Environmental Requirements, Knowledge Sharing and Green Innovation: Empirical Evidence from the Electronics Industry in China

Abstract

Building on the Porter hypothesis, which posits that regulatory stringency triggers innovation and thereby allows firms to achieve the dual purpose of environment protection and enhanced business performance, the present research develops an integrative model that explores the determinants of green innovation with a focus being placed on knowledge sharing. Data were collected from 203 green innovation project leaders from electronics manufacturers operating in China. The results indicate that knowledge sharing mediates the relationship between green requirements and new green product success as well as that between green requirements and green product and process innovations. Interestingly, the empirical analysis rejects the hypothesized positive influence of green requirements on green product and process innovations as well as that on new green product success, while confirming that there exists a direct and positive association between green requirements and knowledge sharing. The direct positive impact of knowledge sharing is the strongest on green process innovation. This study provides a theoretical basis for investigating the possible determinants in the causal links between green requirements and green innovation success and establishes that knowledge sharing and green process innovation may be the points where leverage can be applied to best secure innovation success. Implications of the findings on environmental policy and law design are also discussed to see how the regulatory role of the government can be better positioned to facilitate compliance and innovation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Exploring the Impact of Complementary Assets on the Environmental Performance in Manufacturing SMEs

“…Some studies discussed the relationship between this norm and corporate performance [22,23]. The affiliated firms can strengthen their own financial performance by reducing transaction costs and by sharing both resources and risks with one another [24,25]. The benefits stemming from business-group structures as complementary assets can also increase the outcome of firms' environmental innovation [13].…”

“…Firms also require intangible resource sharing for environmental innovation. For example, knowledge sharing assists firms to achieve an improvement in the performance of green product and process innovations [25]. As external benefits of the business-group affiliation, firms providing green products and services are likely to share the brand power of the business group because the firms cannot easily promote their environmental activities to customers and investors [11,37,58].…”

Eco-Innovation in Circular Agri-Business

“…Eco-innovation changes people's values and the sustainability of their lifestyle through green innovation processes [2]. Moreover, knowledge sharing is found to have a direct and positive association with green innovation processes and a positive impact on the development of eco-innovation by firms [38]. In addition, green innovation processes are alternatives to production and consumption that involve knowledge sharing among partners or employees, green innovation process research and development, and cooperation with suppliers [39].…”

Environmental technological innovation and market demand: is market orientation a missing link?

“…For instance, (a) The study by Yusuf et al (2014) reported innovation speed as the facilitating factor in the relationship between demand and eco-product innovation implementation [33], (b) S. K. S. Wong (2013) underscored the mediating role played by knowledge sharing in the green requirements and new green product success, and also for the relationship between green requirements and green product and process innovations [34], (c) Test results by Huo & Shan (2013) also showed that 70% of photovoltaic (PV) market in the twenty countries has insignificant market pull factor. They suggested that in order to encourage demand pull policy making is suggested to lead the market until it achieved stable growth [35], and (d) Kammerer (2009) emphasized empirical evidence that, with demand, customer benefits foster the implementation of eco-product innovations, their broad application and their level of novelty [14].…”