Joint impact of quality and environmental practices on firm performance in small service businesses: an empirical study of restaurants

This study explores the joint impact on firm performance of the decision to adopt quality and environmental practices in small service companies. In the literature existing to date insufficient attention has been given to small service companies in general, and to the restaurant sector in particular. Most of the studies conducted into environmental practices have thus focused on the industrial sector and on larger companies. This work is based on 374 surveys involving the managers of restaurants, using structural equation modeling to study the links between the dimensions studied. The findings of this study state that Quality Management Practices have a significant direct impact on market success factors but not on companies' profit and loss statements. On the other hand, the study shows a significant relationship between Environment Management Practices and financial performance. The article suggests that being proactive on quality and environmental issues can bring small service companies a great number of benefits that improve their competitiveness. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.