Towards Green Innovation: Impact of Green Entrepreneurial Orientation on Green Product Development with a Mediating Role of Green Creative Behaviour

Recently, Green Product Development (GPD) has gained broad acceptance in academia, business, and the research community and has become an important part of a company's growth in the era of environmentalism. This study aimed to explore new dimensions that will improve Green Product Development by exploiting certain important variables such as Green Entrepreneurial Orientation (GEO) and Green Creative Behaviour (GCB). The research framework is based on the Natural Resource-Based View (NRBV) theory to examine the relationships among the GEO, GPD, and GCB constructs. Data were obtained from a sample of employees working in manufacturing SMEs (ISO 14001 certified), using a structured survey questionnaire. The results confirmed that GEO significantly influences GPD both directly and through the GCB, thereby validating the role of creative behaviour as a mediator. Model fit indices demonstrated strong reliability and validity, ensuring robustness of the findings. The outcomes provide empirical evidence that GEO-driven practices foster innovative green product initiatives, reinforcing the strategic importance of creativity in sustainable entrepreneurship. The results provide a substantial theoretical contribution to current literature. This study will help researchers to understand the variation in GEO and GPD from different aspects. The proposed study also suggests new insights for SMEs to reinforce green entrepreneurial orientation practices as part of their firm's strategies to attain a highly competitive advantage.