Proactive Environmental Strategy Research Articles

Linking green entrepreneurial orientation and ambidextrous green innovation to stimulate green performance: a moderated mediation approach

PurposeIn view of the significance of intangible organizational resources and firm sustainability, this study investigates the mediating role of ambidextrous green innovation and the moderating effects of resource orchestration capability in the relationship between green entrepreneurial orientation and green performance.Design/methodology/approachThe research employed a quantitative analysis technique using hierarchical linear regression and a moderated mediation approach on a sample of 409 managers from UAE manufacturing firms to investigate the proposed relationships among the variables.FindingsThe research results show that a firm’s green performance is influenced by its green entrepreneurial orientation. Green innovation, both exploratory and exploitative, mediates the link between green entrepreneurial orientation and green performance. Moreover, the association between green entrepreneurial orientation and exploitative green innovation, as well as between exploitative green innovation and a firm's green performance, is strengthened by resource orchestration capability. The findings of the moderated mediation show that when resource orchestration capacity is high, exploitative green innovation has a greater mediating effect on green entrepreneurial orientation and green performance.Practical implicationsThis study provides valuable insights for manufacturing firms to achieve sustainable performance and reduce their environmental impact. Firms should adopt proactive environmental strategies and innovative approaches to achieve sustainable green performance by adopting green entrepreneurship and establishing ambidextrous green innovation.Originality/valueThis study contributes to the literature on GEO, ambidextrous green innovation, resource orchestration capability, and green performance. These results provide insight into fostering green innovation in the manufacturing industry, deepen the theoretical foundation for green entrepreneurship, and advance the field of green entrepreneurship study.

The effect of competition from informal firms on proactive environmental strategies in emerging economies

AbstractDrawing on the Attention Base View (ABV) theory, this paper examines the adoption of Proactive Environmental Strategies (PES) by formal firms in emerging economies and explores the influence of informal competition. We investigate the moderating effects of contextual factors (number of formal competitors) and firm characteristics (CEO's experience). Using data from the 2019 World Bank Enterprise Survey, we apply a Negative Binomial model to a sample of 7,436 manufacturing firms across 25 emerging economies. Unlike previous evidence, our findings suggest that formal firms facing competition from informal counterparts tend to adopt PES to bolster competitiveness. However, the perception of high formal competition and the CEO's industry experience may reduce PES adoption. This study advances our understanding of PES adoption in emerging economies, emphasizing the significance of informal competition. It also increases the evidence of the ABV approach to environmental strategy research, offering insights for managing environmental challenges in emerging markets.

The role of proactive environmental strategy in the development of eco-innovation in the Spanish footwear industry

Integration of the environment into business is now a reality that requires structural changes. This includes adopting eco-innovations in products, production processes, and business management to achieve competitive survival. Previous studies suggest that eco-innovation is driven by external pressures from legislators, stakeholders, technology, markets, and rivals. However, the literature lacks information on the internal mechanisms that drive and transform external pressures into eco-innovations. This research aims to discuss the mediating role of environmental strategy in the relationship between external pressures and eco-innovation. Based on data from 102 Spanish footwear companies, the study proposes a model of structural equations. The results indicate that proactive environmental strategy is the internal mechanism required to integrate profitable eco-innovation into the firm in response to environmental pressures. This finding highlights the importance of taking a holistic perspective and integrating environmental considerations into business management, and these findings have implications for managers and policy makers.

Employees' engagement, family ownership, or gender diversity? Searching for determinants of SMEs' green behaviors in CEE countries

AbstractResults of this study go against previous expectations regarding the positive effects of boards' and owners' gender diversity and family ownership on SMEs' green behaviors, expressed by the implementation of proactive environmental strategies (PES) and energy consumption monitoring (ECM). We show that such generally accepted and recommended concepts may not always work, specifically within Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries. Based on the foundations of stakeholder theory, we surprisingly reject hypotheses expecting positive effects of boards' gender diversity on SMEs' green behaviors. Compared to the research to date, we newly examine the effect of the frequency of manager–employee meetings on SMEs' green behaviors. We show that SMEs' implementation of PES and ECM requires a different frequency of employee engagements. In addition, we confirm that the presence of environmental managers is fruitful for the implementation of PES in family firms. We also reveal that family firms' ECM is significantly triggered by energy taxes, but also by the owners' gender diversity. By linking the managerial perspective including employees' engagement and PES with the technical discipline of ECM, this study provides several theoretical and practical implications.

The lines that divide: Board demographic faultlines and proactive environmental strategy

AbstractManuscript TypeThe manuscript is of an empirical nature.Research Question/IssueThe current ecological crisis requires boards of directors to tackle environmental concerns and manage dependencies with the external environment in highly dynamic conditions. Proactive environmental strategies (PESs) seek to establish alternative and innovative processes and products that create new market opportunities. By mobilizing the notion of board demographic faultlines, we investigate their link with PESs and the influence of the internal board dynamics and environmental factors on this relationship.Research Findings/InsightsThe multilevel regression analysis of a 7‐year sample of UK boards reveals that demographic faultlines hinder their information processing in adopting PESs. The results also show that the negative relationship between demographic faultlines and PESs is attenuated by the social similarity of the CEO and chair in the same subgroup and by the financial materiality of the natural environment.Theoretical/Academic ImplicationsThis study draws on faultline theory to analyze how the structure of board diversity through the alignment of multiple directors' demographic attributes affects board dynamics by creating polarized boards that shape sustainability decisions. This study underscores the disruptive effect of having socially distanced subgroups within the board and the salience of board leaders' social similarity and environmental factors in attenuating their dysfunctional effects.Practitioner/Policy ImplicationsBoard diversity is considered key to improving board decision‐making. By situating our empirical investigation in a country with a corporate governance model that fosters diversity in a dual leadership board structure that has influenced other countries' governance models, this study provides insights for policymakers and market participants on the unintended effects of the global call for board diversity on firms' proactive environmental stance. Our results call for establishing procedures to incentivize board socialization and facilitate directors' information processing.

Proactive environmental strategy, environmental innovation and firm performance

Proactive environmental strategy, environmental innovation and firm performance

Examining environmental proactivity in the Spanish wine industry: The moderating role of size

AbstractThe value of proactive environmental strategies to achieve and maintain competitive advantages in the business sphere has been widely acknowledged in recent years. However, mixed results can still be found regarding the determinants and consequences of the implementation of such practices. This study investigates the determinants of environmental proactivity in Spanish wineries, focusing on the role of company size in linking internal motivations and stakeholder pressure with proactive environmental strategy using the natural resource‐based view. So far, no research of this type has been carried out for the Spanish wine sector. A structural equation model is proposed based on partial least squares applied to a sample of 251 wine companies to evaluate both the direct relationships and the moderating effect. The study identifies internal motivations, community pressure, and regulatory pressure as determinants of proactive environmental strategy. Company characteristics play an essential role in decision‐making when dealing with environmental issues proactively. Small companies tend to be more influenced by internal motivations, while larger companies are driven to undertake environmental actions based on external pressures. Additionally, we found that managers who take a proactive approach to environmental protection can achieve financial rewards. These findings provide important implications for both policymakers and managers by offering new theoretical and empirical insight into how proactive environmental strategy affects financial performance in the case of Spain's wine companies. [EconLit Citations: O31, Q55, C30].

Challenging the nexus of power: The gaming dilemma of collaboration between government and enterprises in environmental management

This study presents a novel approach to analysing environmental governance by Chinese governments through the lens of a tripartite evolutionary game model. The key novelty of our research lies in the explicit incorporation of a reputation mechanism into the evolutionary game analysis, which significantly influences government decision-making, environmental governance strategies, and the dynamics of the relationship between government and polluting enterprises. By assessing the marginal effects of conventional governance and mobilization-based governance on the environmental mechanism, as well as the collusion behaviours between government and polluting enterprises, our study sheds light on previously unexplored aspects of environmental governance. Our findings indicate that the reputation mechanism plays a crucial role within the evolutionary game system of environmental governance, exerting a substantial impact on government decision-making. Furthermore, we demonstrate that policy interventions, such as increasing the cost of penalties under regulatory policies, can encourage compliance strategies among enterprises. Additionally, our research highlights the high sensitivity of reputation signals towards local government's environmental governance strategies, directly impacting their credibility and influencing the adoption of proactive environmental governance strategies. Moreover, we emphasize the role of the central environmental inspection system as a means to facilitate the transmission of environmental governance pressures between central and local governments, ultimately fostering a green development concept and promoting coordinated development between the economy and ecological civilization. Overall, this study provides valuable insights into the intricacies of environmental governance in China and underscores the importance of reputation mechanisms and policy interventions in promoting sustainable development.

Beyond policy impacts: Internal strategic capabilities as determinants of industrial energy efficiency implementation

Many countries have implemented policies to encourage higher Energy Efficiency (EE) implementation, but they seem insufficient and significant EE opportunities are unrealized. It is thus important to understand which internal strategic drivers can help further improve EE implementation by a firm. We develop a theoretical framework and empirically investigating how corporate strategy influences firms' EE implementation on top of EE policies. Drawing from the literature on Natural-resource-based view and Proactive Environmental Strategy, we hypothesize the impacts of several strategic capabilities, including shared vision, top management support and stakeholder integration on a firm's EE implementation. We test our hypotheses using combined secondary data of 572 publicly traded firms from the CDP report, COMPUSTAT Fundamentals North America and Global, and the World Economic Forum. Our study enriches the literature on firms' perceived EE drivers by dissecting the nuanced impacts of different strategic capabilities and exploring new dimensions. Our findings also suggest important policy insights in encouraging higher industrial EE implementation. It remains important to strengthen EE policies and regulation. However, to make further leaps in EE implementation, policy efforts could be spent in information campaigns helping redirect interpretation of EE improvements toward opportunities and away from risks/threats.

The Impact of Green Innovation Strategy on the Performance of New Venture, Mediating of Organizational Learning Ability

This paper focuses on green innovation strategy. From the two perspectives of "why" and "how", it conducts research around the theme of "the impact of green innovation strategy on the performance of new ventures", trying to answer whether green innovation strategy can have an impact on the performance of new ventures. Positive impact on business performance? How can we realize the transformation of green innovation strategy into the performance of new ventures? Does environmental uncertainty have a certain regulating effect? In order to further explore the above issues, based on the situation that manufacturing enterprises urgently need to achieve green transformation and innovative development, this paper chooses new manufacturing enterprises as the research object and carries out the green innovation strategy of new enterprises. The impact of green innovation strategies on the performance of new enterprises Research on the mechanism of action. This study is based on the basic view of natural resources, follows the research logic of "strategy-behavior-performance", introduces organizational learning capabilities as the intermediary explanation mechanism in the path of "green innovation strategy-new venture performance", and uses green technology turbulence as a contingency factor. 384 sample data were used for empirical testing. This study draws the following conclusions. First of all, green innovation strategy, as a proactive environmental strategy, has a significant positive impact on the performance improvement of new ventures. Organizational learning capability mediates the positive relationship between green innovation strategy and new venture performance and its dimensions; secondly, environmental uncertainty plays a significant moderating role in green innovation strategy and new venture performance. This paper deeply explores the mechanism of green innovation strategy on the performance of new ventures. The research is of great significance and has certain reference value in driving my country's new ventures to choose green innovation strategies, improve corporate performance, and promote the green transformation of the economy and society.

How does founders' religiosity affect the proactive environmental strategies in family firms? Evidence from China

AbstractThe current literature expands the existing knowledge of the antecedents of proactive environmental strategies (PES) in family firms from the perspectives of institutional, market and family involvement logics. However, scholars have not considered the influence of key family decision‐makers and their characteristics in this regard. Based on the ability and willingness framework, this study focuses on how founders' religiosity affects family firms' PES. Using data from the 2010 Chinese Private Enterprise Survey conducted by Chinese officials, we found that founders' religiosity drives family firms to implement PES. Altruistic and long‐term orientation are the internal mechanisms of this effect. Founders' political status enhances the positive impact of their religiosity on PES, whereas the founders' need for socioemotional wealth protection weakens the relationship between founders' religiosity and family firms' PES. We also found that Eastern and Western founders' religiosity has an asymmetric effect on family firms' PES. This study contributes to the literature on the PES of family firms, the family firm's ability and willingness framework, and family business heterogeneity.

Effects of carbon emissions on audit fees

PurposeThis paper aims to examine the effect of carbon emissions on audit fees. The authors hypothesize that firms in cities with higher carbon emission levels have lower reporting transparency, higher return volatility or are subject to higher reputation risk, causing them to be charged higher audit fees for auditing services.Design/methodology/approachThe authors use panel data of 25,960 firm-year observations from a sample of Chinese firms. The carbon emission data for each Chinese city are obtained from the China Emission Accounts and Datasets for Emerging Economies. This paper adopts a multiple regression model to study the impact of carbon emissions on audit fees.FindingsThe authors find that firms located in cities with higher carbon emission levels and firms with more carbon emissions are charged, on average, a higher audit fee. This audit fee effect of carbon risk is transmitted by lessened information transparency and elevated financial risk within these firms. This paper shows that auditors consider carbon risk in their audit fee decisions and other factors that could influence audit risk and effort.Originality/valueThis study draws a connection between carbon emissions and audit fees. It is especially relevant due to the increasing importance of environmental factors in the audit risk assessment. In addition, the findings suggest that a firm implementing a proactive environmental strategy benefits the economy and decreases the costs to the firm for services such as auditing.

Unveiling Nature’s Resilience: Exploring Vegetation Dynamics during the COVID-19 Era in Jharkhand, India, with the Google Earth Engine

The Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges to global health and economic stability. Intriguingly, the necessary lockdown measures, while disruptive to human society, inadvertently led to environmental rejuvenation, particularly noticeable in decreased air pollution and improved vegetation health. This study investigates the lockdown’s impact on vegetation health in Jharkhand, India, employing the Google Earth Engine for cloud-based data analysis. MODIS-NDVI data were analyzed using spatio-temporal NDVI analyses and time-series models. These analyses revealed a notable increase in maximum vegetation greenery of 19% from April 2019 to 2020, with subsequent increases of 13% and 3% observed in March and May of the same year, respectively. A longer-term analysis from 2000 to 2020 displayed an overall 16.7% rise in vegetation greenness. While the maximum value remained relatively constant, it demonstrated a slight increment during the dry season. The Landsat data Mann–Kendall trend test reinforced these findings, displaying a significant shift from a negative NDVI trend (1984–2019) to a positive 17.7% trend (1984–2021) in Jharkhand’s north-west region. The precipitation (using NASA power and Merra2 data) and NDVI correlation were also studied during the pre- and lockdown periods. Maximum precipitation (350–400 mm) was observed in June, while July typically experienced around 300 mm precipitation, covering nearly 85% of Jharkhand. Interestingly, August 2020 saw up to 550 mm precipitation, primarily in Jharkhand’s southern region, compared to 400 mm in the same month in 2019. Peak changes in NDVI value during this period ranged between 0.6–0.76 and 0.76–1, observed throughout the state. Although the decrease in air pollution led to improved vegetation health, these benefits began to diminish post-lockdown. This observation underscores the need for immediate attention and intervention from scientists and researchers. Understanding lockdown-induced environmental changes and their impact on vegetation health can facilitate the development of proactive environmental management strategies, paving the way towards a sustainable and resilient future.

Climate Resilience and Ecological Dynamics of the Mpameso Forest Reserve in Ghana: Insights from Land Surface Temperature Analysis

Climate change, characterized by shifts in weather parameters and escalating climate-related risks, has emerged as a global environmental concern. Among these concerns, chronic heat waves have garnered attention due to their far-reaching implications. This study delves into the profound impact of chronic heat waves on the Mpameso forest reserve in Ghana, an ecosystem of vital importance. Chronic heat waves have induced notable changes in the local climate, marked by increased temperatures, elevated evapotranspiration rates, and alterations in rainfall patterns over the past three decades. Ghana, like many regions worldwide, has experienced shifts in seasons and a rising global mean surface temperature, contributing to the intensification of global warming. The repercussions of chronic heat waves are particularly significant within forest reserves, and their effects on Ghana's Dormaa Central Municipality are explored in detail. Vegetation cover in Ghana has faced recurrent challenges from extreme heat waves, leading to diminished forested areas, heightened evapotranspiration rates, and instances of drought-induced water scarcity. To assess the severity of these impacts and devise proactive environmental management strategies, this study leverages the power of satellite remote sensing. Utilizing Landsat imagery, the study examines changes in Land Surface Temperature (LST) alongside the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Evapotranspiration (ET) within the Dormaa municipal area. Pearson correlation analysis is employed to uncover the intricate relationship between LST, vegetation health, and ET within the Mpameso forest reserve. The study's compelling findings reveal that chronic heat waves predominantly affect the settlement areas surrounding the forest reserve, sparing the reserve itself from significant LST-related health impacts. This nuanced understanding underscores the importance of proactive conservation efforts and climate resilience planning, emphasizing the value of integrated approaches to safeguarding vital ecosystems in the face of mounting climate extremes.

How environmental leadership shapes green innovation performance: A resource-based view

Considering rapid climate change and its effects, an increasing number of enterprises are paying more attention to environmental protection behavior in order to realize their green innovation activities. However, environmental leadership is critical for delivering green innovation in business and industry. As such, can environmental leadership promote the green innovation performance of enterprises? If so, what is the influence mechanism? In the previous research on environmental leadership, the impact of environmental leadership on the green innovation performance of enterprises had not yet been effectively explored. Therefore, drawing on a resource-based view, this study explored the mechanism through which environmental leadership influences a firm's green innovation performance. In this study, with the help of the mature scale at home and abroad, variables were measured, and the relationship between variables was verified by multiple regression analysis using samples collected from 224 heavy-polluting enterprises in western China at multiple time points. It was found that (1) environmental leadership has significant positive effects on green product innovation performance and green process innovation performance; (2) proactive environmental strategies partly mediate the relationships between environmental leadership and green product, as well as green process innovation performance; and (3) a firm's organizational structure positively moderates the relationship between environmental leadership and proactive environmental strategies. Therefore, the results of our study provide theoretical and practical contributions for research on environmental leadership and proactive environmental strategies.

Institutional pressures and proactive environmental strategy: The mediating effect of top managerial environment attitude and the moderating effect of new media pressure

AbstractProactive environmental strategy (PES) is regarded as an effective tool to mitigate and root out the negative effects of an enterprise's development on the environment. Although institutional pressures have been viewed as major factors that can promote enterprises' PES, the results are still inconsistent. This mixed empirical result leads to a need to unpack the relationship between institutional pressures and PES, like the certain key mediating role of top managerial environment attitude. In addition, with the important role of new media in an enterprise's strategy, new media pressure plays a significant role in the PES field to induce enterprises to make a strategy change. Therefore, combining institutional theory and upper echelon theory, this paper explores the mediating roles of top managerial environment attitude between institutional pressures and PES, and the moderating roles of new media pressure, from a new media perspective. Our research model was tested by survey data from 345 top Chinese managers, and several results are established. First, the top managerial environment attitude significantly mediates the relationship between three institutional pressures and PES. Second, among the three institutional pressures, customer pressure is the most powerful one to influence the top managerial environment attitude toward PES. Third, new media pressure promotes and suppresses the positive effect between customer pressure, competitor pressure, and top managerial environment attitude. To promote the adoption of PES, it is important for top managers and governments to pay close attention to customer, regulatory, and competitor pressures, particularly when these pressures are amplified by new media.

Exploring the effects of socioemotional wealth on environmental strategies of family firms in China: An integrative perspective

AbstractThe findings of family business research regarding the relationship between socioemotional wealth (SEW) and environmental strategies have been inconsistent. This study seeks to explain the inconsistency by distinguishing between extended SEW and restricted SEW. We argue that prior empirical studies may ignore the dual nature of SEW and prose that family firms with extended SEW are more likely to pursue proactive environmental strategies, whereas those with restricted SEW tend to adopt reactive environmental strategies. Furthermore, we integrate the SEW perspective with regulatory focus theory, proposing that promotion focus mediates the relationship between extended SEW and proactive environment strategies, while prevention focus mediates the relationship between restricted SEW and reactive environmental strategies. These hypotheses were tested with a survey of polluting family firms in China and were found to be supported. Our findings offer novel insights into family business research, as well as significant implications about how to enhance environmental performance of family firms.

The impact of a proactive environmental strategy on environmentally sustainable practices in service firms: The moderating effect of information use value

AbstractDemonstration of environmental sustainability is increasingly seen as important to gaining legitimacy, consumer favour and competitive advantage for service firms. To explore this prospect further, we employed resource‐based theories to study the effect of a proactive environmental strategy (PES) on environmental practices. We argue that the relationship between a PES and environmental practices is positive yet contingent on the perceived importance of information. Using a sample of 2686 service firms from the third Taiwanese Technological Innovation Survey, we found that a PES was positively associated with environmental practices and that perceived external information value positively moderated the PES–environmental practices relationship while perceived internal information value had an insignificant interaction effect. Additional tests provide deeper insight into our predicted relationships. The study makes theoretical, empirical and managerial contributions.

How do multiple cognitions shape corporate proactive environmental strategies? The joint effects of environmental awareness and entrepreneurial orientation

How do multiple cognitions shape corporate proactive environmental strategies? The joint effects of environmental awareness and entrepreneurial orientation

The Impact of Proactive Environmental Strategies on Ecological Sustainability of Chinese High-Tech Industry

China’s concern toward ecological sustainability has increased to a great extent. This study aims to analyze the impact of proactive environmental strategies on ecological sustainability by understanding the mediating of eco-product, process, and organizational innovation. For this purpose, China’s high-tech industries have been targeted and a survey-based quantitative technique has been applied. 350 questionnaires were distributed among the Chinese staff in the high-tech companies and 319 were received as complete questionnaires that were further analyzed using SPSS and AMOS to analyze the data with confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modelling. The results indicated a significant impact of PES on ES. The mediation of EPR, EPRD, and EOI has also resulted to be significant between PES and ES. This study has practically contributed to the high-tech sectors of China. There is a great need for the management to apply proactive environmental initiatives that are crucial to gain ecological sustainability.