Advanced Manufacturing Technologies and Green Innovation: The Role of Internal Environmental Collaboration

Ting Kong, Taiwen Feng and Chunming Ye
Additional contact information
Ting Kong: Business School, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China
Taiwen Feng: School of Management, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an 710072, China
Chunming Ye: Business School, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai 200093, China

Sustainability, 2016, vol. 8, issue 10, 1-18

Abstract: Green innovation has been deemed a key corporate capability to deal with environmental issues. The usage of advanced manufacturing technologies (AMT) provides important resources and knowledge for firms’ green innovation. Drawing on a resources-based approach, this study contributes to the existing literature by examining how the adoption of specific types of AMT (process, design, and planning) influences two dimensions of green innovation (green product innovation and green process innovation). In particular, we explore these relationships through internal environmental collaboration. Based on data collected from 198 Chinese manufacturing firms, we found that process, design, and planning AMT can contribute to both green products and process innovation. Moreover, the findings confirm the significant mediating role of internal environmental collaboration in this relationship. Specifically, internal environmental collaboration mediates the relationship between process AMT and green product innovation as well as the relationship between design AMT and two dimensions of green innovation; it also partially mediates the relationship between process AMT and green process innovation as well as the relationship between planning AMT and two dimensions of green innovation. These findings provide novel insights into how manufacturing firms can use various types of AMT to enhance their green innovation.

Keywords: AMT; green innovation; internal environmental collaboration; mediating effect (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/10/1056/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/8/10/1056/ (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:8:y:2016:i:10:p:1056-:d:81067

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 ().