The Mediating Role of Responsible Innovation in the Relationship between Stakeholder Pressure and Corporate Sustainability Performance in Times of Crisis: Evidence from Selected Regions in China

Abstract

Responsible innovation, as a new management paradigm that balances the need for profit growth and the appeal of social value, plays an important role in taking into account corporate economic, social and environmental performance. It provides new ideas for driving enterprises to become more risk-resistant and sustainable in times of crisis. However, existing research on responsible innovation has mostly focused on content issues, and there is a lack of sufficient research and empirical studies on its effectiveness in business organizations. Based on the stakeholder theory and the research logic of “pressure–behavior-performance”, this study investigates the formation mechanism of responsible innovation and its impact on corporate performance. Through empirical research on 306 Chinese sample data, the results show that stakeholder pressure has a positive impact on corporate sustainability performance and responsible innovation plays a partially mediating role in this relationship. Flexible routine replication positively moderates the relationship between stakeholder pressure and responsible innovation, while positively moderating the mediating role that responsible innovation plays between stakeholder pressure and corporate sustainability performance. This study contributes to helping enterprises recognize the importance of responsible innovation in responding to stakeholder pressure and promoting corporate sustainability performance in times of crisis.

Examination of the interplay between corporate governance theories and sustainable practices in companies: A review study

“…Jo and Harjoto [33] and Ghoul et al [34] research shows that engaging in sustainable activities has a good impact on a firm's performance. Moreover, Tian and Tian [35] empirical study on a sample of 306 Chinese data reveals that stakeholder pressure has a beneficial influence on business sustainability performance. Ruf et al [36] endorses a notion in stakeholder theory that states shareholders, as the primary stakeholder group, gain financial advantages when management fulfils the desires of many stakeholders.…”

The impact of responsible innovations on the enterprise: Transformation, competitiveness, economic indicators, interaction with society and the state

“…Therefore, it is worthwhile to develop a comprehensive and strategic approach to managing responsible innovation in enterprises, including evaluation and monitoring, which will help enterprises to realize their competitive advantages (Gurzawska, 2021). Responsible innovation plays an important role in considering the economic, social and environmental performance of the enterprise, taking into account the need to increase profit and create social value (Tian & Tian, 2021). As an innovation management strategy, responsible innovation should be understood as the reduction of risks of non-satisfaction with the company's consumers' needs, possible loss of potential markets, and costly adaptation of innovative products by increasing the level of consumer confidence (Jarmai et al, 2020).…”

How to drive corporate responsible innovation? A dual perspective from internal and external drivers of environmental protection enterprises

“…Therefore, a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing innovation behavior from the perspective of internal and external drivers is necessary to achieve a win-win situation in terms of both internal and external benefits. However, existing studies have started from a single perspective (internal or external) of what drives responsible innovation, focusing on the external (major social challenges (Chatfield et al, 2017a;Čeičytė, 2019;Schönherr et al, 2020), stakeholder (Auer and Jarmai, 2018;Tian and Tian, 2021) and internal [profit-seeking and risk reduction (Chatfield et al, 2017a), cultural values and institutional structures (Chatfield et al, 2017b;Ranabahu, 2020)] perspectives to explore the drivers of firms' implementation of responsible innovation, but there is a lack of research that examines the role of corporate responsible innovation from an integrated internal and external perspective. Some companies may not be sufficiently aware of their responsibility to innovate, which is likely to lead to a certain degree of short-sightedness in the innovative behavior of companies (Gauttier et al, 2017;Ranabahu, 2020), and thus there may be some real potential crises.…”