Green Process Innovation and Innovation Benefit: The Mediating Effect of Firm Image

By evaluating green process innovation and its innovator’s benefit including short- and long-term dimensions, we first analyzed the relationship between green process innovation and its benefits. Second, we set up a regression model to test the hypotheses using 267 survey data from coal mining firms in China. Finally, we verified the positive relationship between green process innovation and its long-term benefit, and the non-significant relationship between green process innovation and its short-term benefit, and the mediating effect played by firm image in the long run.

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abstract: Previous studies that attempt to relate environmental to financial performance have often led to conflicting results due to small samples and subjective environmental performance criteria. We report on a study that relates the market value of firms in the S&P 500 to objective measures of their environmental performance. After controlling for variables traditionally thought to explain firm-level financial performance, we find that bad environmental performance is negatively correlated with the intangible asset value of firms. The average intangible liability for firms in our sample is 380 millionapproximately 9 of the replacement value of tangible assets. We conclude that legally emitted toxic chemicals have a significant effect on the intangible asset value of publicly traded companies. A 10 reduction in emissions of toxic chemicals results in a 34 million increase in market value. The magnitude of these effects varies across industries, with larger losses accruing to the traditionally polluting industries.

title: A new insight into environmental innovation: : Does the maturity of environmental management systems matter?
abstract: Technological innovation has recently become more essential than ever. To examine the factors that might induce environmental technological innovation, we focus on ISO 14001, a voluntary approach to environmental management, and scrutinise how the proficiency or maturity level of ISO 14001 in facilities influences environment-related research and development (R&D) expenditures that promote environmental technological innovation. We measure the maturity level based on the length of time since a given facility adopted ISO 14001. Using Japanese facility-level data from “Environmental Policy Tools and Firm-Level Management and Practices: An International Survey” (OECD Survey), we estimate two Tobit models by addressing an endogeneity issue in ISO 14001. The estimation results provide empirical evidence that as the ISO 14001 is improved in facilities, those facilities are likely to spend more on environmental R&D. The facility age and market concentration also positively affect environmental R&D. These findings suggest that the maturity level of ISO 14001 is an important factor influencing the investment in environmental R&D.

title: Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment
abstract: A review is presented of the book “Heuristics and Biases: The Psychology of Intuitive Judgment,” edited by Thomas Gilovich, Dale Griffin, and Daniel Kahneman.

title: On the validity of subjective measures of company performance
abstract: Subjective measures of company performance are widely used in research and typically are interpreted as equivalent to objective measures. Yet, the assumption of equivalence is open to challenge. We compared the use of both types of measure in 3 separate samples. Findings were consistent in showing that: (a) subjective and objective measures of company performance were positively associated (convergent validity); (b) those relationships were stronger than those between measures of differing aspects of performance using the same method (discriminant validity); and (c) the relationships of subjective and objective company performance measures with a range of independent variables were equivalent (construct validity).

title: Mistaken Perceptions: Cases and Consequences
abstract: Mezias and Starbuck (2003) review previous work and report striking new evidence indicating that managers can be quite mistaken in their perceptions regarding some matters, even matters quite close to their jobs. This is reminiscent of much evidence on politicians and ordinary citizens that generally show a weak grip on basic facts. In assessing how much difference this weakness makes, it is useful to distinguish among four perspectives on managers as: (i) informants for academic research; (ii) performers of their normal work; (iii) problem-solvers in novel situations; (iv) strategic thinkers. Mezias and Starbuck's results suggest a negative assessment on (i) and (iii), but are less clearly relevant on (ii); some open questions regarding (iv) are put forward.

title: Self-Reports in Organizational Research: Problems and Prospects
abstract: Self-reports figure prominently in organizational and management research, but there are several problems associated with their use. This article identifies six categories of self-reports and discusses such problems as common method variance, the consistency motif, and social desirability. Statistical and post hoc remedies and some procedural methods for dealing with artifactual bias are presented and evaluated. Recommendations for future research are also offered.

title: Environmental proactivity and business performance: an empirical analysis
abstract: This paper analyses the relationship between environmental proactivity and business performance on a sample of 186 industrial companies. This relationship is approached by studying a bundle of relationships between different dimensions or manifestations of environmental proactivity and different measures of business performance. The analysis in part supports the idea that environmental management can bring about competitive opportunities for companies, although it also reveals that some environmental practices produce negative effects. It is thus concluded that there is no one single response for the question of whether environmental proactivity has positive effects on business performance and that this relationship must be disaggregated into more specific and concrete relationships.

title: Misunderstanding the Nature of Company Performance: The Halo Effect and other Business Delusions
abstract: Much popular thinking in the business world is shaped by delusions—fundamental errors of judgment that distort our understanding about company performance. One of the most important delusions is the halo effect, which is the tendency to attribute many positive features to successful companies, and to make the opposite attributions when companies falter. The halo effect, in turn, contaminates the data used in many largescale studies of company performance, including some of the most popular studies of recent years. The result is a misplaced belief that companies can follow formulas to achieve high performance, when in fact performance is better understood as relative, not absolute. To achieve high performance, companies must do more than follow formulas—they must differentiate themselves from rivals by making choices under conditions of uncertainty.

title: Correcting for Endogeneity in Strategic Management Research
abstract: The field of strategic management is predicated fundamentally on the idea that managements' decisions are endogenous to their expected performance implications. Yet, based on a review of more than a decade of empirical research in the Strategic Management Journal, we find that few papers econometrically correct for such endogeneity. In response, we now describe the endogeneity problem for cross-sectional and panel data, referring specifically to management's choice among discrete strategies with continuous performance outcomes. We then present readily implementable econometric methods to correct for endogeneity and, when feasible, provide STATA code to ease implementation. We also discuss extensions and nuances of these models that are sometimes difficult to decipher in more standard treatments. These extensions are not typically discussed in the strategy literature, but they are, in fact, highly pertinent to empirical strategic management research.

title: The moderator-mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations.
abstract: In this article, we attempt to distinguish between the properties of moderator and mediator variables at a number of levels. First, we seek to make theorists and researchers aware of the importance of not using the terms moderator and mediator interchangeably by carefully elaborating, both conceptually and strategically, the many ways in which moderators and mediators differ. We then go beyond this largely pedagogical function and delineate the conceptual and strategic implications of making use of such distinctions with regard to a wide range of phenomena, including control and stress, attitudes, and personality traits. We also provide a specific compendium of analytic procedures appropriate for making the most effective use of the moderator and mediator distinction, both separately and in terms of a broader causal system that includes both moderators and mediators.

title: Mediators, Moderators, and Tests for Mediation.
abstract: The following points are developed. First, mediation relations are generally thought of in causal terms. Influences of an antecedent are transmitted to a consequence through an intervening mediator. Second, mediation relations may assume a number of functional forms, including nonadditive, nonlinear, and nonrecursive forms. Special attention is given to nonadditive forms, or moderated mediation, where it is shown that while mediation and moderation are distinguishable processes, a particular variable may be both a mediator and a moderator within a single set of functional relations. Third, current procedures for testing mediation relations in industrial and organizational psychology need to be updated because these procedures often involve a dubious interplay between exploratory (correlational) statistical tests and causal inference. It is suggested that no middle ground exists between exploratory and confirmatory (causal) analysis, and that attempts to explain how mediation processes occur require well-specified causal models. Given such models, confirmatory analytic techniques furnish the more informative tests of mediation.

title: Organizational Responses to Environmental Demands: Opening the Black Box
abstract: This article combines new and old institutionalism to explain differences in organizational strategies. We propose that differences in the influence of corporate departments lead their facilities to prioritize different external pressures and thus adopt different management practices. Specifically, we argue that external constituents—including customers, regulators, legislators, local communities, and environmental activist organizations—who interact with influential corporate departments are more likely to affect facility managers' decisions. As a result, managers of facilities that are subjected to comparable institutional pressures adopt distinct sets of management practices that appease different external constituents. We test our framework in the context of the adoption of environmental management practices using an original survey and archival data obtained for nearly 500 facilities. We find support for these hypotheses.

title: Stakeholder Pressures And Environmental Performance
abstract: We examine the connection between the internal heterogeneity of stakeholder groups and the resource dependence dynamics characterizing their relationships with firms. Empirically, we test how this ...

title: What drives eco-innovation? A review of an emerging literature
abstract: This paper provides an overview of the emerging literature on the drivers of eco-innovation. Its main contribution lies in separating the drivers associated with the phases of development and diffusion and in identifying particular drivers based on different eco-innovation types. We find that research in this area primarily adopts the resource-based and institutional theories as its theoretical foundations and that the prevailing effects identified are those of regulations and market pull factors. Moreover, product eco-innovation, process eco-innovation, organizational eco-innovation, and environmental R&D investments seem to be driven by common drivers, such as regulations, market pull factors, EMS, and cost savings, as well as to be positively associated with company size. The majority of the studies in our literature review employ a quantitative research methodology and focus on the diffusion stage of eco-innovation. We end with providing a synthesis of drivers of companies’ eco-innovation and directions for future research.