Kent State University’s College of Business Administration alumnus, Thomas Ngniatedema, Ph.D., received the 2014 Outstanding New Researcher Award for his significant contributions in the area of Information Systems and Supply Chains Management. Ngniatedema, a Kettering University professor, graduated from Kent State University in 2011 with a Doctor of Philosophy in Business Administration. He led a team of researchers who found evidence that environmentally friendly practices increase profits for organizations. The team analyzed data from Newsweek’s environmental reports on 500 publicly traded companies in the Unites States. The team compared financial performance of companies in manufacturing and service sectors with environmental metrics over the span of two years. "This study is an invitation to corporate investment in innovative pollution prevention because we found that companies that score well according to objective environmental criteria realize stronger financial returns than their counterparts," Ngniatedema said. "We found that firms in the manufacturing industry tend to be more green-oriented than those in the service industry.” The manufacturing industry included organizations in sectors of:
· Consumer products
· Vehicles
· Food and Beverage
· Industrial goods
· Pharmaceuticals
· Technology and Utilities
The service industry consisted of:
· Banking and Insurance
· Financial Industries
· Health Care
· Media
· Travel and Leisure
· Retail
The performance of Fortune 500 companies financially improved in consumer products, food and beverage, retail and health care when environmentally friendly operations were considered. Ngniatedema’s findings were published in the August issue of Environmental Quality Management. "This study will motivate other companies to adopt green practices because as we found, it pays to be green," Ngniatedema said.