Business Strategy and The Environment最新文献

While previous research has explored the antecedents and outcomes of green product innovation, empirical evidence remains inconclusive. This study draws on the contingent natural resource–based view to conceptualize how innovation orientation enables firms to develop green product innovation to enhance financial performance, especially where they emphasize green marketing innovation. The study tests its hypotheses using primary survey data from 347 small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Ghana and PROCESS as an analytical tool. The results suggest that innovation orientation has a positive relationship with green product innovation and that green product innovation mediates the relationship between innovation orientation and financial performance. Additional results indicate that green product innovation contributes more to financial performance under increasing levels of green marketing innovation. The article sheds new light on how firms can combine innovation orientation, green product innovation, and green marketing innovation to boost financial performance in a developing country.

This study highlights the main concerns regarding firms' carbon accounting and decarbonization practices. Under institutional, legitimacy and stakeholder theories, this study analyses the linkages between carbon accounting outputs and integrated reporting (IR), as well as between disclosure assurance systems in the transition towards net-zero business models (n-ZBMs). This study emphasizes the awareness of accounting tools to be considered environmental and social measures due to decarbonization practices. This study developed a systematic literature review (SLR) of 433 English articles published in Scopus database and Google Scholar between the years 1990 and 2024. It is a consolidated methodological approach in the ‘sustainability accounting’ research field to fill the existing gaps that justify this study. The results of this study highlight that IR and carbon accounting awareness enhance firms' performance and have positive social and environmental impacts with the adoption of decarbonization practices towards n-ZBMs through an improved understanding of stakeholders and regulatory pressures. This study is the first to explore the relationship between carbon accounting awareness and IR about the decarbonization practices, as well as the role of assurance in the transition for n-ZBMs. This study tries to move from the concept of legitimacy of the decarbonization practices that firms aim to achieve through sustainable disclosure to the legitimacy of business models towards net-zero emissions.

Industry 4.0 technologies present new opportunities for the sustainable development of companies in the agrifood industry. The extant literature on this topic suggests that innovative technologies can support agrifood companies in addressing environmental, economic and social sustainability issues. While the environmental and economic benefits of technological innovations in the agrifood industry have been widely investigated, few studies sought to explore the impact of the adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies on long-standing social issues. This research addresses this knowledge gap, the data were gathered from 116 Italian agrifood companies that utilized Industry 4.0 technologies. The findings from structural equations modelling partial least squares (SEM-PLS) show that adopting Industry 4.0 technologies helps agrifood companies to improve human resources management, supply chain management and stakeholder relationships. Finally, this contribution puts forward implications for practitioners, as it raises awareness on the benefits of using technological innovations to promote social sustainability outcomes.

This study examines the integration of digital and circular economy (CE) strategies in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and their impact on innovation. The research uses data from the Eurobarometer survey conducted by the European Commission, which includes a sample of 16,365 SMEs. Using a combination of regression analysis and machine learning tools, the results indicate that a high degree of digitalisation within SMEs enhances the integration of a CE orientation. However, it is not necessary for SMEs with advanced CE orientations to have high levels of digitalisation. Additionally, the study finds variability in the integration of digital and CE orientations among SMEs, identifying four distinct groups of companies with differing levels of compatibility. Moreover, SMEs that successfully integrate both digital and CE orientations are more likely to innovate, whereas those with poor integration exhibit a lower probability of innovation. These findings offer crucial insights for managers and policymakers aiming to bolster SME innovation, digitalisation and sustainability. The research underscores the need for a balanced integration of digital and CE orientations to enhance innovation and environmental impact in SMEs.

Integrating circular economy (CE) principles into supply chain management (SCM) plays a key role in accelerating the transition to CE and realising its sustainability potential. This integration has recently attracted increased attention and emerged formally as circular SCM (CSCM). As with other business practices, economic feasibility is a major deciding factor with regard to CSCM adoption. Therefore, understanding whether, how and when firms can benefit from CSCM is of paramount importance for theory, practice and policy. However, the relationship between CSCM and firm performance and the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions that could explain this relationship have received limited empirical attention. Drawing on multiple theoretical perspectives, this study examines the mediating role of employees' organisational identification in the relationship between CSCM and firm's operational performance and the moderating effect of employees' pro-environmental attitude on this role. To achieve this, a multi-respondent cross-sectional research design was used in which data from managers and employees of 163 Jordan-based manufacturing firms was obtained using two separately administrated surveys. The results reveal that CSCM has a positive impact on firm's operational performance. CSCM was also found to indirectly improve firm's operational performance through enhancing employees' organisational identification. Further, the results indicated that, unexpectedly, employees' pro-environmental attitude does not amplify the positive relationship between CSCM and their organisational identification, or indeed the mediating effect of employees' organisational identification in the nexus between CSCM and firm's operational performance. These results have important implications for advancing the theory and practice of the CE.

The increasing significance of green innovation for firm competitiveness introduces greater risks and uncertain returns, challenging top managers' strategic decisions. The influence of top management team (TMT) characteristics, particularly gender diversity, on green innovation remains unclear. Drawing on gender difference and social identity theories, this study examines the curvilinear relationship between TMT gender diversity and green innovation among 2026 Chinese publicly listed manufacturing firms from 2011 to 2018. Through the use of fixed-effects Poisson models to confirm our hypotheses, we uncover an inverted U-shaped relationship between TMT gender diversity and green innovation. Furthermore, we delve into the contingent roles of individual, corporate, and industry factors affecting this primary relationship. Specifically, our findings reveal that the educational attainment of female executives and the strength of green industry innovation flatten the inverted U-shaped curve between TMT gender diversity and green innovation, whereas state ownership steepen it. Our study resolves the inconsistencies found in previous research by integrating multiple theoretical perspectives and offers empirical insights into the role of women in shaping sustainable development in emerging markets.

The circular economy (CE) has emerged as a focal point in discussions surrounding sustainable development, industrial production, and resource efficiency. While it has garnered attention as a ground-breaking paradigm with the potential to harmonize economic, societal, and environmental dynamics, divergent perspectives and critical inquiries have surfaced. This paper delves into the interdisciplinary literature on CE, exploring the interpretative flexibility inherent in its conceptualization. Acknowledging the diverse range of strategies associated with the CE, the study contends with the potential risks of its misappropriation, emphasizing the importance of understanding its systemic socio-ecological implications. With an umbrella review approach, rarely applied in social sciences, the study navigates through 167 review articles, unveiling thematic trends and identifying gaps within the existing literature. By scrutinizing the techno-managerial dominance within CE discussions, the paper calls attention to the overshadowing of numerous critical issues. It highlights the importance of systematic attention to CE's social aspects, essential to provide insights into how policies, strategies, and actions affect the society, as well as the emerging discussion on the alternative social transformative paradigm. The paper concludes with a three-stage study design: a meticulous review of 167 articles, a thematic analysis revealing trends, and a reflective exploration of potential research avenues. This review serves as a comprehensive guide for scholars and practitioners for a holistic understanding of CE and encouraging contributions to address identified gaps and fostering the evolution of CE literature.

Digital product passports are considered key levers for a circular economy. By encouraging intraorganizational and interorganizational exchange of data and information, they enable informed life cycle decision-making to circulate products and materials at their highest utility. This is contingent on the engagement of supply chain actors to contextualize the industrial implications in the span between regulatory compliance and additional value-generation. Through the lens of ecosystem orchestration, this multiple case study draws upon industrial insights from three product manufacturers as well as a sample of their respective suppliers, service partners, customers, and third-party recycling companies to identify 16 practices and five orchestration mechanisms. These unfold at different stages of ecosystem maturity. Combined, they construct a framework for the adaptation of digital product passports in industrial ecosystems. This provides guidance for practitioners throughout the contextualization and utilization of digital product passports and extends the scientific debate in the direction of operationalization. As digital product passports are still in their infancy, avenues for further research are identified, particularly concerning the operational foundations, including the adherent driving and inhibiting factors toward the implementation of digital product passports.

Although environmental, social, and governance (ESG) have been recognized for its overall impact on firm efficiency, research on the effects of the three main and multiple sub elements of ESG, especially in the airline industry, has been lacking. Thus, we analyze the impacts of overall ESG, its three main elements, and each sub elements of ESG on the firm efficiency of 29 suppliers, partners, and customers of Japan Airlines over the period of 2013–2022. First, we employ a two-stage hierarchical network data envelopment analysis (DEA) technique that assesses the interrelationships and interdependencies among the supply chain players in contributing toward achieving their respective operating and profitability efficiencies. Second, we run ordinary least squares regression analyses with 5000 bootstrap replications and determine that overall ESG and its three main elements are positively linked with firm efficiencies. The sub elements of ESG have different impacts on firm efficiencies. That is, resource use and environmental innovation under the Environmental element and human rights and product responsibility under the Social element show significantly positive associations with firm efficiencies. All Governance sub elements positively affect firm efficiencies. The outcomes of this study will be valuable for managers at Japan Airlines and other policymakers within its supply chain because it highlights the importance of focusing on the three main and sub elements of ESG and employing the accurate firm efficiency measurement method when interrelationships and interdependencies of decision-making units exist.

This study examines the moderated mediation model grounded in the natural resource-based view (NRBV) theory, evaluating the influence of green entrepreneurial orientation (GEO) on green competitive advantage (GCA) in Pakistani manufacturing firms. It emphasises the mediating role of green innovation (GI) and the conditional impact of green absorptive capacity (GAC). The study used hierarchical regression and moderated mediation analyses on a dataset consisting of 373 responses. The results reveal that GEO significantly influences GCA, with both radical and incremental GI (IGI) partially mediating this relationship. Moreover, the relationship between GEO, radical GI (RGI), and GCA is strengthened when GAC is high. The moderated mediating effects reveal that the mediating role of RGI is more pronounced when GAC is high. These findings provide valuable insights into enhancing green competitiveness by promoting eco-innovation in manufacturing companies and advancing green entrepreneurship research.