Organisational agility, environmental knowledge and green product success

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this study is to analyse the effect of organisational agility on environmental knowledge as an instrument for the successful development of eco-innovation in products. Design/methodology/approach This study used a cross-sectional design to collect data on the study variables from a sample of 184 Spanish manufacturing organisations. Structural equations with partial least squares were used to test the hypotheses. Findings Organisational agility is significantly linked to internal and external environmental knowledge. The results of this study highlight the effect of external knowledge on the success of eco-innovation. Internal environmental knowledge positively moderates the effect of external knowledge on the success of green products. Research limitations/implications Based on the dynamic capabilities approach, a theoretical model has been proposed in which organisational agility is configured as an effective capacity for the development of environmental knowledge. The results confirm this relationship and indicate that, although internal environmental knowledge is not decisive in developing new green products, it does enhance the effect of external knowledge on the success of eco-innovation. Practical implications Innovative companies must implement organisational agility practices that promote environmental knowledge for the success of new green products. They should also promote both external and internal knowledge. Originality/value This study addresses the little explored area of the relationship between organisational agility and the successful development of new green products. The inherent particularities of eco-innovation prompt the need for further studies on the creation of specific knowledge for its promotion. This study concludes that adopting agile practices enables key environmental knowledge for this type of innovation to be created. Additionally, it explores the tensions arising from the dichotomy between internal and external knowledge, with scarce resources allocated to the most effective source. Although both types of knowledge seem to be equally relevant, external knowledge plays a more significant role in the case of eco-innovation. A final contribution of this study is the finding that internal knowledge can further enhance the effect of external knowledge on the development of successful green products.

Conceptualising the relationship between green dynamic capability and SME sustainability performance: the role of green innovation, organisational creativity and agility

“…Different studies show the linkage between OA and GDC (Baškarada and Koronios, 2018;Rabal-Conesa et al, 2021;Arora et al, 2020). A study by Rabal-Conesa et al (2021) showed a…”

Does industry-university-research cooperation promote the environmental efficiency of China’s high-tech manufacturing?

“…When enterprises invest in R&D, they not only create new knowledge, but also improve their absorptive capacity (Cohen and Levinthal, 1990). The improvement of absorptive capacity helps enterprises to acquire external knowledge and carry out environmental innovation (Rabal-Conesa et al, 2022). The combination of external knowledge acquisition and internal R&D can enable enterprises to effectively carry out internal R&D activities and benefit from knowledge complementarity (Lokshin et al, 2008).…”

“…Developing technologies to reduce environmental pollution is an expensive, complex, and highly uncertain task (Oke, 2013;Rabal-Conesa et al, 2022). Usually, it is difficult for enterprises to deal with the pressure of controlling environmental pollution only through internal research and development (R&D) (Chang et al, 2022).…”

Is training a green innovation driver? The mediating role of knowledge acquisition

“…Literature shows that knowledge acquisition lead toward ecological innovation (Chen et al , 2015; Lin and Chen, 2017; Pham et al , 2019; Shahzad et al , 2020) and that the success of the environmental innovation process depends on access to internal and external sources of knowledge (Ben Arfi et al , 2018; Rabal-Conesa et al , 2022). However, this line of research is still recent and more studies are needed to delve into the effect of knowledge management process on green innovation (Ben Arfi et al , 2018).…”