Potential and Realized Absorptive Capacity as Complementary Drivers of Green Product and Process Innovation Performance

Antonio Leal-Rodríguez,Gema Albort-Morant,Gabriel Cepeda-Carrión,Jörg Henseler

doi:10.3390/su10020381

Antonio Leal-Rodríguez, Gema Albort-Morant + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su10020381

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Abstract

Nowadays, companies need to absorb new knowledge from external sources to grasp environmental issues. However, the internal mechanisms through which external knowledge is turned into green innovations remain scarcely addressed. Hence, this paper aims to investigate the relationships between the two dimensions of absorptive capacity (potential and realized) with green products and process innovation performance. This study contributes to the literature by disentangling how companies need to acquire, assimilate, transform and exploit external environmental knowledge to develop green innovations. To this aim, this empirical study is based on a sample shaped by 112 firms belonging to the Spanish automotive components manufacturing sector. The results provide evidence to show that potential and realized absorptive capacities are positively related to both green product innovation performance and green process innovation performance.

Highlights

Nowadays, companies are intensely requested to comply with the environmental regulations established by Kyoto Protocol, Montreal Convention, and Waste Electronics and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) among others.As is widely acknowledged, innovation develops, each time, into a more pivotal role, while driving organizational competitiveness
From the total of 960 companies gathered by this association, we identified 387 companies who met our selection criteria
Firms are in need of information that can be used to facilitate their engagement in innovation activities, such as green innovation

Summary

Introduction

Companies are intensely requested to comply with the environmental regulations established by Kyoto Protocol, Montreal Convention, and Waste Electronics and Electrical Equipment (WEEE) among others.As is widely acknowledged, innovation develops, each time, into a more pivotal role, while driving organizational competitiveness. The new knowledge economy, the information society and the increasing globalization of markets require companies to develop innovative effort. Green growth involves fostering economic growth and development while ensuring that natural assets still provide the resources and environmental services on which global wellbeing depends. The growing collective awareness regarding the sustainability of future economic growth patterns reinforces the claim for a greener economic model. Along this vein, by pushing the frontier outward, green innovation might help to decouple economic growth from natural resource exhaustion. Green innovation might be a strategic issue in the path of driving environmentally sustainable growth [1]

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