The Influence of Green Innovation Performance on Corporate Advantage in Taiwan

The purpose of this study was to explore whether the performance of the green innovation brought positive effect to the competitive advantage. This study found that the performances of the green product innovation and green process innovation were positively correlated to the corporate competitive advantage. Therefore, the result meant that the investment in the green product innovation and green process innovation was helpful to the businesses. This study argued that the businesses should cognize the correct value and positioning of the green innovation.Dr. Chen is the assistant professor in the Department of Business Administration in National Yunlin University of Science & Technology in Taiwan. His research focused on management of technology, innovation management, corporate environmental management and intellectual capital. Dr. Lai is the professor in the Department of Business Administration in National Chengchi University in Taiwan. His research focused on management of technology, new product development and operation management. Dr. Lai is also the legislator in Taiwan. Dr. Wen is the professor in the Graduate Institute of Technology and Innovation Management in National Chengchi University in Taiwan. His research focused on corporate environmental management, marketing management of technology and entrepreneurship management. Dr. Wen is also the head of the EMBA (Executive MBA) program in the College of Commerce in National Chengchi University in Taiwan.     

The Driver of Green Innovation and Green Image – Green Core Competence

This study proposed a novel construct – green core competence – to explore its positive effects on green innovation and green images of firms. The results showed that green core competences of firms were positively correlated to their green innovation performance and green images. In addition, this research also verified two types of green innovation performance had partial mediation effects between green core competences and green images of firms. Therefore, investment in the development of green core competence was helpful to businesses for the enhancement of their green innovation and green images. Furthermore, this study found that green core competence, two types of green innovation performance, and green images of medium & small enterprises (SMEs) were all significantly less than those of large enterprises in the information and electronics industry in Taiwan. Therefore, there was the advantage of firm size for the green core competence in this industry, and it was imperative for SMEs to develop and create their green core competences to strengthen their green innovation performance, and green images.     

前瞻型环境战略对企业绿色创新绩效的影响研究--绿色智力资本与吸收能力的链式中介作用

近年来,将环境问题置于企业战略层面已得到普遍认同,绿色创新是我国经济新常态下解决环境问题实现可持续发展的关键。基于自然资源基础观理论、知识管理理论和吸收能力理论,本文对长三角地区249家制造业企业进行实证研究,验证前瞻型环境战略对绿色创新绩效的作用过程与影响机理。实证结果表明,制定前瞻型环境战略的企业可以通过积累绿色智力资本和增强吸收能力来提高企业绿色创新绩效。通过Bootstrap检验发现,绿色智力资本对吸收能力有积极影响,二者在前瞻型环境战略与绿色创新绩效间有链式中介作用,并在对比中发现链式中介效应与单独中介效应具有显著差异。研究为企业制定环境战略和提高绿色创新绩效提供了理论指导与管理启示。     

The strategic evolution of large US law firms

In recent years, large US law firms have been undergoing significant changes. Most have switched from a professional model (P2 form) to a corporate business model, employing competitive strategies and a profit orientation. As the market for corporate legal services became more competitive, many large US law firms began to diversify the services they offer and expand their operations into new geographic regions of the country and into international markets. They even engaged in acquisitions and learned to manage and leverage their critical resources, human capital and relational capital. As a result, most of these law firms have added more professional management. All in all, the services law firms offer and the rivals with which they must contend have changed substantially over the last 15 years.     

How Environmental Management Competitive Pressure Affects a Focal Firm's Environmental Innovation Activities: A Green Supply Chain Perspective

Recently, environmental management offers firms a source of competitive advantage in the marketplace. The development of environmental innovations is critical to the success of today's firms. Drawing on the Schumpeterian perspective of competition, this research examines how the perception of rival firms' green success influences a firm to pursue and produce environmental innovation through its green supply chain integration activities. Using survey data from 230 firms, a conceptual model is developed and tested using structural equation modeling. We find that the firms in our sample do perceive pressure from their competitors' success in environmental management activities, and thus take supply chain action to pursue integration activities. By differentiating incremental and radical environmental innovation, this study also reveals the role of three dimensions of green supply chain integration (internal, supplier, and customer integration of green product development) on incremental and radical environmental innovation separately. Specifically, findings suggest that green supply chain integration has a positive impact on developing incremental environmental innovation, while only customer integration has a significant positive impact on developing radical environmental innovation.     

The Effect of Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility on Environmental Performance and Business Competitiveness: The Mediation of Green Information Technology Capital

With the emergence of environmental sustainability and green business management, increasing demands have been made on businesses in the areas of environmental corporate social responsibility (ECSR). Furthermore, the influence of ECSR on green capital investment, environmental performance, and business competitiveness has also been the subject of attention from enterprises. However, in previous studies, the mediating role of green information technology (IT) capital in the relationship between ECSR, environmental performance, and business competitiveness, has not been investigated by researchers. In order to bridge this gap in the ECSR literature, this study aims to examine the influence of ECSR on green IT capital, and the consequent effect of green IT capital on environmental performance and business competitiveness. Data were collected from 358 companies from the top 1000 manufacturers in Taiwan. The results confirmed that ECSR has significant positive effects on green IT human capital, green IT structural capital, and green IT relational capital. Green IT structural capital and green IT relational capital have positive effects on environmental performance and business competitiveness, and environmental performance has a positive effect on business competitiveness. In addition, green IT structural capital and green IT relational capital have partial mediating effects on ECSR, environmental performance, and business competitiveness. The implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.     

Measuring intellectual capital and its effect on financial performance: Evidence from the capital market in Taiwan

This paper studies intellectual capital in companies in Taiwan, China. Intellectual capital is an invisible, yet important resource for companies. The first aim of this paper is to provide a systematic investigation on how to measure intellectual capital. Results show that the coefficient of value-added intellectual capital is positively related to return on assets and market capitalization in both fix and random effects. Similar results are also obtained with dynamic panel data. Furthermore, innovation variables such as research and development expenditure are more accurate than structural capital in measuring intellectual capital. The author thus suggests that companies need to keep a close track of their intellectual capital and focus on internal information delivery to gain competitive advantage.     

The Influence of Corporate Environmental Ethics on Competitive Advantage: The Mediation Role of Green Innovation

This study utilizes structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore the positive effect of corporate environmental ethics on competitive advantage in the Taiwanese manufacturing industry via the mediator: green innovation performance. This study divides green innovation into green product innovation and green process innovation. The empirical results show that corporate environmental ethics positively affects green product innovation and green process innovation. In addition, this study verifies that green product innovation mediates the positive relationship between corporate environmental ethics and competitive advantage, but green process innovation does not. Therefore, corporate environmental ethics can not only affect competitive advantage directly, but also influence it indirectly via green product innovation in the Taiwanese manufacturing industry. Taiwanese manufacturing companies can increase their corporate environmental ethics and green product innovation to enhance their competitive advantages.     

The continuing debate on firm performance: A multilevel approach to the IT sectors of Taiwan and South Korea

In the economics and strategy fields, researchers seek to understand the antecedents of firm profitability. How and why do certain private enterprise firms develop competitive advantages in environments of rapid technological change while other firms do not? This study extends recent variance decomposition research in three ways. First, this work compares IT sectors in Taiwan and South Korea by using the Standard & Poor's Compustat® Global Vantage database. Second, this investigation tests industry and firm effects using both the multilevel approach of hierarchical linear modeling (HLM) and the conventional variance components approach (VCA). Third, this study explores the question of why there are significant profitability differences among technological firms even with similar industrial structural characteristics and leveraged resources and capabilities in the same IT industry. This study uses data from the U.S. Patent Office to estimate technological diversification at the level of firm resources for knowledge-based relatedness for the IT firms of Taiwan and South Korea. The empirical results find that firm effects have great impact on performance of the IT sectors of Taiwan and South Korea when estimated by either HLM or VCA. However, industry effects dominate firm effects on South Korea's IT sectors when the variance is estimated by HLM. From the perspective of conducting patents innovation, both of the specialized and diversified corporate strategies are matter to the development of these IT sectors, and South Korea's IT firms are more technologically diversified than those firms in Taiwan.     

Relational Capital: Strategic Advantage for Small and Medium-Size Enterprises (SMEs) Through Negotiation and Collaboration

Collaborative entrepreneurship research suggests that organizations will soon pursue more collaborative relationships throughout a worldwide network of firms, driving a strategy of continuous innovation, specially small- and medium-size firms (SMEs). Tapping into a body of literature that focuses on the importance of human capital in driving long-term success, we merge ideas of collaborative research with a growing body of work on human capital or human resource management in SMEs. Our paper states that it is not the human, per se, that is the real asset but the relationships those humans have that are the most inimitable and important capital. We will discuss how companies use relational capital as the basis for collaborative entrepreneurship. Consistent with our hypotheses, our exploratory study suggests that smaller firms place more value on relational capital than do larger firms. We also have some indication that the key capital that differentiates low vs. high performance, regardless of firm size, is the relational capital aspect. To sum up, relational capital is a fundamental asset for firms, but especially for SMEs, and high performing companies are those that are able to negotiate with others and develop collaborative agreements, thus placing a high value in relational capital.     

Local Responsiveness Pressure, Subsidiary Resources, Green Management Adoption and Subsidiary’s Performance: Evidence from Taiwanese Manufactures

This study aims to explore if local responsiveness pressure and subsidiary resources influence green management adoption of overseas subsidiaries, and to investigate the relationships between the level of green management adoption and performance. The 101 effective samples were collected from 583 Taiwanese firms, which are listed in the top 1000 manufactory firms and have invested in China. Through structural equation model (SEM) analysis’ empirical results indicate that local responsiveness pressure and subsidiary resources both have positive effects on the level of green management adoption of the subsidiary. This study also suggests that the level of green management adoption is positively related to the subsidiary’s performance. Peng, Yu-Shu is an Associate Professor in the Department of International Business in the School of Management, National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan, R.O.C. He has published in the areas of the international business, strategic management, and business ethics. He received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the National Chengchi University in Taiwan, R.O.C. Lin, Shing-Shiuan is a graduate student in the Department of International Business in the School of Management, National Dong Hwa University in Taiwan, R.O.C. Her research topics focus on environmental management.     

Are Organisation Researchers too Obsessed with the Economic Responsibility of the Firm?

The original intent of business education in America focused on the development of professional managers who would look after the interests of society. As economic and shareholder theories influenced business education, firm performance became the manager’s top – if not only – priority. The economic responsibility of the firm also appears to be dominating scholarly interest in organisations as well. However, business firms constitute part of the fabric of society and closer attention should be paid by organisation researchers to the social responsibilities of the firm. In doing so, a more balanced research approach can be achieved. In this article, we give evidence that research within the study of the organisation, specifically in the field of management, has predominately turned its attention to the economic responsibility of the firm. We close by demonstrating that other fields within organisation research also appear to be favouring the study of performance and we offer suggestions as to how scholars might better address the firm’s role in society beyond its economic responsibility. Jeremy Galbreath is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Curtin University of Technology where he is studying corporate social responsibility (CSR). He has published extensively, with over 50 articles in print and 3 book chapters. Dr. Galbreath's research and teaching focuses on strategic management, the resource-based view of the firm, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder management, the ethicality of profit making strategies, intellectual capital and information technology.     

The impact structure of social capital on corporate performance: Empirical evidence from listed companies in China

Vertical relationships with the government, particular relational capital and organizational social network capital, constitute corporate social capital (CSC). Using the empirical data of 97 listed companies in China, this paper examines the impact of CSC on corporate performance, finds that CSC has a positive impact on sales revenue but an insignificant impact on the improvement of ROA. More specifically, when a firm enlarges its sales revenue, the function of organizational network capital is stronger than that of a particular relational capital and that of governmental connections. The paper also finds that state-owned enterprises (SOEs) have more advantages in using governmental connections, therefore leading to better social status than non-SOEs do, who have fewer advantages in using any particular relational capital. The article suggests that managers should appraise carefully the effectiveness of CSC, and combine it with other resources; firms should distinguish the structure of the impact of CSC on performance improvement in a dynamic way. With respect to the implication of this paper, it could help in analyzing firm behaviors in the transitional China. Translated from paper in International Symposium on Entrepreneur Research and Education, 2006, April (in Chinese)     

The effects of industry cluster knowledge management on innovation performance

Research on industrial clusters mostly focuses on the effects of the competitive advantage they generate. This study takes a different approach, conducting empirical research on three types of Taiwanese parks (export processing zones, industrial zones, and science parks), in which economic development is particularly prominent, and which have industry cluster characteristics. The study explores the effects of special resources and relationships among cluster firms on innovation performance, and focuses on knowledge management as the mediator for investigation. A survey, regression analysis, and correlation analysis probe into the effects of the special resources and relationships among industrial clusters on corporate knowledge management and innovation performance. Knowledge management emerges as the mediator of industry clusters in terms of corporate innovation performance, thus providing support for the research hypotheses. The findings of this study are valuable for further research and strategic thinking on the sustainability of corporate operations.     

Addressing the cross-boundary missing link between corporate political activities and firm competencies: The mediating role of institutional capital

This study examines the mediating effect of institutional capital on the relationship between corporate political activities (CPA) and firm competencies. By adopting an institutional perspective, we identify the influence of a firm’s relational CPA and participation CPA, and its two types of institutional capitals, formal institutional capital (FIC) and informal institutional capital (IIC), on the firm’s competencies. Based on survey data from multi-informants in 303 Chinese firms, our results suggest that firms’ institutional capital (IIC/FIC) partially/fully mediates the relationship between CPA and firm competencies. The findings provide the evidence that how nonmarket strategy, such as corporate political activities, affects a firm’s institutional capital and then its competencies.     

渠道关系中社会资本对战略绩效的作用路径研究

目前社会资本在促进渠道成员的合作中扮演了重要作用，但有关社会资本对企业绩效之间的作用机制还需要做进一步探究。针对这一现象，文章基于渠道关系视角，探讨了结构社会资本和关系社会资本对战略绩效的作用路径。基于393家中国计算机及其零件行业的企业数据，引入知识冗余和共同解决问题两个中间变量，建立了社会资本、共同解决问题、知识冗余和战略绩效间的关系模型，实证研究结果发现：结构社会资本和关系社会资本会通过促进知识冗余和共同解决问题进而提升战略绩效。研究结论拓展了渠道关系管理、社会资本领域的研究，并对企业实践具有指导意义。     

Market Incentives for Business Innovation: Results from Canada

Are more competitive industries more innovative? Empirical investigation into various theories of innovation in industrial organization, agency theory, or endogenous growth, make diverse predictions with respect to this long-standing open question in economics. In this paper, we investigate the empirical relationship between competition intensity and firm innovation using a new micro-database containing a large sample of Canadian manufacturing enterprises over the 2000–05 period. Using three different measures of competition intensity, we find evidence that competition intensity is positively related to firm-level expenditures on research and development (R&D) in Canadian manufacturing industries. However, we also find that this relationship is dampened when more firms are further from the technological frontier of their industry. Nevertheless, the results provide evidence for a Schumpeterian interpretation, whereby market power can increase business incentives for innovation when many firms are technological laggards.     

Entrepreneurial networks: A Triple Helix approach for brokering human and social capital

Through utilising currently available Internet technologies, academic and governmental organisations can provide seedling companies in their incubators with additional competitive advantage through efficient access to markets, partners, knowledge and services both locally and globally. This paper proposes a Triple Helix approach for brokering social and human capital based on the skills brokerage business model. The skills brokerage business model is primarily suited for individuals and firms operating in localised settings. However, by using information and communication technologies, it is also possible to apply the model internationally for firms that need strategic partnerships in countries or regions other than their own. Coupled with the Triple Helix of university–government–industry interactions, it can propel innovation and the commercialisation of it beyond traditional boundaries of geography, such as the region and nation state. The paper also presents an Internet-based service that could be used to facilitate the brokerage process among the firms and people with relevant expertise and resources, and it discusses the implications this would have for a number of stakeholders, such as entrepreneurs, established businesses, service providers and business support organisations. This is still an emerging area and several themes for future research will be highlighted.     

The role of intellectual capital and university technology transfer offices in university-based technology transfer

This study develops a theoretical model to explain the relationships among intellectual capital, research outcomes, and technology transfer (TT) performance, investigating the role of university TT offices (UTTOs) in the innovation process. The authors examined these relationships by sampling 49 Taiwanese universities within a 2-year period. It is concluded that universities with specialized UTTOs indeed promote TT performance (TTP) based on university–industry cooperation. Furthermore, the results indicate that human capital is positively associated with research outcomes and relational capital. The greater the amount of relational capital, which represents the degree of university–industry cooperation, the more significant is the positive effect on research outcomes and TTP. The more research outcomes are produced, the more academic research and patent technology will be transferred to industry.     

从社会资本视角的企业创新研究

在高度竞争的市场环境中,创新是企业保持竞争优势和持续发展的根本。激烈的竞争使企业认识到创新对企业的重要意义,而且越来越多的企业认识到单一企业的资源和能力已不足以满足企业创新的要求,企业需通过广泛的外部合作进行内外资源的整合,使企业在内外部的关系网络中获得竞争优势。为提高企业的创新能力,有必要从社会资本视角对企业创新进行研究,分析社会资本对企业创新的制约,从而制定相应的解决对策。