Trading Your Diversification Strategy for a Green One: How Do Firms in Emerging Economies Get on the Green Train?

Abstract

Many studies have been performed to explore how firms transform from a nongreen strategy to a green one, but there is no definitive answer. Aiming to untangle this complex process in the context of the strategy and belief that being green is an important endeavor, this study details how firms implement green strategy from product diversification to innovation under the pressure of environmental regulations. Consistent with our arguments, data from Chinese listed firms reveal that environmental regulations create pressure for resources and managerial skills to be split between diversification and innovation strategies, which leads to innovation at the cost of diversification. This tension is strengthened when the firm has insufficient slack resources and faces strong environmental dynamism. Furthermore, we find that the innovation strategy increasingly substitutes the loss of the downsized diversification strategy. In addition, these effects show the differences between sectors and the dynamic change over time.

Sustainable Brand Management of Alimentary Goods

“…According to the above mentioned, brands are becoming parts of people's lives all over the world. They form an immanent part of human beings' reality and they co-act in the process of own value creation as they have strong interpretation power about their consumers [13]. Moreover, brands have become a very effective tool of communication.…”

Barriers to environmental sustainability practices of multinational mining companies in Ghana: an institutional complexity perspective

“…For example, a study by Girard and Gates (2020) indicate that the state as a major stakeholder can exploit its competing logics to undermine and devalue the interests of other actors, leading to institutional contradictions. This helps to explain why the influence of informal organisations on the behaviour of companies in developing countries remain weak (Hu et al , 2019). We, therefore, argue that convergent logics within an institutional environment might result in complicit commonality where the government (regulators) and mining companies pursue an objective of side-lining opposing voices and interests.…”

“…Similarly, organisations confront contradictory norms, values and requirements from multiple logics leading to institutional complexity (Ashby et al , 2019; Greenwood et al , 2011). For instance, whilst the internal policies of companies may be genuine efforts to addressing their impacts, studies suggest that managers are unwilling to allocate resources towards sustainability without external pressures (Hu et al , 2019; Shum and Yam, 2011). Although countries globally have passed stringent environmental legislation to guide the operations of companies (K. Söderholm et al , 2015), regulations might also limit flexibility and innovation.…”

Innovative Industrial Use of Bamboo as Key “Green” Material

“…Entrepreneurs aim to develop innovative and creative strategies using good, valuable, durable, and sustainable materials that serve industrial and economic development [2,3]. As result, the use of natural construction and production materials has increased interest related to the desire of developing greener and/or environmentally friendly processes [4]. Several natural, re-emerging materials used in the past (e.g., bamboo, straw, reeds, and hemp) have been found useful again and deserving of research to fully understand their potential for different applications.…”