Evidenciation of Environmental Management: An Evaluation with Item Response Theory’

Abstract

The aim of this article is to measure the evidence ofEnvironmental Management using the Item Response Theory, based on website analysis from Brazilian industrial companies. This is a qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive study related to an information collection and analysisinstrument. Primary data was gathered from 638 company websites from 10 different Brazilian sectors: (1) Agricultural Production, (2) Automotive, (3) Chemicals and Petrochemical, (4) Construction, (5) Energy, (6) Paper, (7) Steel and Metals, (8) Information Technology, (9) Miningand (10) Textile. There was the creation of 26 items approved by environmental specialists. The results were attained with the measuring of Environmental Management evidence via the Item.Response Theory, providing a clear order of the items involved based on each item’s level ofdifficulty, quality, and propriety. This permitted the measurement of each item’s quality andpropriety, as well as that of the respondents, placing them on the same analysis scale. Increasingthe number of items involved is suggested for future research in order to permit broadersector analysis. It would also be interesting to build a Computerized Adaptive Test (CAT) forthe respondent – the end of the questionnaire – get, immediately, the degree of environmentmanagement evidence of your company. As such, a greater reach of the instrument should beconsidered with the objective to contribute to business management.

Keywords

• Evidenciation
• Environmental management
• Websites
• Measurement
• Item response theory