Strategic Orientation, Environmental Management Systems, and Eco-Innovation: Investigating the Moderating Effects of Absorptive Capacity

Abstract

Environmental management studies have proposed that firms can achieve substantial cost advantages over competitors and enhance their competitive positions by implementing an environmental management system (EMS). This study further investigates strategic orientation (customer, competitor, and innovation orientation) and focuses on the effect of strategic orientation on EMSs and eco-innovation; it also examines the mediating role of EMSs in the relationship between strategic orientation and eco-innovation. Furthermore, this study investigates the moderating role of absorptive capacity in the relationship between strategic orientation and EMSs. Reliability and validity analyses of a sample of 142 respondents indicated that the study design was effective, consistent, and reliable. The findings indicate that (1) strategic orientation (competitor and innovation orientation) positively influences EMSs, (2) EMSs positively influence eco-innovation, (3) absorptive capacity-enhancing strategic orientation positively influences EMSs, and (4) EMS intermediary strategic orientation positively influences eco-innovation. This study contributes to the theoretical understanding of why some firms exhibit greater proactivity in EMSs than others do.

Modelling the significance of strategic orientation for competitive advantage and economic sustainability: the use of hybrid SEM–neural network analysis

“…Besides that, competitor orientation was found to exhibit significant and positive influence on competitive advantage (H2a) ( t = 1.917, p = 0.028) and economic sustainability (H2b) ( t = 1.905, p = 0.029). These findings were found to be consistent with the findings reported by Tseng et al ( 2021 ) on the important role of the RBV in describing the capabilities to understand consumers’ needs towards achieving competitive advantage and sustainability. Based on the results of the current study, both H2a and H2b were accepted.…”

“…Competitor orientation and innovation orientation enable SMEs to collect intelligence about their competitors. Therefore, competitor orientation enables SMEs to acquire information required for long-term strategies and environmental management approaches that are preferred by customers (Tseng et al, 2021 ). Thus, this study proposed the following hypotheses for testing:…”

Antecedents and Consequences of Green Mindfulness: A Conceptual Model

“…To improve environmental performance, many firms engage in environmental management activities reactively or proactively [ 67 , 68 ]. Many researchers have used a variety of theories to analyze various environmental management issues.…”

“…Environmental management practices incorporate both tacit and explicit knowledge [ 93 ]. The tacit knowledge may be inherent in identifying sources of pollution, reacting quickly to accidental spills, and proposing preventive solutions [ 68 , 98 ]. A green concept or practice containing a lot of tacit knowledge needs laborious efforts to learn.…”

“…Business strategic proactivity is regarded as the ability to develop administrative, entrepreneurial, and engineering skills and processes to actively seize new opportunities rather than merely react to changes [ 95 ]. A firm’s business strategic attitude is relevant for the selection of environmental strategies [ 19 , 68 , 82 ]. Environmental advancements are associated with a firm’s strategic proactivity.…”