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Research
May 21, 2019

Undergraduate Honors Thesis’: A Case Study of Waste and Production Efficiency in Pennsylvania’s Oil and Gas Industry

Abstract

An understanding of organizational learning provides insights into how companies evolve and remain competitive in an ever-changing environment. Companies in the Oil Field Services & Equipment (OFSE) sector have to operate under constantly squeezing profit margins while handling environmental concerns from local communities where they operate. Companies who are able to learn effectively will likely have greater financial success in the competitive landscape and bring about less of an environmental impact, thus satisfying many key stakeholders. My research explores two hypotheses in the context of Pennsylvania’s oil and gas industry, the second largest natural gas producer in the United States. First, are large operators are less agile and slower learners due to size factors like bureaucracy in decision making? Or, second, are small operators less agile and slower learners because of a lack of economies of scale? This study was conducted using both multivariate analyses and data charting of raw waste and production data from 1990 to 2018.

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