Does Entrepreneurial Orientation Lead to Successful Sustainable Innovation? The Evidence from Chinese Environmentally Friendly Companies

Hongyi Mao, Zongjun Wang and Lin Yi
Additional contact information
Hongyi Mao: School of Business Administration, Guizhou University of Finance and Economics, Guiyang 550025, China
Zongjun Wang: School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Lin Yi: School of Management, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 18, 1-19

Abstract: This research examines the linkage between entrepreneurial orientation and sustainable innovation. Research shows that the effects of entrepreneurial orientation on the exploitation and exploration of sustainable innovation are significantly positive, whereby absorptive capacity acts in a significant mediating role. The interaction between entrepreneurial orientation and absorptive capacity helps organizations overcome organizational inertia and strengthen the sustainability of innovation. By introducing the absorptive capacity theory and the view of organizational inertia, we have conducted empirical research on 392 Chinese environmentally friendly companies that have passed China’s national high-tech enterprise certification. We verified the relevant hypotheses in our framework in a structural model analysis using Mplus. To further look at the interaction terms of potential and realized absorptive capacity, we used PROCESS in SPSS to evaluate the conditional effects of absorptive capacity on coefficient paths between entrepreneurial orientation and the two types of innovation. The results show that entrepreneurial orientation improves the absorptive capacity of organizations, thereby promoting their sustainable innovation. Furthermore, based on the theory of sustainable innovation, we proved the positive impact of realized and potential absorptive capacity on the exploitation and exploration of sustainable innovation. Organizations could balance exploitation and exploration to implement sustainable innovation by adjusting their potential and realized absorptive capacities. Our results can help environmentally friendly organizations adjust the combination of entrepreneurial orientation and absorptive capacity to overcome organizational inertia, manage exploitation and exploration, and implement sustainable innovation.

Keywords: sustainable innovation; entrepreneurial orientation; absorptive capacity; exploitation and exploration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10294/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/18/10294/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:18:p:10294-:d:635841

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().