Purpose This study developed and validated a comprehensive scale for measuring green innovation performance in the Chinese automotive manufacturing industry, grounded in sustainable development theory and viewed from a production perspective. Design/methodology/approach The study followed a rigorous scale development process comprising item generation, expert validation, pretesting, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Data were collected from 404 middle-level managers working in automotive manufacturing companies across China. The final scale consisted of 28 items grouped into seven key dimensions: green technology innovation, green product design, recycling and circular use, green supply chain integration, resource efficiency, green process innovation, and quality control. Findings The results confirmed the strong psychometric properties of the scale. EFA revealed a seven-factor structure explaining 79.47% of the variance, while CFA supported the reliability and validity of the model through high factor loadings, strong composite reliability, and acceptable model fit indices. The validated scale provided a practical and theoretically grounded tool for assessing green innovation performance in automotive production. Research limitations/implications This study focused solely on automotive manufacturing companies in China, limiting the generalizability of the findings. Future research should apply and adapt the scale across other industries and national contexts to enhance its applicability and robustness. Originality/value This study filled a critical gap in the literature by developing a green innovation performance scale tailored to the automotive production context and grounded in sustainable development theory. This novel framework can help companies, policymakers, and researchers to measure and improve green innovation practices and support sustainable industrial transformation.
Hu et al. (Sat,) studied this question.