Collaborative green innovation in emerging countries: a social capital perspective

Purpose – The new paradigm for green innovation has already shifted to a collaborative model. This study aims to examine how environmental collaboration across organizational boundaries affects green innovation from the social capital perspective. Design/methodology/approach – This study used structural equation modeling method to analyze the innovation performance of 237 Taiwanese firms. Non-response bias was also assessed statistically and appropriate measures taken to minimise the impact of common method variance. Findings – The empirical results showed that: structural capital and cognitive capital have a positive influence on relational capital, relational capital plays a significant role in green management and in turn leads to greater innovation. To achieve effective green innovation, companies should leverage their social capital in order to produce additional competitive advantages through environmental collaboration. Originality/value – With the relative scarcity of resources and the increased pressures for environmental sustainability, there is an increasing interest in studying collaborative green innovation in emerging countries. Unlike many other empirical studies, this study makes an important contribution to the literature by examining how environmental collaboration in emerging countries affects green innovation from the social capital perspective in a detailed manner.