National culture, regulation and country interaction effects on the association of environmental management systems with environmentally beneficial innovation

Abstract I address in a comparative perspective the question of whether environmental management systems and particular managerial activities to reduce negative environmental impacts have a positive influence on the probability of firms carrying out environmental innovations. Based on binary and multinomial discrete choice models, I study the relationship of a number of determinants to the occurrence of environmental innovations based on data from a survey carried out in 2001 in nine European states. I find evidence that environmental management systems are associated with process innovations, but that this is moderated by the interaction of environmental management system implementation with country location. I do not find that environmental management systems are associated with product innovations or that a moderating effect of country location exists. County‐specific national cultures and regulatory regimes moderate the association of environmental management system implementation with environmental product and process innovations, respectively. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.