With the importance of corporate social responsibility being increasingly recognised, PortEconomics member Grace Wang co-authored along with Xiao Yi and Kevin Li (Chung-Ang University), a study that aims to help a cruise company identify social and environmental issues that present risks and opportunities, while taking into consideration the most concerning environmental issues to the external stakeholders.
A Super-slack-based measure model, combined with the Malmquist productivity index, is applied to measure environmental efficiency in the period of 2010 to 2015. Comparing Carnival Corporation and its subsidiaries, we use air emissions, water and wastewater, and solid waste as undesirable outputs to assess environmental efficiency. The results show that Carnival is not as efficient as its subsidiaries in air emissions but makes significant progress in emission reduction technology and innovation of energy conservation. Similarly, Carnival Corporation & its subsidiaries resolve water pollutions and solid waste under the regulation of MARPOL Annex IV and Annex V. Estimating and comparing green practices and green performance, we provide an objective quantification of environmental measures to offer rational and external advices to the shipping companies and the maritime society as a whole.
The study helps a cruise company identify social and environmental issues that present risks and opportunities, while taking into consideration the most concerning environmental issues to the external stakeholders – with how to balance stakeholders’ interests and improve company’s overall performance being among of the major tasks.
The study has been presented in the International Association of Maritime Economists 2018 Conference (IAME2018) held 11-14 September, Mombasa, Kenya. The Extended abstract and presentation can be freely downloaded via PortEconomics.