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Purpose: This paper aims at investigating the rather unexplored issue of how green innovators address the knowledge needs emerging when initiating a sustainability path, comparing their knowledge strategies with those of non-green innovators. Design/methodology/approach: The authors investigate this issue using data from the 2008 Italian Community Innovation Survey (CIS). Focusing on manufacturing firms, they identify the main characteristics and knowledge assets of firms introducing environmental innovations (EIs) as opposed to those of other innovators. Findings: The authors' results suggest that the development of EIs entails a higher recourse to external knowledge, in the form of use of external sources of information, acquiring R&D from external firms and cooperation. Relationships with partners that do not belong to the supply chain - including KIBS, universities, research institutions and competitors - are far more important than for other innovations. On the contrary, differences between the two categories are less marked when it comes to investments in internal knowledge resources. Finally, proactive environmental innovators have very different knowledge strategies than reactive ones, which resemble non-green innovators. Originality/value: The main contribution of this paper is that it investigates the unexplored issue of how firms assess and develop the knowledge needed to develop EIs. By comparing them with the strategies of non-green innovators, the analysis performed in the paper allows understanding the peculiarities of such innovations. Furthermore, the authors contribute to the literature by verifying how knowledge management strategies vary according to the differential importance that sustainability has for the firm's innovative strategy

Purpose This paper aims to explore in depth how internal and external knowledge-based drivers actually affect the firms’ green innovation performance. Subsequently, this study analyzes the relationships between absorptive capacity (internal knowledge-based driver), relationship learning (external knowledge-based driver) and green innovation performance. Design/methodology/approach This study relies on a sample of 112 firms belonging to the Spanish automotive components manufacturing sector (ACMS) and uses partial least squares path modeling to test the hypotheses proposed. Findings The empirical results show that both absorptive capacity and relationship learning exert a significant positive effect on the dependent variable and that relationship learning moderates the link between absorptive capacity and green innovation performance. Research limitations/implications This paper presents some limitations with respect to the particular sector (i.e. the ACMS) and geographical context (Spain). For this reason, researchers must be thoughtful while generalizing these results to distinct scenarios. Practical implications Managers should devote more time and resources to reinforce their absorptive capacity as an important strategic tool to generate new knowledge and hence foster green innovation performance in manufacturing industries. Social implications The paper shows the importance of encouraging decision-makers to cultivate and rely on relationship learning mechanisms with their main stakeholders and to acquire the necessary information and knowledge that might be valuable in the maturity of green innovations. Originality/value This study proposes that relationship learning plays a moderating role in the relationship between absorptive capacity and green innovation performance.

The literature is increasingly focusing on how firms are improving their environmental performances and promoting green strategies to transform environmental constraints into new drivers of competitive advantage. This paper contributes to the literature by expanding knowledge about environmental management at the value chain level by exploring the concept of environmental upgrading and its implications in terms of economic upgrading and greening of industries. Leveraging on the global value chain and environmental managerial literature, the paper develops an integrated theoretical framework to analyse environmental upgrading trajectories and their implications in terms of firms' green strategies based on case studies in the Italian home‐furnishing industry. Empirical evidence suggests that firms develop green strategies to reduce environmental impacts while achieving economic benefits and competitiveness, which may be internal to the firm but also apply to value chains, with different implications in terms of bargaining power and value appropriation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Based on original data on Italian firms specializing in medium- and low-tech industries, we study the relationship between firms’ upstream and downstream internationalization and their propensity to introduce products or processes that reduce environmental impact. Preliminary evidence suggests that geography plays an important role in green firms’ activities and supply chains. More precisely, results suggest that firms that outsource to and rely on non-local suppliers are less likely to engage in environmental innovations. Moreover, we verify that firms engaged in export activities play a similar and negative role, regardless of the export intensity and typology of foreign markets (i.e. developed versus emerging). Tapping global flows of knowledge by being a part of a multinational group positively spurs the development of green innovations, as for FDIs

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