The relationships between regulatory and customer pressure, green organizational responses, and green innovation performance

• Published in: Journal of cleaner production Vol. 112; pp. 3423 - 3433
• Main Authors: Huang, Xiao-xing, Hu, Zhen-peng, Liu, Cun-shan, Yu, Da-jin, Yu, Liu-fang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 2016
• Subjects: China; consumer demand; Customer pressure; Green innovation performance; Green organizational responses; industrial organization and market structure; Regulatory pressure; research and development; structural equation modeling; sustainable manufacturing; sustainable technology; China; Customer pressure; Regulatory pressure; Green organizational responses; Green innovation performance
• ISSN: 0959-6526; 1879-1786
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.106

Although much research has been done to investigate the influence of regulatory and customer pressure on green innovations, the existing literature paid little attention to the question of how such pressure motivates organizations to improve their green innovation performance. A conceptual model based on the concept of green organizational responses is developed in this paper. The model is tested using structural equation modeling on a sample of 427 manufacturing organizations in six provinces in central China. The results of modeling show that regulatory and customer pressure promotes green organizational responses and enhances green innovation performance. However, these two forms of pressure are shown to have different impacts on specific organizational responses and different extent of impact on green innovation performance. For example, while regulatory pressure has significant positive impact on training and plays a direct role in green innovation performance, customer pressure has significant positive impact on research and development investments and collaboration networks. These results offer important implications for promoting green innovations in the manufacturing industry. •The role of regulatory and customer pressure in green innovations is investigated.•The concept of green organizational responses is proposed.•Impacts of both forms of pressure on green organizational responses are examined.•Effects of green organizational responses on innovation performance are examined.•The mediating role of green organizational responses is examined.