Objective To analyse the effect on the competitiveness, employment and skills of individual firms, when they make adjustments to environmental legislation and pressures coming from purchasers in the market.OBJECTIVES: To analyse the effect on the competitiveness, employment and skills of individual firms, when they make adjustments to environmental legislation and pressures coming from purchasers in the market. DESCRIPTION: Matched plant comparisons are applied to the issue of environmental standards, company competitiveness, the diffusion of clean technology, profitability and employment. Samples of manufacturing and retail firms are compared across Northern and Southern Ireland, Germany and Italy. All of these regions contain Objective 1 or equivalent areas, and are distinguished by varying environmental standards and levels of enforcement. The research concentrates on the food industry and looks specifically at the following issues: (i.)Food processing The impact of environmental regulation and other forms of "pressures" on company competitiveness are measured. (ii.)Retailer Effects The pressures for environmental and competitiveness improvements arising from market sources, especially from retail firms are evaluated, including how manufacturers adjust to these pressures. (iii.) Packaging suppliers The impact of changes in demand and in the environmental regulations on packaging and the linkage effects between participants in the supply chain, including manufacturers and retailers are explored. These linkages and supply chain pressures are examined in both directions, both up and down from the retailer. Samples consist of entire supply chains (packaging suppliers, food processors, retail purchasers) with one hundred and fifty firms being sampled in total. The sampling of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs), multinational branch firms, private and state companies reflects the varying structures of ownership in the case study regions. The overall conclusions will focus on the drivers for and the effects of environmental improvement in the packaging-food-supply chain. Fields of science social scienceseconomics and businessbusiness and managementemployment Programme(s) FP4-ENV 2C - Specific programme of research and technological development in the field of environment and climate, 1994-1998 Topic(s) 04 - Human dimensions of environmental change Call for proposal Data not available Funding Scheme CSC - Cost-sharing contracts Coordinator Queen's University of Belfast EU contribution No data Address University Road BT7 1NN Belfast United Kingdom See on map Total cost No data Participants (2) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all Economie e Ecologia Srl Italy EU contribution No data Address Stada Maggiore 29 40125 Bologna See on map Total cost No data Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung Germany EU contribution No data Address 5,Poschingerstraße 81679 München See on map Total cost No data