The role of organizational innovation in the development of green innovations in Spanish firms

Abstract

An exploration of the links between organizational and green innovation has been the subject of an impressive quantity of literature during recent years. In this study, the ability of firms to refine their organizational practices in accordance with external developments has been considered, particularly in the context of the introduction of updated environmental regulations and advanced technologies, with the aim of surviving and competing globally. In this study, it was postulated that organizational innovation was one of the main drivers of green innovation at the level of the firm. Hence, the intention here was to study whether green innovation was affected when businesses adapted their environmental strategies in alignment with organizational structures. Moreover, the paper aimed to explore whether there was any major disproportion in green innovation between firms in dirty and in clean sectors. To address these main points, a two-step regression using the generalized method of moments (GMM) was run on data relating to organizational innovation factors and green innovation constructs at the level of the firm, this information being drawn from the Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC) database. These panel data, based on the Community Innovation Surveys (CIS) framework, were used to detect innovations in Spanish firms by investigating long-term relationships between variables to control for nonobservable heterogeneity. The principal findings confirm that the organizational innovation variables studied did promote green innovation and that the dirty sector firms were more likely to undertake green innovations than those in the cleaner sectors.