How and when does co-production facilitate eco-innovation in international buyer-supplier relationships? The role of environmental innovation ambidexterity and institutional pressures

Eco-innovation is an important element of a firm's environmental sustainability strategy and provides both competitive and environmental benefits, resulting in a win-win solution. Although previous studies have examined the influence of co-production on innovation, little is known about how and when co-production affects eco-innovation in the context of international buyer-seller relationships. Building upon the resource-based view, the dynamic capability perspective, and institutional theory, this study develops a conceptual model focusing on the effects of co-production on eco-innovation, the mediating effects of environmental innovation ambidexterity, and the moderating role of institutional pressures. The research was carried out using a survey-based quantitative study and the proposed hypotheses were tested using the hierarchical regression analysis. The results of a survey of 124 OEM suppliers in Taiwan show that co-production has a positive effect on environmental innovation ambidexterity. Our findings also show that the direct relationship between co-production and environmental innovation ambidexterity is stronger when institutional pressures are high as opposed to when they are low and that environmental innovation ambidexterity mediates the relationship between co-production and eco-innovation. This study contributes to a theoretical understanding of why some firms develop more environmental innovation ambidexterity than others, by analyzing co-production as a predictor and institutional pressures as a moderator. We discuss the theoretical and managerial implications of our findings.     

循环经济生态创新的激励机制研究

循环经济生态创新是维持经济可持续发展的关键,保持经济社会稳步发展的保证。本文首先探讨了循环经济与循环经济生态创新的内涵,然后从市场、政府及社会三个层面分析探讨循环经济生态创新发展的阻碍因素,最后提出构建社会激励机制、市场激励机制及社会制衡激励机制＂三位一体＂的激励模式,以此来促进循环经济生态创新力的发展。     

Does corporate eco-innovation affect stock price crash risk?

We examine the effect of corporate environmental innovation (hereafter eco-innovation) on stock price crash risk and document a significant negative association. Utilising a large sample of publicly listed U.S. firms for the period 2003 to 2017, we find that an increase in eco-innovation from the 25th to the 75th percentile is associated with 17.62% reduction in stock price crash risk. This outcome remains robust to a variety of sensitivity tests and after accounting for potential endogeneity concerns. Eco-innovative firms attract more institutional investors and equity analyst following and disclose more information leading to lower stock price crash risk. Additional tests reveal that the negative effect of eco-innovation is contingent on the political leadership's ideology and environmental sensitivity. Our paper contributes to the ongoing discourse on the costs and benefits of eco-innovation, documenting the value-enhancing perspective of eco-innovation.     

智慧城市建设对绿色技术创新的影响—基于地级市面板数据的实证研究

实现高质量发展与兑现碳中和承诺,有待于绿色技术的进一步创新。针对这一目标,智慧城市建设提供了一条可行的途径。为了检验智慧城市对绿色技术创新的影响,本文基于2006-2018年287个地级市的面板数据,采用双重差分和倾向得分匹配相结合（PSM-DID）的方法进行实证研究,发现智慧城市建设能够显著促进绿色技术创新。机制检验表明,智慧城市建设主要通过财政科技支出的提高和产业结构的升级促进绿色技术创新。异质性检验发现,智慧城市建设在低金融发展水平、低外向型经济水平和高人力资本水平下,对绿色技术创新的促进作用更为显著。本文对于促进绿色技术创新、营造良好生态环境和推动智慧城市试点建设具有借鉴意义。     

出口对企业绿色技术创新的理论与实证研究

出口对我国经济发展和技术进步具有重要意义,是推动我国企业绿色技术创新的重要因素之一。文章首先从理论上分析出口可以通过“绿色贸易壁垒倒逼效应”“规模经济效应”“出口学习效应”和“竞争效应”对我国企业绿色技术创新活动产生影响。之后使用2000—2013年中国工业企业数据库和中国专利数据库的微观企业数据进行实证检验,并进一步考察异质性因素在其中的作用。实证研究结果表明：无论是出口的扩展边际还是集约边际,均可以显著提升企业绿色技术创新水平,并且通过了工具变量的因果识别和稳健性检验。出口对企业绿色技术创新的作用会受到企业和地区异质性因素的影响：高创新策略可以增强出口对企业绿色技术创新的提升作用,融资成本在一定程度上会制约出口对企业绿色技术创新的提升,国有企业的绿色技术创新水平较低,政府补贴可以促进企业的绿色技术创新;在外向型经济发展水平较高和金融生态环境良好的城市,出口可以更好地提升企业的绿色技术创新水平。文章通过构建开放市场条件下的垄断竞争模型,揭示出口对于企业绿色技术创新行为的影响机理,并从微观视角考察出口能否促进企业的绿色技术创新活动,以及异质性因素在这一过程中发挥的作用,以期在当前双碳目...     

Impact of introducing eco-innovation measures on productivity in transport sector companies

This paper analyses the impact of factors related to innovation and the environment, among others, on labour productivity in the Spanish transport sector. The methodological approach used in this study was based on the CDM structural model. The main advantage of this model is its capacity to integrate investment in R&D and the generation of knowledge and production innovation. The data used in the estimations were obtained from the Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) database. PITEC is a panel-type database jointly prepared by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) and the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT). The econometric results show that reducing the environmental impact has a statistically significant and positive effect at all stages of the innovative process and above all on labour productivity of transport firms, where the improvement of labour productivity can reach 8.35% compared to non-ecoinnovative companies. This finding could alert firms in the transport sector to the need to improve their activities by adopting environmentally proactive attitudes.     

Does environmental innovation make us happy? An empirical investigation

The aim of this paper is to provide an efficient framework to study the relationship between happiness and eco-innovation, measured by eco-efficiency, considered as a subset of the wider question concerning the relationship between happiness and innovation. The conceptual background describes how happiness can be linked to environmental innovations, drawing potential relations among happiness, environment and innovations. An analytical model derives the relationship between happiness and eco-efficiency from a generic utility function. The empirical focus is on the effects of environmental innovation on population well-being for ten European countries over the period 1981–2011. Environmental innovation is measured by an eco-efficiency indicator (the percentage of total energy from combustible renewables and waste). Results from a panel data model show a positive correlation between eco-efficiency and happiness, linking countries' general well-being to environmental conditions, the pace at which they adopt eco-innovations, and the relative efficacy of the latter.     

IT for green and green IT: A proposed typology of eco-innovation

This article is in support of the development of an ecological economic framework. It discusses, from an interdisciplinary perspective, the increasing use of green IT and their applications (IT for green). IT and sustainable development have had a concomitant rise and reach. The future world emerging from their respective interpretations enables, in both cases, a shift from today's questionable industrial capitalism towards post-industrial capitalism. This paper addresses the following questions: What is known about green IT and IT for green? Are smart solutions (buildings, energy grids, transport) always beneficial to an ecological economy? And, if so, in what ways? In the first part of this article, we analyse the economic, social and environmental impact of IT and argue for the need for green applications of green IT in order to achieve sustainable outcomes. The second part focuses on the managerial dimension of eco-innovation theory and presents one of the distinctive features of green applications of green IT: the collective organisation of innovation. A typology of eco-innovation aimed at reconciling IT development and green growth is then proposed explicitly addressing four kinds of changes towards sustainable development: technological, social, institutional and organisational innovation.     

Antecedents,mediation effects and outcomes of hotel eco-innovation practice

Eco-innovation is essential if we are to improve the environmental impacts of tourism firms. Building on the natural-resource-based view (NRBV) of the firm, we hypothesize that eco-innovation is the mediating factor between four firm-level antecedents (opportunity-recognizing and opportunity-capitalizing capabilities, top managers’ attitudes and stakeholder pressures) and three outcomes (cost and differentiation, with respect to a firm’s competitive advantage, and its resulting organizational performance). Partial least squares structural equation modelling is applied to the data from a survey with hotel managers in China, and confirms all of the hypotheses, except two, namely: i) that cost competitive advantage is positively related to hotel performance, and ii) that eco-innovation fully mediates the relationships between opportunity-recognizing capability and both dimensions of competitive advantage. Our contribution to the NRBV theory with a novel, integrated model to predict the mediating role that eco-innovation plays between firm-level resources and capabilities, and competitive advantages.     

Eco-innovation and regulatory push/pull effect in the case of REACH regulation: empirical evidence based on survey data

Numerous theoretical and empirical studies provide evidence of a positive correlation between eco-innovation and environmental regulation. However, few analyses explain how environmental policies drive eco-innovation. This article studies eco-innovation-friendly mechanisms in the design of European REACH (Registration, Evaluation, Authorization of Chemicals) regulation. The aim of REACH, which became effective in 2007, is ‘to ensure a high level of protection of human health and the environment while improving competitiveness and innovation’ which makes it appropriate and original for analysing the relationship between environmental regulation and eco-innovation. The primary contribution of this article is to provide a new theoretical and empirical perspective on eco-innovation by showing how design regulation is able to push and pull the environment innovation, based on an original survey related to REACH regulation. The econometric model shows that (1) regulatory-push mechanisms seem to be more important drivers than regulatory-pull mechanisms; (2) the process of authorization and the obligation to transmit information throughout the supply chain play an important role in ‘pushing’ eco-innovation, suggesting that policymakers should promote new ‘green knowledge’ to encourage eco-innovation; (3) extending obligations has a significantly positive effect on ‘pulling’ eco-innovation and (4) only well-designed instruments, appropriate for the techno-industrial and institutional contexts in which they are to be applied, lead to innovation.