EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Absorptive capacity and interpretation system's impact when ‘going green’: an empirical study of ford, volvo cars and toyota

Mats Williander

Business Strategy and the Environment, 2007, vol. 16, issue 3, 202-213

Abstract: Whether or not it pays to be green or under what circumstances is an important ongoing debate among economic researchers. However, this question, with its rather instrumental rationality, may underestimate another key issue: the ability of companies to create value that can be captured from customers. This paper reports on three companies in the automotive industry developing and launching cars with improved eco‐environmental performance and less petrol consumption. The study reveals that, despite being captured in the same technological paradigm, the individual company's mode of environmental interpretation and its aspiration to exploit new technology may be two important explanatory factors in its ability to go green profitably. The study indicates that an enacting mode of environmental interpretation may be superior to a discovering mode, and suggests that for companies having a discovering mode there may be a need to complement existing engineering practice with insights into consumer psychology, and bundling of common good versus private good product attributes. The research upon which this paper is based was conducted using an insider/outsider approach in studying the three companies. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.479

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:bla:bstrat:v:16:y:2007:i:3:p:202-213

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://onlinelibrary ... 1002/(ISSN)1099-0836

Access Statistics for this article

Business Strategy and the Environment is currently edited by Richard Welford

More articles in Business Strategy and the Environment from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:16:y:2007:i:3:p:202-213