Effects of R&D, networking and leadership roles on environmental innovation adoption in Vietnam’s SMEs

Although small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) constitute a majority of firms, they still have little knowledge about environmental issues and generally encounter difficulties when integrating environmental aspects into their activities. Similar arguments are also highlighted by Ha et al. in the case of Vietnam. This paper, therefore, builds a guideline for promoting SMEs’ organisational environmental innovation adoption based on Environmental Standard Certification (ESC) by investigating the effects of R&D, networking, and leadership roles in Vietnam. By using SME survey data in Vietnam from 2011 to 2015, the empirical results show that R&D spending and organisational capabilities proxied by already owning ESC are positively associated with green innovation implementation. We also find that either collaboration with different partners, including competitors, banks, and public agents or communication networks, affects firms’ decisions on green innovations. The demographic characteristics of managers such as gender, educational level, and knowledge about the environmental laws play determining roles in these decisions. Finally, we advanced the literature by indicating the moderating effects of men in leadership roles and leaders with better related knowledge on the impacts of firms’ internal resources (R&D) and firms’ international orientation (export).