Effects of ‘green’ training on pro-environmental behaviors and job satisfaction: Evidence from the Italian healthcare sector

Exploring an innovative pivot: How green training can spur corporate sustainability performance

“…Following Cantor, Morrow, and Montabon (2012) and Sarkis et al (2010), green training generally relates to eco‐design methodologies, life cycle assessment, cleaner equipment operations, and healthier waste disposal. Moreover, green training mainly serves to (a) develop green‐related capabilities by offering environmental knowledge and techniques to employees in order to improve product designs and customer satisfaction and (b) strengthen employees' green commitments by increasing their motivation and involvement with green concepts, so as to reduce poor hazardous waste processes and excessive resource consumption (El‐Kassar & Singh, 2019; Pinzone et al, 2019). Given that corporate sustainability performance refers to a firm's capacity to sustain competitive advantage over time by reducing hazardous emissions and improving green innovation skills (El‐Kassar & Singh, 2019; Wiggins & Ruefli, 2002), it is clear to see how green training is significantly correlated to corporate sustainability performance, as it allows firms to reach the optimal mix between economic growth and environmental protection (Cherrafi et al, 2018; Paillé et al, 2014).…”

“…Organizational learning theory suggests that both knowledge and experience are one (Aranda et al, 2017). In the case under discussion here, this means that corporate trainees will behave better if their capabilities can be advanced by appropriately assimilating and applying knowledge acquired from green training (Pinzone et al, 2019). Meanwhile, firms can learn how to put green‐related knowledge into practice by using experiential learning (Aranda et al, 2017), which would increase the availability of green practices.…”

“…Meanwhile, firms can learn how to put green‐related knowledge into practice by using experiential learning (Aranda et al, 2017), which would increase the availability of green practices. In the vein, the development of corporate sustainability performance largely depends upon the adoption of green practices or behaviors (Pinzone et al, 2019). Here, green innovation behaviors are regarded as a type of innovation behavior linked to environmental issues, including generating innovative environmental ideas through product design and through the application of new methods, techniques, or instruments in clean production processes in order for companies to gain and maintain sustainability performance (Long et al, 2017; Prieto‐Pastor & Martin‐Perez, 2015).…”

“…However, implementing green practices is a complicated process that requires high costs and continuous learning to make breakthroughs in current manufacturing operations (Lee, Ha‐Brookshire, & Chow, 2018; Zhang, Rong, & Ji, 2019). Accordingly, for a company to gain sustainability performance, it must increase its green‐related knowledge and also get buy‐in from its employees to commit to green organizational practices (Birou, Green, & Inman, 2019; Lee, Ha‐Brookshire, & Chow, 2018; Pinzone, Guerci, Lettieri, & Huisingh, 2019; Sarkis, Gonzalez‐Torre, & Adenso‐Diaz, 2010). In this regard, green training—as a type of in‐service education related to environmental topics, which can motivate employees to commit more firmly to their firm's vision (Hanaysha, 2016; Lee, Ha‐Brookshire, & Chow, 2018; Paillé, Chen, Boiral, & Jin, 2014; Sarkis et al, 2010; Teixeira, Jabbour, de Sousa Jabbour, Latan, & De Oliveira, 2016)—has become increasingly vital for companies to gain sustainability performance under both economic and environmental approaches (Birou et al, 2019; Teixeira et al, 2016).…”

“…Green training has recently attracted interest among academics and practitioners from the perspectives of both the employees and their firms (Pinzone et al, 2019; Teixeira et al, 2016). Prior studies have shown that green training is an effective tool for implementing green supply chain management (Teixeira et al, 2016) and for linking stakeholders to corporate green practices (Sarkis et al, 2010).…”