Water and waste management strategies as drivers of the financial performance of food companies
研究通过模糊集定性比较分析61家全球食品上市公司，发现水效率目标、废物回收等五种实践组合能导致股票市场高估值（Tobin's Q>1），为管理者和投资者提供决策参考。
Environmental degradation and resource overuse can affect business operations. Sustainable development is therefore a global economic priority. Food companies must develop strategies to ensure food security and seek business models to provide economic, social, and environmental benefits. This paper presents the combinations of water and waste management practices (water efficiency targets, water consumption ratio, water intensity ratio, waste recycling ratio, and waste intensity ratio) that lead to an overvaluation of food companies in the stock market (Tobin's Q > 1). These combinations of practices were identified using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) of a global sample of 61 listed companies from the food production sector. No necessary conditions were found for the outcome of a Tobin's Q >1. In contrast, the sufficiency analysis revealed five sufficient configurations for overvaluation. The presence of significant recycling and waste reuse performance and the absence of a strong intensity of water withdrawal and waste production are key conditions to achieve the presence of the outcome. The findings provide useful insights for managers, who can focus their business strategies on sustainable and efficient water and waste management to support high financial performance. The findings can also help investors in their decision making.