Does green innovation mediate corporate social responsibility and environmental performance? Empirical evidence from emerging markets

PurposeThis paper examines the mediation role of green innovation in the relationship between corporate social responsibility and environmental performance of manufacturing firms in Ghana.Design/methodology/approachThe paper chose African emerging markets and surveyed managers from manufacturing firms. With 301 questionnaires qualified for this study’s final analyses, the authors adopt the multiple regression with mediation models to estimates the nexus among study variables.FindingsResults evidence that both corporate social responsibility and green innovation has a positive and significant impact on environmental performance. Interestingly, the authors find that corporate social responsibility significantly improves environmental performance through green innovation indicating that firms could essentially build their dynamic resource and innovation capabilities in sustainability leading to enhanced environmental performance.Research limitations/implicationsThis paper develops a dynamic resource-based view of firm environmental performance illustrating how firms use resources to build strategic capabilities for competitive advantage, which leads to improved environmental performance. The paper highlights the mediation role of green innovation on corporate social responsibility and environmental performance relationships.Practical implicationsThis study's results provide significant insights to owners and managers of manufacturing companies to integrate corporate social responsibility and green innovation to ensure environmental performance and sustainability. Furthermore, policy makers should encourage green innovation when design sustainable development systems in the manufacturing industry.Originality/valueThe paper provides a valuable model showing how green innovation mediates corporate social responsibility to improve environmental performance and build competitive advantages considering both small, medium, and large manufacturing enterprises in emerging countries.