The effect of internal factors and family influence on firms’ adoption of green product innovation

Abstract

Purpose Little research has been conducted on the internal factors that drive green product (GP) innovation and how family influence affects firm adoption of GP innovation. This study aims to apply multiple perspectives to bridge this research gap, adopting the resource-based view (RBV) to examine what and how internal factors affect firm adoption of GP innovation, and using the behavioral theory of family firms to investigate whether family influence fosters or hinders firm adoption of GP innovation. Design/methodology/approach This study used a multichannel approach and adopted content analysis to collect and evaluate data on listed Taiwanese firms and used cross-sectional regression analysis to examine the effect of internal factors and family influence on firm adoption of GP innovation. Findings The results showed that the internal factors of green capabilities, R&D intensity and firm size significantly and positively affected firm adoption of GP innovation separately. Furthermore, the study found that family influence (ownership and control) significantly and negatively affects firm adoption of GP innovation separately. Research limitations/implications This study contributes to the academic research of innovation management, green management and family firms in several aspects, but also has some limitations. This study examined only the relationship between a firm’s internal factors and GP innovation. Future research might test the relationship between a firm’s internal factors and adoption of green process innovation. In addition, such research can explore how integrated internal and external factors influence firm adoption of GP innovation. Practical implications From the RBV, the internal factors of green capabilities, R&D intensity and firm size that can exert crucial effects on firm engage in firm’s adoption of GP innovation. This study suggests that top managers in family-influenced businesses should maintain appropriate commitment and support for fostering and facilitating firm GP innovation. Social implications From the RBV, this study examined how internal factors affect firm adoption of GP innovation. Moreover, based on the behavioral theory of family firms, this study further examined how family influence (ownership and control) affects firm adoption of GP innovation. This paper extended both perspectives to examine green issues. Originality/value From the RBV, this study examined how internal factors affect firms’ GP innovation. Moreover, based on institutional theory, this study further examines how a family firm moderates the relationship between a firm’s internal factors and GP innovation. The paper extended both perspectives to probe further the green issues.

Owners and Ecological Corporate Entrepreneurship: The Effect of Family Ownership on Eco-innovation

“…Owing-families' concern for building and protecting SEW makes them more sensitive to such potential reputation gains. Interestingly, our findings on the positive impact of family ownership on eco-innovations contradict prior empirical research (Rees & Rodionova 2015;Huang et al, 2016). A provisional explanation can be found in the fact that the vast majority (over 99.9 percent) of our sampled firms are privatelyheld firms, whereas Rees and Rodionova (2015) and Huang and colleagues (2016) sampled publicly-listed firms, for which the restricted rather than the extended SEW perspective (cf.…”

“…Interestingly, and contrary to our main effect arguments, one of the few studies on family influence and eco-innovations reports a negative association using a sample of listed Taiwanese firms (Huang, Yang & Wong, 2016). 4 These divergent findings point to the importance of accounting for variation within the group of family-owned firms.…”

“…While prior work already proposed that family ownership may come with greater concerns for legitimacy and, thus, greater sensitivity to institutional pressures for ecological sustainability (Berrone et al, 2010), we advance this research stream by modeling and measuring the alleged key mediator -reputation concern -and by revealing how this reputation concern depends crucially on the transgenerational intentions of the owning-family. Furthermore, few prior studies on sustainable practices by family firms examined eco-innovations (notable exceptions are Rees & Rodionova 2015;Huang et al, 2016), which represent a markedly proactive and impactful type of green behavior (Berrone et al, 2013). Our findings also highlight the value of including owner identities in studies on corporate sustainability, which is a topic that thus far attracted relatively little attention from sustainability scholars (Bansal & Song, 2017).…”

“…Third, the number of publicly-listed firms in our sample was too small to analyze differences between privately-held and publicly-listed family-controlled firms. In view of prior findings (Rees & Rodionova 2015;Huang et al, 2016), it would be interesting to analyze, both conceptually and empirically, in a systematic manner differences between both settings. In particular, scholars may verify whether the extended SEW perspective is indeed more likely to prevail among private family firms and the restricted SEW perspective among public family firms (cf.…”

Boundary‐spanning search and firms' green innovation: The moderating role of resource orchestration capability

“…As Sheng (2017) found, the capability of orchestrating knowledge resources is vital for firms' exploitative and exploratory innovations. Similarly, Huang, Yang, and Wong (2016) suggested that green capability plays an important role for firms to adopt green product innovation. Hadjimanolis (2000) proposed that internal capabilities are vital for firms to achieve ambidextrous innovation.…”