Innovating for a greener future: the direct and indirect effects of firms' environmental objectives on the innovation process

Jakobsen, Siri; Clausen, Tommy Høyvarde

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.06.023

Cited by 79 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 81 publications

(141 reference statements)

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“…Environmental strategies are manifest as either cost reduction, differentiation strategies, or a hybrid of those (Walsh & Dodds, ). They are usually implemented through new products and/or new services (Jakobson and Clausen ()). By reducing operating costs and avoiding future liability costs, investing in proactive environmental strategies can boost competitiveness through improved legitimacy (Ma, Hu, & Xin, ).…”

Section: Theoretical Framework and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

When companies improve the sustainability of the natural environment: A study of large U.S. companies

Mendonca

Zhou

2019

Bus Strat Env

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In light of the call for companies to abandon current approaches to environmental management, this study adds to the environmental strategy literature and uses the evidence of competitive dynamics among companies to identify a mechanism by which companies invest in proactive environmental strategies and thereby improve the sustainability of the natural environment. An examination utilizing fixed effects regressions on a sample of large U.S.‐based companies reveal that even after controlling the number, environmental and financial performance of leading (environmental) companies, laggard (environmental) companies are more likely to invest in proactive environmental strategies when their leading peers display higher sustainability orientations. Neither the expectation of government regulation nor social movement pressure was found to be influential in this relationship. Therefore, the future dominance of companies' investments in the sustainability of the natural environment will be driven by companies themselves as long as competitive advantages are expected.

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Section: Theoretical Framework and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…They are usually implemented through new products and/or new services (Jakobson and Clausen (2016)). By reducing operating costs and avoiding future liability costs, investing in proactive environmental strategies can boost competitiveness through improved legitimacy (Ma, Hu, & Xin, 2017).…”

Section: Theoretical Framework and Hypothesesmentioning

confidence: 99%

When companies improve the sustainability of the natural environment: A study of large U.S. companies

Mendonca

Zhou

2019

Bus Strat Env

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“…From an evolutionary economics framework, firms differ in their innovation approaches and objectives (Jakobsen & Clausen, 2016;Nelson & Winter, 1982). One of the main challenges that firms face is in deciding which innovation strategy to develop and how to acquire the necessary technology to accomplish their innovation goals.…”

Section: Innovation Strategies Of Energy Firmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Firms engage in innovation for different reasons, and understanding these reasons may help explain their R&D strategies and behaviour and the type of innovation they seek to achieve (OECD, 2005). Establishing innovation objectives is the starting point of the innovation process (Jakobsen & Clausen, 2016). Indeed, the role played by firms' objectives is receiving increasing attention in empirical research on innovation at the firm level (Costa-Campi, García-Quevedo, & Segarra, 2015;Jakobsen & Clausen, 2016;Jové-Llopis & Segarra-Blasco, 2016;Leiponen & Helfat, 2010).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Innovation strategies of energy firms

Costa‐Campi

Duch‐Brown

García‐Quevedo

2019

Corp Soc Responsibility Env

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Investment by energy firms in innovation can have substantial economic and environmental impacts and benefits. Firms engage in innovation for different reasons. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the role that the different innovation objectives have on firms' decisions to invest in each of three types of innovation activity: namely, internal R&D, external R&D, and the acquisition of advanced machinery, equipment, or software. We consider four objectives: process innovation, product innovation, reducing environmental impact, and meeting regulatory requirements.With this approach, we examine how energy firms innovate to reduce their environmental impact in comparison with other innovation objectives. In carrying out the empirical analysis, we draw on data for private energy firms included in the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel for the period 2004-2016. In the empirical analysis, we take the potential persistence of innovation activities into account and we use multivariate probit models to control for possible complementarities between the different R&D and innovation investments. Our results show that internal and external R&D are undertaken to address environmental objectives and to meet regulatory requirements whereas the acquisition of advanced machinery has the purpose of developing process innovations.

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“…An emerging industry founder may, however, lack such relevant experience, assets and social contacts due to the newness of the technology-related industry, which adds to the challenges associated with building legitimacy. Indeed, the firms pursuing environmental innovations (or environmental goals) were found to lack funding, technology information, qualified personnel, market information, external knowledge and cooperation with partners [29]. To sum up, prior research points to that cleantech firms operate in a context where signaling strategies can have an impact on legitimacy as well as on the firm's development.…”

Section: Building Legitimacy In Cleantech Firmsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reveal or Conceal? Signaling Strategies for Building Legitimacy in Cleantech Firms

2017

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New entrants in technology-intense industries are in a race to build legitimacy in order to compete with established players. Legitimacy has been identified as a driver of venture survival and growth; it helps mitigate third-party uncertainty and so facilitates access to resources, engagement with customers and other stakeholders. Nevertheless, we know little about how legitimacy is built and how new entrants build legitimacy in complex technology-intensive industries. In this research we explore how Norwegian cleantech firms use signaling and strategic actions to build legitimacy. We analyze five cases while investigating their actions in different phases of the venture's evolution. The results suggest that, contrary to signaling theory expectations, young clean-tech firms do not always build legitimacy by conveying information on their strengths. Instead, we observe that they use signaling strategies to address the specific concerns of different stakeholders. This is very much contingent upon the evolutionary stage of the venture and the firm's current weaknesses.

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Innovating for a greener future: the direct and indirect effects of firms' environmental objectives on the innovation process

Cited by 79 publications

References 81 publications

When companies improve the sustainability of the natural environment: A study of large U.S. companies

When companies improve the sustainability of the natural environment: A study of large U.S. companies

Innovation strategies of energy firms

Reveal or Conceal? Signaling Strategies for Building Legitimacy in Cleantech Firms

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