IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v10y2018i12p4674-d188894.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Effect of Environmental Orientation on Green Innovation: Do Political Ties Matter?

Author

Listed:
  • Liwei Feng

    (School of Business Administration, Inner Mongolia University of Finance and Economics, Hohhot 010070, China)

  • Wenwen Zhao

    (School of Economics and Management, Harbin Institute of Technology (Weihai), Weihai 264209, China)

  • Hui Li

    (School of Economics and Management, Harbin Institute of Technology (Weihai), Weihai 264209, China)

  • Yongtao Song

    (Institute of Management Science and Engineering, Henan University, Kaifeng 475001, China)

Abstract

Although the importance of environmental orientation has been recognized, how and under what conditions it influences green innovation is limited. To extend the research on green innovation, our research examines the impacts of two dimensions of environmental orientation on two types of green innovation, as well as the moderating role of political ties. Drawing upon stakeholder theory and resource-based view, we propose research hypotheses. We perform hierarchical regression analysis to validate the hypotheses that is based on survey data collected in 253 Chinese manufacturing companies. Our findings indicate that internal environmental orientation and external environmental orientation are positively linked with both green product innovation and green process innovation. The effect of internal environmental orientation on green process innovation is stronger than that of green product innovation. In addition, political ties strengthen the positive impacts of internal environmental orientation on green product innovation and green process innovation, while attenuating the positive impact of external environmental orientation on green process innovation. These findings contribute to theory and practice by enriching our understanding of how two dimensions of environmental orientation affect two types of green innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Liwei Feng & Wenwen Zhao & Hui Li & Yongtao Song, 2018. "The Effect of Environmental Orientation on Green Innovation: Do Political Ties Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(12), pages 1-15, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4674-:d:188894
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4674/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/12/4674/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Menguc, Bulent & Ozanne, Lucie K., 2005. "Challenges of the "green imperative": a natural resource-based approach to the environmental orientation-business performance relationship," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 58(4), pages 430-438, April.
    2. Li, Yuan & Wei, Zelong & Zhao, Jie & Zhang, Chenlu & Liu, Yi, 2013. "Ambidextrous organizational learning, environmental munificence and new product performance: Moderating effect of managerial ties in China," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 146(1), pages 95-105.
    3. Eerdun Taoketao & Taiwen Feng & Yongtao Song & Yu Nie, 2018. "Does sustainability marketing strategy achieve payback profits? A signaling theory perspective," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1039-1049, November.
    4. Isabel Lourenço & Manuel Branco & José Curto & Teresa Eugénio, 2012. "How Does the Market Value Corporate Sustainability Performance?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 108(4), pages 417-428, July.
    5. Wong, Christina W.Y. & Lai, Kee-hung & Shang, Kuo-Chung & Lu, Chin-Shan & Leung, T.K.P., 2012. "Green operations and the moderating role of environmental management capability of suppliers on manufacturing firm performance," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 140(1), pages 283-294.
    6. Ting Kong & Taiwen Feng & Chunming Ye, 2016. "Advanced Manufacturing Technologies and Green Innovation: The Role of Internal Environmental Collaboration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(10), pages 1-18, October.
    7. Banerjee, Subhabrata Bobby, 2002. "Corporate environmentalism: the construct and its measurement," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 55(3), pages 177-191, March.
    8. Jun Su & Jia He, 2010. "Does Giving Lead to Getting? Evidence from Chinese Private Enterprises," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 93(1), pages 73-90, April.
    9. Subhabrata Bobby Banerjee, 2001. "Managerial perceptions of corporate environmentalism: interpretations from industry and strategic implications for organizations," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(4), pages 489-513, June.
    10. Yang Chen & Guiyao Tang & Jiafei Jin & Ji Li & Pascal Paillé, 2015. "Linking Market Orientation and Environmental Performance: The Influence of Environmental Strategy, Employee’s Environmental Involvement, and Environmental Product Quality," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 127(2), pages 479-500, March.
    11. Khaled Elsayed, 2006. "Reexamining the Expected Effect of Available Resources and Firm Size on Firm Environmental Orientation: An Empirical Study of UK Firms," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 65(3), pages 297-308, May.
    12. Cheng-Li Huang & Fan-Hua Kung, 2010. "Drivers of Environmental Disclosure and Stakeholder Expectation: Evidence from Taiwan," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 96(3), pages 435-451, October.
    13. Yunhui Zhao & Taiwen Feng & Hongbo Shi, 2018. "External involvement and green product innovation: The moderating role of environmental uncertainty," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1167-1180, December.
    14. Mara Faccio, 2010. "Differences between Politically Connected and Nonconnected Firms: A Cross‐Country Analysis," Financial Management, Financial Management Association International, vol. 39(3), pages 905-928, September.
    15. Chan, Ricky Y.K., 2010. "Corporate environmentalism pursuit by foreign firms competing in China," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 80-92, January.
    16. Yu-Shan Chen, 2008. "The Driver of Green Innovation and Green Image – Green Core Competence," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 81(3), pages 531-543, September.
    17. Taiwen Feng & Dan Wang, 2016. "The Influence of Environmental Management Systems on Financial Performance: A Moderated-Mediation Analysis," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 135(2), pages 265-278, May.
    18. Elena Fraj-Andrés & Eva Martinez-Salinas & Jorge Matute-Vallejo, 2009. "A Multidimensional Approach to the Influence of Environmental Marketing and Orientation on the Firm’s Organizational Performance," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 88(2), pages 263-286, August.
    19. Ching-Hsun Chang, 2011. "The Influence of Corporate Environmental Ethics on Competitive Advantage: The Mediation Role of Green Innovation," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 104(3), pages 361-370, December.
    20. Colin B. Gabler & Nikolaos Panagopoulos & Pavlos A. Vlachos & Adam Rapp, 2017. "Developing an Environmentally Sustainable Business Plan: An International B2B Case Study," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(4), pages 261-272, July.
    21. Pilar Portillo-Tarragona & Sabina Scarpellini & Jose M. Moneva & Jesus Valero-Gil & Alfonso Aranda-Usón, 2018. "Classification and Measurement of the Firms’ Resources and Capabilities Applied to Eco-Innovation Projects from a Resource-Based View Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(9), pages 1-23, September.
    22. Huang, Yi-Chun & Ding, Hung-Bin & Kao, Ming-Rea, 2009. "Salient stakeholder voices: Family business and green innovation adoption," Journal of Management & Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 15(3), pages 309-326, July.
    23. Longzheng Du & Zhenglin Zhang & Taiwen Feng, 2018. "Linking green customer and supplier integration with green innovation performance: The role of internal integration," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1583-1595, December.
    24. Weiting Zheng & Kulwant Singh & Will Mitchell, 2015. "Buffering and enabling: The impact of interlocking political ties on firm survival and sales growth," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(11), pages 1615-1636, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sher Jahan Khan & Amandeep Dhir & Vinit Parida & Armando Papa, 2021. "Past, present, and future of green product innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(8), pages 4081-4106, December.
    2. Xiaofang Chen & P.R. Weerathunga & Mohammad Nurunnabi & K.M.M.C.B. Kulathunga & W.H.M.S. Samarathunga, 2020. "Influences of Behavioral Intention to Engage in Environmental Accounting Practices for Corporate Sustainability: Managerial Perspectives from a Developing Country," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(13), pages 1-30, June.
    3. Abdelmohsen A. Nassani & Asad Javed & Magdalena Radulescu & Zahid Yousaf & Carmen Gabriela Secara & Claudia Tolea, 2022. "Achieving Green Innovation in Energy Industry through Social Networks, Green Dynamic Capabilities, and Green Organizational Culture," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(16), pages 1-12, August.
    4. Yongbo Sun & Hui Sun, 2021. "Green Innovation Strategy and Ambidextrous Green Innovation: The Mediating Effects of Green Supply Chain Integration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-20, April.
    5. Xufang Li & Dijun Fan & Zhuoxuan Li & Mingzhu Pan, 2023. "The Impact Mechanism of Digitalization on Green Innovation of Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises: An Empirical Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(12), pages 1-22, June.
    6. Ines Diez‐Martinez & Angel Peiro‐Signes & Marival Segarra‐Oña, 2023. "The links between active cooperation and eco‐innovation orientation of firms: A multi‐analysis study," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(1), pages 430-443, January.
    7. Sher Jahan Khan & Puneet Kaur & Fauzia Jabeen & Amandeep Dhir, 2021. "Green process innovation: Where we are and where we are going," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 3273-3296, November.
    8. Raghuveer Negi & Amit Kumar Gupta & Vidhu Gaur, 2023. "Effect of green marketing orientation dimensions on green innovation and organizational performance: A mediation‐moderation analysis," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(8), pages 5435-5458, December.
    9. Jianfei Zhao & Anan Pongtornkulpanich & Wenjin Cheng, 2022. "The Impact of Board Size on Green Innovation in China’s Heavily Polluting Enterprises: The Mediating Role of Innovation Openness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-20, July.
    10. Chin-Hung Tseng & Kuo-Hsiung Chang & Ho-Wen Chen, 2019. "Strategic Orientation, Environmental Innovation Capability, and Environmental Sustainability Performance: The Case of Taiwanese Suppliers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-19, February.
    11. Jon Martin Denstadli & Tom Erik Julsrud, 2019. "Moving Towards Electrification of Workers’ Transportation: Identifying Key Motives for the Adoption of Electric Vans," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(14), pages 1-19, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Cong Zhou & Weili Xia & Taiwen Feng & Jijiao Jiang & Qingsong He, 2020. "How environmental orientation influences firm performance: The missing link of green supply chain integration," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 685-696, July.
    2. Sher Jahan Khan & Puneet Kaur & Fauzia Jabeen & Amandeep Dhir, 2021. "Green process innovation: Where we are and where we are going," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(7), pages 3273-3296, November.
    3. Chavez, Roberto & Malik, Mohsin & Ghaderi, Hadi & Yu, Wantao, 2021. "Environmental orientation, external environmental information exchange and environmental performance: Examining mediation and moderation effects," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 240(C).
    4. Ricky Y. K. Chan & Katherine H. Y. Ma, 2016. "Environmental Orientation of Exporting SMEs from an Emerging Economy: Its Antecedents and Consequences," Management International Review, Springer, vol. 56(5), pages 597-632, October.
    5. Eerdun Taoketao & Taiwen Feng & Yongtao Song & Yu Nie, 2018. "Does sustainability marketing strategy achieve payback profits? A signaling theory perspective," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 25(6), pages 1039-1049, November.
    6. Yahui Li & Wenli Zheng & Yunhui Zhao, 2022. "How Does Green Search Promote Green Innovation? The Mediating Role of Green Control," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(16), pages 1-26, August.
    7. Jianming Zhang & Gongqian Liang & Taiwen Feng & Chunlin Yuan & Wenbo Jiang, 2020. "Green innovation to respond to environmental regulation: How external knowledge adoption and green absorptive capacity matter?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(1), pages 39-53, January.
    8. Ting Kong & Taiwen Feng & Yufei Huang & Junya Cai, 2020. "How to convert green supply chain integration efforts into green innovation: A perspective of knowledge‐based view," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(5), pages 1106-1121, September.
    9. Lei Ji & Chunlin Yuan & Taiwen Feng & Chen Wang, 2020. "Achieving the environmental profits of green supplier integration: The roles of supply chain resilience and knowledge combination," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 978-989, July.
    10. Yunhui Zhao & Taiwen Feng & Hongbo Shi, 2018. "External involvement and green product innovation: The moderating role of environmental uncertainty," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(8), pages 1167-1180, December.
    11. Farida Saleem & Saiqa Saddiqa Qureshi & Muhammad Imran Malik, 2021. "Impact of Environmental Orientation on Proactive and Reactive Environmental Strategies: Mediating Role of Business Environmental Commitment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-16, July.
    12. Kittisak Jermsittiparsert & Sudawan Somjai & Sriparinya Toopgajank, 2020. "Factors Affecting Firm s Energy Efficiency and Environmental Performance: The Role of Environmental Management Accounting, Green Innovation and Environmental Proactivity," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 10(3), pages 325-331.
    13. Colin B. Gabler & Omar S. Itani & Raj Agnihotri, 2023. "Activating Corporate Environmental Ethics on the Frontline: A Natural Resource-Based View," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(1), pages 63-86, August.
    14. Ricky Y.K. Chan & Katherine H.Y. Ma, 2021. "How and when environmental orientation drives corporate sustainable development in a cross‐national buyer–supplier dyad," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 109-121, January.
    15. Juan J. García-Machado & Minerva Martínez-Ávila, 2019. "Environmental Performance and Green Culture: The Mediating Effect of Green Innovation. An Application to the Automotive Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(18), pages 1-18, September.
    16. Yali Zhang & Jun Sun & Zhaojun Yang & Shurong Li, 2018. "Organizational Learning and Green Innovation: Does Environmental Proactivity Matter?," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(10), pages 1-14, October.
    17. Gang Wang & Taiwen Feng & Zhanguo Zhu & Yisa Jiang, 2023. "Enabling green supply chain integration via green entrepreneurial orientation: Does environmental leadership matter?," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(2), pages 518-530, March.
    18. Franck Brulhart & Sandrine Gherra & Bertrand V. Quelin, 2019. "Do Stakeholder Orientation and Environmental Proactivity Impact Firm Profitability?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 158(1), pages 25-46, August.
    19. María Luisa Pajuelo Moreno & Teresa Duarte-Atoche, 2019. "Relationship between Sustainable Disclosure and Performance—An Extension of Ullmann’s Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-33, August.
    20. Jelena Spanjol & Leona Tam & Vivian Tam, 2015. "Employer–Employee Congruence in Environmental Values: An Exploration of Effects on Job Satisfaction and Creativity," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 130(1), pages 117-130, August.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:12:p:4674-:d:188894. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.