEMI’s intention of applying TQM principles and
12 approaches to corporate environmental strategies. TQEM is therefore considered to have
13 evolved from the traditional quality-focused TQM, see Figure 1, as it lacked concentration on
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environmental issues (Watson et al., 2000), which were gaining increasing attention since the
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16 mid1980s. Thus, TQEM focuses on integrating quality and environmental management
17 principles to reduce and eliminate all waste steams within the design of products, their
18 manufacture, utilisation and disposal (Sarkis et al., 2010). Although TQEM does not have a
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19 clear set of dimensions or standard definition (Zhu et al., 2012), Khadour (2010) comment
20 that is centred on four fundamental principles, namely: (1) identification of external and
21 internal customers; (2) continuous improvement; (3) doing the job right first time; and (4)
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taking a system approach.
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24 A handful of exploratory studies have been conducted to investigate the acceptance of
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25 TQEM among industrialists. For example, a survey by Florida (1996) investigating the
26 adoption of TQEM among S&P manufacturing firms in 1995 found that 43% of these
27 companies had adopted TQEM. Similarly, Harrington et al. (2008) conducted a study of 462
28 observations among 254 firms belonging to the S&P500. The results of the study indicated
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that almost 67% (i.e. two-thirds) of the observations had adopted TQEM. Khadour (2010)
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explored the implementation of TQEM in the UK construction industry. The result of the
32 study suggested that only 22% of 50 firms surveyed were not aware of TQEM, whereas the
main driver for its implementation was found to be compliance to governmental
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34 environmental regulations. Khadour (2010) also found that the main benefits that
35 construction companies obtained from the implementation of TQEM were cost savings and
36 measurement of performance while the main barrier to its implementation was the lack of a
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37 clear implementation framework. Finally, Zhu et al. (2012) committed to exploring the
38 influence of international pressures and domestic pressures on Chinese firms to be green. To
39 do this, Zhu et al. (2012) considered ISO14001, TQEM and eco-auditing as examples of
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environmental management approaches. The result of the study indicated that international
42 pressures have a positive impact on the adoption of TQEM and that its degree of impact is
43 higher than that of domestic pressures. The results also revealed that 45.6% of the
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44 organisations surveyed had adopted TQEM, although a later study showed that only 22.9% of
45 these companies had adopted TQEM successfully (Zhu et al., 2013). The studies from Zhu et
46 al. (2012) and Zhu et al. (2013), however, have been limited to only explore the adoption of
47 TQEM in China from a point of view of the adopting factors which influence such
48 implementation.
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50 Despite the above evidence, Curkovic et al. (2008) suggest that TQEM has not received
51 the same level of acceptance in industry and academia as other approaches such as just-in-
52 time (JIT), TQM and time-based competition. This is also evidenced through the relatively
53 low volume of research publications on TQEM when compared to that of other popular
54 environmental management approaches. This limited volume of research calls for an
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opportunity to complement the studies of Florida (1996), Harrington et al. (2008), Khadour
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57 (2010), Zhu et al. (2012) and Zhu et al. (2013) and expand the very limited body of
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3 knowledge currently generated in the field of TQEM. This was the main motivational driver
4 to conduct the research presented in this paper.
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11 3. Methodology
12 3.1 Survey questionnaire
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14 In order to address the research questions previously formulated regarding the adoption status
15 of TQEM in the Chinese manufacturing sector, a survey questionnaire was considered as the
16 most suitable method for the collection of primary data. In this case, an electronic version of
17 the questionnaire was developed using Qualtrics. This facilitated the respondents’ access to
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the questionnaire via mobile devices and web browsers as well as the easy transfer of the
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collected data to an Excel spreadsheet for an easy export to IBM SPSS Statistics software
21 version 2015 for statistical analysis (Binti Aminuddin et al., 2016). The questionnaire was
22 adapted from those of Garza-Reyes et al. (2012) and Antony and Desai (2009). In this line,
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23 due to the similarities of the present research with those conducted by Garza-Reyes et al.
24 (2012) and Antony and Desai (2009), which respectively aimed at investigating the
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25 implementation status of lean manufacturing and Six Sigma in India, the questions
26 formulated for their instruments were used as a basis to convey the questions of the
27 instrument employed by this research. Thus, the questionnaire instrument designed for this
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research consisted of thirteen questions divided into three sections that intended to collect
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information regarding the demographics of the participants and their companies, their
31 awareness of TQEM and implementation of TQEM in their organisations. Figure 2 presents
32 an overview of the research’s structure and questionnaire’s logic and questions.
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34 3.2 Questionnaire validity and reliability
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36 Lancaster (2008) indicates that in order to obtain validity and reliability in a survey
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37 instrument it is important to inspect the variables or data from the literature review that
38 constitute the survey in the form of questions before the instrument is distributed. To achieve
39 a valid and reliable instrument, reliability threats such as subject or participant error, subject
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40 or participant bias, observer error and observer bias were confronted by conducting a small
41 pilot study as suggested by Robson and McCartan (2016).
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43 For this purpose, the questionnaire was distributed to ten credible participants that
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44 included five manufacturing managers from China and five academic experts in the field.
45 This resulted in the questionnaire instrument being amended and improved to eliminate
46 participants’ errors and bias. In particular, the academic experts’ feedback was considered to
47 ensure that the questions in the instrument addressed the fundamental research questions and
48 to improve the clarity and comprehensiveness of some of the questions included. Thus,
49 ambiguities when understanding and answering questions and irrelevant questions were
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eliminated based on the academic experts’ feedback. The manufacturing managers’ advice
52 was followed by adding extra profile questions such as industrial experience of the
53 participants and size of the company in order to test some correlations among the occurred
54 results.
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Since the questionnaire instrument used fixed-alternative questions, these did not require
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57 interpretation. Therefore, the last two threats (i.e. observer error and observer bias) were not
58 relevant in this case (Binti Aminuddin et al., 2016).
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39 Figure 2. Research’s structure and questionnaire’s logic and questions
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42 3.3 Questionnaire distribution
43 The questionnaire was distributed via e-mail among 150 Chinese manufacturing companies
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located in various provinces of China. The participant organisations were randomly identified
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46 and selected from directories and data bases that included Global Sources, LinkedIn,
47 Amadeus and IQS Directory, whereas some others were personal contacts of the authors. The
48 target respondents included top managers, middle level managers, engineers, front-line
49 managers, etc. from various departments such as production, maintenance, environmental,
50 maintenance, design, purchasing, etc. This contributed in providing information about TQEM
51 from different organisational perspectives. Additionally, this type of respondents, and their
52 backgrounds, were considered to have a deeper and more accurate understanding of the
53 company’s operations and performance before and after the implementation of TQEM.
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55 Out of the 150 questionnaires distributed, a final total of 119 valid responses were
56 obtained, resulting in a response rate of 79.3%. Based on comparative sample sizes used in
57 similar survey-based studies related to environmental management approaches (e.g. Teixeira
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3 et al, 2016; Khor et al., 2016; Khadour, 2010; Vachon, 2007) the sample size of 119
4 responses used in this study was considered acceptable to conduct an exploratory analysis
5 and draw initial conclusions regarding the implementation status of TQEM in the Chinese
6 manufacturing sector.
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11 4. Results and discussion
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13 4.1 Organisations and participants’ profiles
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Figure 3 presents an overview of the profile of the organisations and subjects from the
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16 Chinese manufacturing industry that participated in the survey. In terms of the organisation’s
17 size, see Figure 3(a), the standard Chinese classification was used to categorise the
18 respondents’ organisations, i.e. large>1,000 employees, medium between 300-1000
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19 employees, small between 20-299 employees and micro<20 employees (China Briefing,
20 2011). Most of the responses came from employees in tactical, i.e. middle level, see Figure
21 3(b). Middle level employees represent one of the most valid sources of information, and they
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normally participate in and lead the adoption and management of new working methods and
23 practices in their organisations (Carter et al., 1998). This characteristic, and the fact that 80%
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of the respondents had university education, see Figure 3(c), and significant years of working
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26 experience, see Figure 3(d), can be considered factors which support the credibility of this
27 study (Kirkham et al., 2014). Finally, the study was not limited to a specific manufacturing
28 industry but it considered the entire manufacturing spectrum, see Figure 3(e). In this case,
29 “others” represented industries such as energy production, steel processing, metallurgical,
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32 4.2 TQEM awareness
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33 The study indicated that 61% (n= 73) of the participant organisations were aware of TQEM
34 while 39% (n= 46) were not. This suggests that TQEM may be less known in the Chinese
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manufacturing sector when compared to the UK’s construction sector (Khadour, 2010). Due
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37 to the limited research of TQEM in the scholarly literature it is difficult to establish a

38 comparative base between the awareness of TQEM in the Chinese manufacturing sector and
39 other industrial sectors and countries. However, when compared to the awareness of other
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40 environmental management approaches, TQEM seems to have gained less acceptance over
41 the years. For example, Zhu et al. (2005) suggest that the level of awareness of green supply
42 chain management in China is high. Lau and Wang (2009) also indicate that the awareness of
43 reverse logistics in the Chinese electronic industry has increased. Similarly, Xue et al. (2010)
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44 found that most Chinese officials working at municipal and county levels have high
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awareness and understanding of the circular economy concept. The level of awareness of
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47 TQEM among Chinese manufacturers found in this study may not be considered low.
48 However, taking into consideration that TQEM is a relatively mature approach that was first
49 discussed in the academic literature by the beginning of the 1990s and that green supply
50 chain management, reverse logistics and circular economy are more contemporary
51 environmental management approaches, it may be concluded that TQEM has not gained the
52 same level of acceptance in China as these approaches. Considering that the TQEM’s
53 predecessor (i.e. TQM) has been widely implemented in China and it has provided the
54 expected results (Yusuf et al., 2007), a higher awareness of TQEM in China would have
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probably been expected.
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6 Figure 3. Profile overview of respondents and their organisations in relation to (a) size of the
7 company, (b) position, (c) educational level and (d) working experience of the participants,
8 (e) manufacturing industry
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13 When comparing the awareness of TQEM to other quality and operations improvement
14 approaches, its growth also seems to be more limited. For instance, Vouzas and Psychogios
15 (2007) commented that the degree of awareness of ISO 9000 among Northern Irish
16 executives was high, with almost nine out of ten executives (88%) having heard about it.
17 Antony and Desai (2009) found that out of 290 Indian organisations from various industrial
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sectors 264 (92%) of them were aware of Six Sigma. Lee et al. (2013) found that out of 50
19 UK organisations from various industries 33 (66%) of them were aware of lean six sigma. It
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is difficult to explain the reasons as to why TQEM has not gained a wider level of acceptance
22 in both industrial and academic circles not only in China but also around the world. However,
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23 the abundance of TQM failures published in the academic literature (Soltani et al., 2005) may
24 have contributed to hinder the acceptance and popularity of TQEM.
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4.2.1 TQEM awareness and company’s size
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27 From the 73 organisation that were aware of TQEM, 50 were large (50/79= 63%), 14
28 medium (14/20= 70%), 6 small (6/14= 43%) and 3 micro (3/6= 50%). It is common to find a
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wider implementation trend of best practices such as TQM, JIT, ISO 9000, ISO 14000,
30 kaizen and six sigma in larger manufacturing organisations (McLaughlin, 2013). Thus,
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finding out that 87% of the Chinese manufacturing companies that were aware of TQEM had
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more than 300 employees can be considered an expected phenomenon.
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34 4.2.2. Source of awareness
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36 In terms of the source of awareness, 62% of the respondents came to know about TQEM
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37 from personal education, 32% from top management, 26% from professional publications
38 and 16% from consultancy agencies. Other sources of awareness included customers,
39 business partners and company quality/environmental programmes. In this case, respondents
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40 were given the opportunity of selecting more than one source. Determining that personal
41 education is the main source of awareness of TQEM in the Chinese manufacturing sector is
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unsurprising, considering the fact that almost 500,000 Chinese students carry out their studies
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44 abroad (ICEF Monitor, 2015), especially in Western countries where approaches such as lean
45 manufacturing, six sigma, supply chain management, total quality management, among
46 others, are well embedded within a large range of engineering and business management
47 programmes. Top managers and professional publications serving as important sources of
48 awareness on TQEM is in line with the studies of Garza-Reyes et al. (2012) and Antony and
49 Desai (2009), which also found these as relevant sources of awareness on lean manufacturing
50 and six sigma in India.
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4.3 TQEM adoption
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54 The results of the study showed that out of the 119 organisations that participated in the
55 research, 43% (n= 51) had adopted TQEM while the rest 57% (n= 68) had not. This is in line
56 with the study of Zhu et al. (2012), which found that out of 377 companies investigated
57 45.6% of them had adopted TQEM. The relatively low implementation of TQEM in the
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3 Chinese manufacturing industry corroborates the previous finding regarding its also limited
4 awareness in China despite it may be considered a mature environmental management
5 approach and China has faced critical environmental burdens since few decades ago (Zhu et
6 al., 2013). Zhu et al. (2012) suggest that TQEM fits well within the Chinese context in terms
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of supporting various general regulatory policies, such as those established by the Circular
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9 Economy. However, this has not reflected in its wider adoption.
10 In relation to other environmental management approaches, although TQEM is considered
11 a variation of ISO 14001, and vice-versa (Curkovic et al., 2005), the adoption of ISO 14001
12 seems to have found much more proliferation in China than TQEM. For example, Qi et al.
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(2011) comment that over 35,000 organisations in China had already implemented ISO
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15 14001 by the end of 2009. The difference in their degree of implementation may come from
16 the fact that ISO 14001 is an increasingly common requirement for accessing markets
17 (Stalley, 2009) while TQEM is not. Similarly, green supply chain management, circular
18 economy and reverse logistics all seem not only to enjoy a wider recognition and awareness
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19 than TQEM, see Section 4.2, but also a more prominent role as the emphasis paid on these
20 environmental management approaches in the scholarly literature, within the context of
21 China, suggests their wider implementation (e.g. Chung et al., 2016; Geng et al., 2010; Zhu et
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al., 2008; Zhu et al., 2005; Zhu et al., 2010; Abdulrahman et al., 2014). Since no other
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reported application, or study, of green lean exists in the academic literature within the
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context of China, besides that presented by Zhan et al. (2016), it may be assumed that TQEM
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26 has been more widely deployed than this more contemporary approach.
27 When compared to other quality and operations improvement approaches, Taj (2008)
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found that lean manufacturing is not very common in Chinese factories while Lee et al.
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(2011) commented that only very few companies in this country are involved in the
31 implementation of six sigma. In the case of TQM, Yusuf et al. (2007) found that its
32 implementation in China has been extensive. Although it would be too adventurous to
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33 conclude that TQEM has been more widely implemented than lean manufacturing and six
34 sigma in the Chinese manufacturing sector, this evidence may suggest that this could be the
35 case. However, a specifically designed comparative study may need to be conducted to gain a
36 more reliable and accurate insight into this. In any way, based on the huge popularity and
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37 amount of literature and empirical studies found in the body of knowledge of lean and six
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sigma, it will not be difficult to assume and accept that quality and operations improvement
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approaches like these two have been more widely implemented worldwide than TQEM.
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41 Again, further research will need to be conducted to scientifically confirm this assumption.
42 4.3.1 Company’s size and implementation of TQEM
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44 It is commonly hypothesised in the scholarly literature that large organisations have more
45 positive attitudes towards the implementation of quality and operations improvement
46 approaches than small companies (McLaughlin, 2013; Taj, 2008). To explore this
47 phenomenon within the context of TQEM, a correlation analysis was performed, the results
48 are presented in Table 1.
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Table 1. Correlation analysis – Size of the company and degree of TQEM adoption
52 TQEM adoption
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The size of companies Yes=1 No=0
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55 Large companies=1 38 (1,1) 41(1,0)
56 Medium and SMEs=0 13(0,1) 27 (0,0)
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3 Size of the company and degree of TQEM adoption
4 Hypothesis 1: the degree of TQEM adoption is positively associated with the size of the
5 company.
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Correlation Coefficients 0.14308 <0.3
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9 Since the correlation analysis showed a coefficient<0.50, i.e. 0.14308, then the results
10 indicated that the degree of adoption of TQEM is not associated to a company’s size. The
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lack of similar analyses on TQEM makes its comparison with previous results impossible.
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However, if compared to other quality and operations improvement approaches, e.g. adoption
14 of lean or quality practices, these results support the findings of Garza-Reyes et al. (2015b) in
15 relation to the adoption of lean in the Turkish automotive suppliers industry and those of
16 Mallur et al. (2012) and Al-Najem et al. (2013) in relation to the adoption of quality
17 practices. In these cases, these studies found that the size of a company does not affect the
18 implementation of these quality and operations improvement approaches. The results,
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19 however, contradict the studies of Sezen et al. (2012) and Bakas et al. (2011), which found
20 that a company’s size has an effect on the implementation of lean, with small organisations
21
struggling more with such activity. These contradictory results call for further research to
22
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determine whether the size of a company has any inference of the implementation of TQEM.
24 4.3.2 TQM and implementation of TQEM
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26 Although TQEM is committed to using TQM approaches (Harrington et al., 2008), and King
27 et al. (2005) suggest that companies that have implemented TQM are more likely to adopt
28 TQEM, no empirical evidence has been provided to explore such relationship. Therefore, a
29 correlation analyses was performed, see Table 2.
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31 Table 2. Correlation analysis – Relationship between TQM and TQEM adoption
32
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33 TQEM adoption (Y)

34 TQM adoption Yes=1 No=0
35
36 Yes=1 49 (1,1) 29 (1,0)
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37 No=0 2 (0,1) 39 (0,0)

38
39 Relationship between TQM and TQEM adoption
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40 Hypothesis 2: The degree of TQEM adoption is positively associated with the degree of
41 TQM adoption.
42
Correlation Coefficients 0.55368 >0.5
43
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44
45 The correlation results indicated a correlation coefficient>0.50, i.e. 55368, which
46 suggested that the adoption of TQEM was positively associated to the implementation of
47 TQM, a regression analysis to further explore this relationship was conducted as suggested by
48 Hayter (2012), see Table 3.
49
50 Table 3. Regression analysis – Relationship between TQM and TQEM adoption
51
52 Regression of TQM adoption and TQEM adoption
53 H0: Companies who have adopted TQM are not more likely to adopt TQEM
54 H1: Companies who have adopted TQM are more likely to adopt TQEM
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57 R-square Coefficient p-level Evidence against null hypothesis
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3 0.30959 0.53431 5.02718E-11 very strong
4
5
6 The regression analysis indicated that 53% of the companies that have adopted TQM will
7 also adopt TQEM. Since the p-value is <0.001 the evidence against the null hypothesis (H0)
8 is strong (Hayter, 2012), thus it was rejected. Therefore, it can be concluded that companies
9 which have adopted TQM are more likely to also adopt TQEM. This suggests that although
10 TQM has been more widely implemented than TQEM, e.g. out of the 119 companies that
11
participated in the study 66% (n= 78) had implemented TQM and only 35% (n=41) had
12
13 adopted TQEM, the implementation of the second may also increase in the future due to the
14 wide acceptance of TQM in China (Yusuf et al., 2007).
15 4.3.3 Drivers, results and challenges of TQEM implementation
16
17 Figure 4 presents the (a) main drivers which motivated the Chine manufacturing companies
18 that participated in the study to implement TQEM, (b) the results they obtained from such
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19 implementation, and (c) the main challenges they faced during the TQEM’s deployment.
20 Participants were given the opportunity of selecting as many answers, i.e. drivers, results and
21 challenges, they considered played a role during and after the implementation of TQEM. This
22
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“multi-selection strategy” allowed the study to obtain a more accurate picture of the
23
24
phenomenon under study (Azzara, 2010).
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27
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29
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32
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36
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39
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41 (a)
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45 (b)
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47
48
49
50
51
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53
54
55
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57 (c)
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 The TQM Journal Page 18 of 26

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4 Figure 4. (a) Drivers, (b) results and (c) challenges of TQEM implementation
5
6 Choosing to implement TQEM to improve brand image, see Figure 4(a), is a reasonable
7
business driver for manufacturing companies in China as Zhu et al. (2010) showed that 67%
8
9 of Chinese and 42% of US consumers prefer to buy products/services from companies that
10 enjoy an environmental reputation. The results obtained from the implementation of TQEM
11 indicate that Chinese manufacturers are actually benefiting from a better company’s image,
12 see Figure 4(b). In the case of the second most important driver (i.e. social responsibility), see
13 Figure 4(a), since environmental problems have seriously affected people’s daily life in
14 China, it is not surprising to see that manufacturing companies want to contribute to address
15 this issue through the implementation of TQEM. In relation to the cost savings achieved by
16 the implementation of TQEM, see Figure 4(b), this is in line with the views of Khadour
17
(2010), Curkovic et al. (2008) and Harrington et al. (2008), who comment that one of the
18
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19 objectives of TQEM is to improve internal operation efficiency and reduce costs while
20 simultaneously achieving environmental excellence.
21 On the other hand, lack of in-depth understanding was found to be the main barrier faced
22
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by the companies when implementing TQEM, see Figure 4(c). This is a common barrier in
23
24
the implementation of quality and operations improvement approaches as shown by Garza-
Reyes et al. (2012) and Antony and Desai (2009). A reason for this barrier may be the fact
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25
26 that, like lean (Pingyu and Yu, 2010), TQEM has not yet gone beyond the environment of
27 some research institutes, universities and international corporations. This is also in line with
28 the second most important barrier related to the lack of highly skilled employees, which is
29 normally a critical success factor to implement any improvement approach (Antony and
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30 Desai, 2009). Like TQM, TQEM is based on the participation of everyone within an
31 organisation (Zhu et al., 2013; Curkovic et al., 2005). The results indicate, see Figure 4(c),
32 that Chinese manufacturing companies are struggling to develop a TQEM culture that goes
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33
34
across the entire organisation. This is contradictory to the now well recognised need among
35 Chinese companies for them to address the environmental challenges that the country is
36 facing (Zhu et al., 2008; Zhu et al., 2005).
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37
38
4.4 Impeding factors in TQEM implementation
39
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40 Respondents from the 68 organisations that had not implemented TQEM were asked to
41 identify the main impeding factor that they considered had stopped their organisations from
42 adopting TQEM. The results are presented in Figure 5.
43
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5
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12
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14 Figure 5. Main impeding factors to TQEM implementation
15
16 The results of the study corroborate, once more, the relatively low popularity and
17
18
acceptance of TQEM in the Chinese manufacturing sector as the respondents suggested “lack
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19 of awareness” as the main impeding factors for not implementing TQEM. Possible reasons
20 for this have been discussed in previous sections. In response to the critical environmental
21 issues faced by the country, the Chinese government has stepped in by enacting acts on
22 environmental protection and laws, and support state-owned medium-sized and large
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23 enterprises with technological overhaul for reducing sources of hazards and pollution (Zeng
24 et al., 2010). Similarly, it has also strongly promoted the implementation of ISO 14001 (Zeng
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25 et al., 2005). A similar promotion of TQEM in the Chinese manufacturing sector may be
26 convenient to support all the environmental strategies and actions already rolled out by the
27
28
Chinese government. As suggested by Zhu et al. (2012) and Curkovic et al. (2005), TQEM
29 can support policies and strategies, such as circular economy and ISO 14001, geared towards
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30 jointly improving economic and environmental performance (Yuan et al., 2006).

31 Despite the recognised consciousness of the Chinese government (Zhu et al., 2012; Zeng
32
et al., 2010), manufacturing industry (Tseng et al., 2009) and society in general regarding the
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33
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critical environmental challenges faced by China, this seems not to have filtered down
35 appropriately to a company’s level as “lack of support from top management” was found to
36 be the second highest barrier, see Figure 5. Top management support has been widely
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37 recognised in the academic literature as a cornerstone factor for the successful

38 implementation of any quality and operations improvement approach (Talib et al., 2011; Zu
39 et al., 2008). Thus, if Chinese manufacturers are to successfully implement TQEM, or any
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40 other environmental management approach, support, commitment and leadership from

41 companies’ executives must be provided. To gain their commitment, the Chinese government
42
can formulate appropriate strategies based on economic incentives or create laws to force
43
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44 them to actively participate in the implementation of green programmes such as TQEM.

45 Additionally, the government can provide “awareness training” to executives, which would
46 help in developing a sense of urgency and ownership regarding their role, and that of their
47 companies, in improving the environmental conditions of China.
48
“Lack of expertise” and “lack of knowledge and training” were also found to be important
49
50 impeding barriers to the implementation of TQEM. Expertise, knowledge and training are
51 also considered critical success factors for the successful implementation of any quality and
52 operations improvement approach (Talib et al., 2011). Developing learning and training
53 within Chinese manufacturing companies will contribute in creating a well-trained workforce
54 which will eventually play a critical role in successfully implementing any environmental
55 management approach, including TQEM.
56
57 Alkhidir and Zailani (2009) and Min and Galle (2001) have identified high cost as one of
58 the major challenges to the implementation of green supply chain practices. The results of the
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1
2
3 study show that this is also the case for the implementation of TQEM. Like any other green
4 and quality and operations improvement approaches, the implementation of TQEM will
5 require commitment and investment not only in terms of effort and time but also in terms of
6 resources, including that of capital. This, and the fact that most environmental management
7
approaches do not deliver immediate financial benefits (Nidumolu et al., 2009) make this a
8
9 critical barrier to the implementation of TQEM. However, once effectively implemented,
10 TQEM will not only help organisations in improving their environmental performance but
11 also their financial performance through the reduction of operational costs and savings
12 (Khadour, 2010; Curkovic et al., 2008; Harrington et al., 2008). This should serve as an
13 incentive for the Chinese government to help organisations, especially small and medium size
14 enterprises, to mitigate these initial costs through some form of government support.
15
16 Finally, although the respondents were given the opportunity of mentioning any other
17 barrier, besides those provided to them as part of the fixed-alternative questions, none of
18 them cited the lack of a clear implementation framework, such as in the case of the UK’s
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19 construction sector (Khadour, 2010), as an impeding factor for the implementation of TQEM.
20
21 5. Concluding remarks, limitations and future research directions
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23 Much of the dramatic growth of China over the last decade has been fuelled by a strong
24 manufacturing base that has served the country, and indeed the world, as an engine of
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25 economic and social development. This growth, however, has been accompanied by equally
26 dramatic environmental problems such as environmental degradation, climate change, and
27 natural resources scarcity. To address these concerns, substantial academic research has been
28
devoted to study the application of environmental management approaches such as ISO
29
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30
14001, cleaner production, green supply chain management, circular economy, reverse
31 logistics and green lean by Chinese manufacturing organisations. However, very limited
32 research has been conducted regarding the application of TQEM. Therefore, this paper is
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33 among the very first studies which have investigated the degree of adoption of TQEM by
34 Chinese manufacturers. In this way, the present paper fills a research gap, as previously
35 established in Sections 1 and 2, and extends our knowledge in the field of environmental
36 management systems by:
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37
38
• Exploring the degree of awareness of TQEM among Chinese manufacturing organisations,
39
including its relationship to a company’s size and source;
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40
41 • Investigating the degree of adoption of TQEM among Chinese manufacturing
42 organisations and establishing its relationship to a company’s size and the implementation
43 of TQM;
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44 • Exploring the drivers which motivated Chines manufacturers to adopt TQEM, the results
45 they have obtained from such adoption, and the challenges they faced during its
46 deployment; and
47 • Helping us to understand the main impeding factors that have stopped Chinese
48
manufacturers from more widely adopting TQEM.
49
50 Besides these theoretical contributions, the paper also contributes to the practice of
51 environmental management systems as these contributions are beneficial for managers who
52 aim at effectively adopting TQEM to simultaneously improve the environmental, operational
53 and financial performance of their organisations. Although the present study was particularly
54 focused on the manufacturing sector of China, other industrial sectors such as logistics and
55 transport, healthcare, services, among others, which also have the need of addressing the
56 negative impact of their operations, are also likely to benefit from this study due to the wide
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3 applicability of TQEM. Like the manufacturing industry in China, all these sectors are
4 receiving increasing pressures from various stakeholders to operate more sustainably.
5
6 Generally, the paper provides some interesting insights into the implementation standing
7 of an environmental management approach, i.e. TQEM, in China. This may motivate
8 organisations not currently embarked on the “green wagon” to contemplate the benefits that
9 the implementation of TQEM, or any other environmental management approach, may bring
10 to their operations and business.
11
12 In terms of limitations and future research directions, this paper has been mainly confined
13 to an exploratory study which provides light into the application of TQEM. Future research
14 can consider and adopt the findings derived from this research to develop an implementation
15 framework which facilitates the adoption of TQEM. Although this was not an impeding
16 factor to adopt TQEM in the Chinese manufacturing sector, according to the results of this
17 study, it was a relevant factor in the UK’s construction sector as suggested by Khadour
18
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(2010). Another compounding constraint of this research is the fact that it was only limited to
19
20
the manufacturing sector of China. Thus, further research is required to provide added
21 insights into the application of TQEM in other industrial sectors and countries. A study of
22 this type will provide further evidence on the role of industry characteristics towards the
e

23 adoption of TQEM and its contribution to the environmental, operational and business
24 performance of organisations. As this study was particularly focused on industrialists, future
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25 studies can also include academic and research experts in order to also obtained a theoretical-
26 based view on the implementation of TQEM. A combination of both pragmatic and
27 theoretical views will certainly provide a more powerful combination source to not only
28
understand the implementation nature of TQEM but also other environmental management
29
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30
approaches. Finally, also coupling future research with qualitative methods such as
31 interviews can contribute in uncovering more specific details regarding the adoption of
32 TQEM. As these future research directions have been defined based on the limitations of the
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33 present study, it has not only brought further light into the environmental management system
34 field but it has also opened new areas for research within this area.
35
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