Strategic Orientation, Environmental Innovation Capability, and Environmental Sustainability Performance: The Case of Taiwanese Suppliers

Chin-Hung Tseng,Kuo-Hsiung Chang,Ho-Wen Chen

doi:10.3390/su11041127

Chin-Hung Tseng, Kuo-Hsiung Chang + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041127

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Journal: Sustainability	Publication Date: Feb 21, 2019
Citations: 43	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Tunghai University

Abstract

Although previous research has explored the effect of strategic orientation (SO) on innovation and business performance, little attention has been paid to its effect on environmental innovation capability (EIC) and environmental sustainability performance. Drawing on the strategic marketing and dynamic capability theory, this study attempts to increase the understanding of how SO (i.e., customer orientation, competitor orientation, and technology orientation) influences the EIC, which in turn enhances supplier’s environmental sustainability performance in the context of buyer-supplier relationships. In addition, this study examines the impact of inter-functional coordination on SO and also explores the moderating role of buyers value added in the relationship between SO and EIC. Hierarchical regression analysis was performed to test hypotheses that are based on survey data collected in 127 Taiwanese information technology firms. The results show that customer orientation and technology orientation have a positive impact on the EIC, that buyers value added has a synergistic effect on the impact of competitor orientation on EIC, that inter-functional coordination has a positive impact on SO, and that EIC mediates the relationship between SO and environmental sustainability performance.

Highlights

Global warming, ozone depletion, and climate change have been considered as important issues for global environmental sustainability [1]
The variance inflation factors (VIF) in the regression models were all less than 2, which indicate that multicollinearity is not a serious problem
The purpose of this study is to explore the association between each strategic orientation (SO) component and environmental sustainability performance considering the mediating role of environmental innovation capability (EIC) and the moderating role of the buyers value added

Summary

Introduction

Ozone depletion, and climate change have been considered as important issues for global environmental sustainability [1]. The concept of environmental sustainability for firms has increasingly gained importance in academic and business fields in recent years [2,3]. Some researchers believe that there is an intrinsic conflict between environmental sustainability and business performance [4]. To balance both economic benefits and environmental sustainability, Porter and van der Linde [5,6] argue that innovative solutions may “partially or more than fully offset the costs of complying with them”. In order to produce win-win solutions that facilitate both economic benefits and environmental sustainability simultaneously, firms have begun to place great emphasis on innovation, especially environmental innovation capability (EIC). Some empirical research generally supports that strategic orientation (SO) has a positive effect on innovation and firm performance [9,10,11,12]

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