Green Innovations and Organizational Change: Making Better Use of Environmental Technology

Abstract

Die Dis cus si on Pape rs die nen einer mög lichst schnel len Ver brei tung von neue ren For schungs arbei ten des ZEW. Die Bei trä ge lie gen in allei ni ger Ver ant wor tung der Auto ren und stel len nicht not wen di ger wei se die Mei nung des ZEW dar.Dis cus si on Papers are inten ded to make results of ZEW research prompt ly avai la ble to other eco no mists in order to encou ra ge dis cus si on and sug gesti ons for revi si ons. The aut hors are sole ly respon si ble for the con tents which do not neces sa ri ly repre sent the opi ni on of the ZEW. DAS WICHTIGSTE IN KÜRZE

Pro-Environmental Change and Short- to Mid-Term Economic Performance

“…On the other hand, the results of our research are empirically consistent with the literature that claims that pro-environmental change is associated with changes in organisational design (Antonioli et al, 2013;Hottenrott et al, 2012;Huang & Jim Wu, 2010;Lee, 2009;Zutshi & Sohal, 2004). There is such an association in the three types of pro-environmental change, as shown by the regression analyses.…”

“…The existence of complementary assets associated to the implementation of environmental management practices was previously considered by Christmann (2000) in reference to innovation processes and by Hottenrott et al (2012), Huang andJim Wu (2010), andMartínez-del-Río et al (2012) in reference to internal organisational factors. Our results suggest conclusions similar to those established by Hottenrott et al (2012) and Huang and Jim Wu (2010), who empirically show that green practices, technologies and innovations jointly adopted with changes in firms' organisational structure enable better returns. Our results are also consistent with those obtained by some of the authors who analyse organisational change as a determinant and not as a result of environmental proactivity, but who also find that the joint implementation of the two aspects generates additional benefits.…”

“…At any rate, they are related processes, and there are reasons to believe that they are, in fact, complementary processes. Some authors have suggested that the combination of both processes (environmental and organisational design change) has a positive effect on the economic returns of firms (Hottenrott et al, 2012; Huang & Jim Wu, 2010). Huang and Jim Wu (2010), for instance, suggested that organisational factors play a relevant role in obtaining results from product-related eco-innovations.…”

“…They set forth several hypotheses related to cross-functional integration : A higher degree of “cross-functional integration” will have a positive impact on both the performance of new green products and financial performance, while the performance of innovation in green products has a positive impact on financial performance. Hottenrott et al (2012) meanwhile estimated the effect of green technologies on performance, analysing the impact of organisational change. In their study, they find empirical support for the complementarity of green technologies and organisational changes.…”

“…Other moderating or mediating factors refer to the firms’ internal characteristics, capacities or key resources, for example, size (Wagner & Schaltegger 2003), innovation intensity (Christmann, 2000), degree of technological knowledge (Cañón-de-Francia, Garcés-Ayerbe, & Ramírez-Alesón, 2007), environmental human resource management (Carmona-Moreno, Céspedes-Lorente, & Martinez-del-Rio, 2012), stakeholder management (Plaza-Úbeda, Burgos-Jiménez, Vazquez, & Liston-Heyes, 2009) and the efforts invested in organisational change (Hottenrott, Rexhauser, & Veugelers, 2012; Huang & Jim Wu, 2010).…”