The Effect of Green Intellectual Capital on Green Performance in the Spanish Wine Industry: A Structural Equation Modeling Approach

Abstract

Global environmental problems, such as global warming, pollution, or deforestation, are critical issues that require a rapid and common response. In this context, companies play a decisive role in achieving environmental objectives through the ecological knowledge they can store and manage. In this context, the present research focuses its interest on analyzing how the set of green intangibles possessed by organizations, i.e., Green Intellectual Capital (GIC), affects their Green Performance (GP). Specifically, the study shows how GP is influenced by GIC through the mediating role of the Green Innovation (GI) variable. Therefore, the research questions to be answered by this study are as follows: Does GIC influence environmental performance? Does GI mediate the GIC-GP relationship? What actions can companies take to improve their GP? There are several reasons that have led us to carry out this research. First, there is little empirical evidence of the relationships proposed in this study. Second, to the best of our knowledge, there is no previous research that has contextualized the relationships raised in the wine industry, thus representing an advance in the comprehension of the constructs studied. Third, GIC represents an incipient field of study that needs to be developed and established within the literature linked to Intellectual Capital (IC). In order to achieve the proposed objectives, data from a survey of 202 wineries in Spain were used and a quantitative approach was followed using Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results of the research indicate that there is a positive and significant relationship between GIC and GP. In addition, GI partially mediates the relationship between these two variables, playing a key role in the environmental management of wineries. The theoretical and practical contributions of the study improve the understanding of the relationships raised, being a pioneering study due to its contextualization in the wine industry, as well as providing a series of guidelines for both environmental managers and winemakers to improve their GP.

Do circular economy practices moderate the wine tourism–green performance relationship? A structural analysis applied to the Spanish wine industry

“…(2022b) empirically demonstrated the existence of a positive and significant relationship between GIC and green innovation performance, given that, according to their results, the stock of green knowledge allows catalysing green innovation to ultimately improve winery efficiency through resource savings. Marco-Lajara et al . (2022c), for their part, concluded that GIC had a positive and significant relationship on the GP of Spanish wineries, given that this set of green intangibles can lead to the reduction and reuse of the resources available to the winery thanks to the ecological knowledge gained.…”

“…Also, recent research in wine business shows response rates below 5%, such as the studies by Marco-Lajara et al. (2022b, c).…”

“…Recently, Marco-Lajara et al (2022b) empirically demonstrated the existence of a positive and significant relationship between GIC and green innovation performance, given that, according to their results, the stock of green knowledge allows catalysing green innovation to ultimately improve winery efficiency through resource savings. Marco-Lajara et al (2022c), for their part, concluded that GIC had a positive and significant relationship on the GP of Spanish wineries, given that this set of green intangibles can lead to the reduction and reuse of the resources available to the winery thanks to the ecological knowledge gained. Although the GIC-GP relationship has been previously addressed in the academic literature, to our knowledge, the mediating role of GIC proposed in this research has not been previously analysed, so the present research represents an advance in scientific knowledge in the field of WT and environmental management by shedding light on a relationship that has not been previously addressed.…”

“…In this sense, the GSC allows to improve GP through the set of green intangibles that the organization possesses (brand, organizational structure, culture, manuals, etc.). In this way, the combination of green intangibles of a human, structural and relational nature allows wineries to increase their ecological knowledge, leading to their GP improvement (Marco-Lajara et al. , 2022c).…”

Analyzing the effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on Green Innovation Performance in the Spanish wine industry: A structural equation modeling analysis

“…The research has been contextualized in the Spanish wine industry, given the economic, social and environmental importance of this activity in the Iberian country (Marco‐Lajara, Zaragoza‐Sáez, Martínez‐Falcó, & Ruiz‐Fernández, 2022). Moreover, the wine industry faces increasing pressures to improve its sustainability (Gilinsky et al, 2016), as the environment, the community and the local economy can be negatively affected by its operations.…”