The interplay of corporate entrepreneurship, environmental orientation, and performance in clean‐tech firms—A double‐edged sword

Abstract

Clean‐tech innovations are an important driver in solving global issues such as climate change and for the sustainable development of economies around the world. Whereas a large part of the literature focuses on clean‐tech ventures, less is known on corporate entrepreneurship, that is, entrepreneurial behavior in established firms and its relation to sustainability. This paper extends the sustainable entrepreneurship debate to corporate entrepreneurship, which represents a fruitful avenue to further developing clean technologies. We focus particularly on clean‐tech firms' organizational preparedness for corporate entrepreneurship (OPCE), that is, how well a firm's structures and processes are set for entrepreneurial activities. On the basis of contingency theory, this study investigates how the level of OPCE influences the environmental and financial performance of clean‐tech firms and whether their environmental orientation affects these relationships. Building on data from 103 firms, we find support for a positive effect of OPCE on both environmental and financial performance. Both effects are stronger the higher the external environmental orientation. In contrast, the leverage of internal environmental orientation is not equally positive. Our study reveals that the effect of OPCE on financial performance diminishes for firms that are more strongly driven by an internal than an external environmental orientation.

The early bird catches the worm: an empirical analysis of imprinting in social entrepreneurship

“…These insights can be helpful in selecting employees and volunteers for the respective venture. Further, for-profit oriented companies could use these insights to promote socially oriented innovation through social intrapreneurs (Alt and Craig 2016;Niemann et al 2020). Moreover, many companies have already integrated corporate social responsibility to improve company image, customer loyalty, and stakeholder relations (Schreck 2011;Crane and Glotzer 2016;Alt and Craig 2016).…”

The Relationship between Inclusive Leadership and corporate entrepreneurship: Analytical Research in the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research

“…The independent variable, inclusive leadership, as it consists of ( 13) items divided into two dimensions, namely (cognitive diversity processes, affective diversity processes) based on (Ashikali, 2018). corporate entrepreneurship scale the respondent variable, organizational leadership, as it consists of (25) items divided into (5) dimensions, namely (Top Management Support, Work discretion, Rewards / Reinforcement, time availability, Organizational boundaries) based on (Niemann et al, 2019). The questionnaire was designed according to the five-point Likert scale.…”

The sustainable start‐up paradox: Predicting the business and climate performance of start‐ups

“…Linder, Björkdahl, and Ljungberg (2014) find that environmental‐oriented firms have lower economic performance than their counterparts, whereas Flammer (2015) shows that, under certain conditions, adopting CSR policies can have a positive effect on the business performance. This indicates that the two performance dimensions are not independent and that the relation between them is context specific (Hang et al, 2018; McMullen, 2018; Niemann et al, 2020). Therefore, we, in this section, discuss the influence of potential climate performance as a mediating variable on the relation between technology characteristics and business performance.…”

“…New sustainable technologies and business models are necessary for the transition to a carbon neutral economy (Gibbs, 2006; Niemann, Dickel, & Eckardt, 2020; Schaltegger, Hansen, & Lüdeke‐freund, 2016). These are likely to be introduced by sustainable entrepreneurs (Cohen & Winn, 2007; Shane & Venkataraman, 2000), which make entrepreneurship a critical component for the development of a carbon neutral economy (Dean & McMullen, 2007; Gibbs, 2006; Loorbach & Wijsman, 2013).…”