Introduction – The scene for this thesis is set in the highly regulated automotive industry. Recent scandals in the automotive industry have shown that companies have manipulated their emission results in order to pass regulations. The regulations are from the beginning implemented to protect the environment and encourage companies to develop green innovation but the authors question if regulations puts more pressure on the companies than they can handle. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to investigate how regulations affect green innovation. Method – The authors adopted a pragmatist research philosophy and used an abductive research method. The empirical data has been gathered through a qualitative study, conducting semi structured interviews with companies within the automotive industry. The abductive research approach meant that the frame of reference has been updated and revised when new data, which was previously not covered in the theory, was gained from the interviews. With a five-step process the authors have analyzed the empirical data with the frame of references and from the result drawn conclusion. Conclusion – The conclusions drawn in this thesis is that regulations have a positive impact on companies green incremental innovation and can have both an inhibitory and a positive effect on radical green innovation. However, there are few underlying factors affecting the outcome such as infrastructure, technology neutrality and communication. Contribution – The contribution of this thesis has added new qualitative knowledge to the research field on how regulations affect green innovation. By localizing and highlighting the factors found in the conclusion, companies and policy makers can cooperate to enhance the development of green radical innovations in the future. Future research - Future researcher are encouraged to investigate how infrastructure, technology neutrality and communication each are affecting green radical innovation. Key words: Green innovation, Regulations, Government policy and the Automotive Industry Paper type: Master thesis

This study has investigated and attempted to enhance understanding of the role of absorptive capacity in influencing a firm to adopt green innovation. Absorptive capacity which has been argued by previous study as an important factor to facilitate the adoption of innovation, may require some degree of pressure from regulators and customers, to be exerted on particular firms, to influence them to become involved in green innovation. Therefore, this study has also attempted to evaluate the extent of the moderating effect of regulatory and customer requirements on the relationship between a firm's absorptive capacity and its adoption of green innovation. A research framework was developed and three research questions were posited. An electronic questionnaire survey was created and distributed to general building firms from the construction industry in Scotland. Subsequent semi-structured interviews were conducted with a subset of participants from the survey as well as with a number of construction industry experts, to investigate further the results of the survey. A total of 84 respondents participated in the survey, while 13 respondents contributed invaluable input from the interview sessions. The findings suggest that, on the whole, the level of green innovation adoption by most of the general building firms in Scotland can be considered as relatively low. Their engagement in green-related activities, however, was focusing more on the technical and process side, which was directly influenced by firms' high levels of existing knowledge and efforts to build new knowledge through employee training. The green administrative practices, on the other hand, had not really been given attention by the building firms as it is a voluntary-based act, which does not demonstrate tangible, financial benefit to them. The evidence from the study also shows that neither environmental requirements from regulators nor customers could encourage the building firms to adopt green practices even when they have high levels of absorptive capacity. The low levels of compliance as well as poor environmental demand from the customers indicate the number one concern within the industry, that is, cost, which hinders the building firms from becoming 'greener'. Additionally, this study provided insights and further understanding regarding knowledge-based factors that could facilitate the adoption of green innovation. This study has also made a methodological contribution by providing evidence and support for the use of mixed method approach to enhance understanding of the construction industry, which has tended to be the focus of quantitative studies. The findings of this study also have a number of implications, especially for policy makers, to explore into strategy and stringent regulations that could encourage more firms in the construction sector, which are operating in one of the industries that contributes most to environmental problems, to seek to reduce their impact on the natural environment. As the government takes a leadership role in this regard, participation from the other stakeholders within the industry is of importance to prompt a wider adoption of green practices. Here, architects, in particular, are in a potentially useful position to have a very strong influence in encouraging building firms to become involved in green practices. Besides, both individuals within the organisations (e.g. the top management and decision makers) and the society outside the organisations (e.g. customers and users of construction outputs) need to be educated to motivate them to make better environmental choices in order to contribute to environmental protection or sustainability.

South Africa has complex environmental and economic challenges as part of its sustainable development. These include depleting natural resources, significant waste generation and high carbon emissions, compounded with an economic growth rate below global growth. Organisations within the supply chain play a key role in purchasing and distributing goods that underpin the economy. Waste generation and carbon emissions drive climate change which has been singled out as a significant risk to humanity. The negative environmental impacts of climate change, resource depletion, waste generation and carbon emissions have compounded the bleak economic outlook for South Africa. Developed countries have implemented circular economy policies that support green innovation within the supply chain. The circular economy is a model that supports waste reduction while improving the economy and the use of natural resources through reducing, reusing and recycling at a basic level. The research area of circular economy in the supply chain is trending globally and is still relatively new from a South African context, particularly around circular business models in the supply chain. Circular economy principles work hand in hand with driving green innovation, as the technology allows for the identification of new ways to reduce waste and cost across the supply chain. The research is qualitative and exploratory within the area of supply chain, with a focus on green innovation and circular economy from a developing country perspective. It intends to understand the key drivers that contribute to companies adopting green innovation strategies. The benefit of the research is for practitioners to understand how South Africa can achieve green in the supply chain and overcome economic issues by adopting circular economy principles. Twelve semi-structured interviews were carried out with managers of large organisations that have embarked on green initiatives within the supply chain. The study established commonalities with existing research on external and internal drivers supporting green innovation and the circular economy in the supply chain. The research established new insights around South African organisations' differences in the supply chain, particularly around operational risk being a critical driver considering water scarcity and electricity instability. It also identified internal drivers to changing business models from linear to circular, particularly around sustainability strategies, network collaboration, sustainability culture and changing the way companies are measured. Recommendations support how business models could be adapted to drive circular business models across supply chain organisations in South Africa. / Mini Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / MBA / Unrestricted

Reporting on the growing number of green initiatives across various industries in media is at odds with only sporadic academic research on green acquisition strategy in the marketing discipline. This presents a unique opportunity for me to identify and empirically examine different factors that can impact a firm’s value when adopting the green acquisition strategy and explore drivers of adopting green strategies, namely, green acquisition and green innovation. In this thesis, I explore these questions through two studies. In the first study, I analyze 182 green acquisition announcements using the event study method to see how the stock market reacts. The study reveals that the stock market responds positively to announcements of green acquisitions. Additionally, acquirers with stronger marketing capability but limited innovation capability experience better stock performance. However, the stock market return−green acquisition relationship, influenced by the two capabilities mentioned above, is moderated by industry environmental sensitivity. The results enhance our understanding of how marketing and innovation capabilities impact investor behavior in the context of green acquisitions. These findings broaden our existing knowledge of the marketing−finance interface, green marketing, and corporate sustainability. The second study examines external and internal drivers of corporate green strategies (i.e., green innovation and green acquisition). Using a sample of 1565 firm-year observations from the food and beverage industries, I show that firms under greater media attention are more likely to adopt both green acquisition and green innovation strategies. However, with the presence of the top management team’s commitment toward sustainability, media attention’s positive effects on firms’ likelihood of adopting green acquisition will be weakened. Moreover, firms with top management teams committed to sustainability are more likely to engage in green innovations under higher environmental regulation stringency. This study fills the gap in the green marketing literature by providing insights into why and how firms react to social and environmental challenges proactively. Notably, my findings show when and why firms adopt green acquisition or green innovation strategies. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Increasingly, corporations are responding to green trends by engaging in various green strategies such as green acquisition and green innovation. With regard to green acquisition strategy, little is known about its financial impact and determinants. Secondly, drivers of green innovation and green acquisition strategies have not been sufficiently examined from secondary/archival data sources. I explore these issues in two studies. The first study examines how the stock market responds to green acquisitions. It finds that when companies announce green acquisitions, the stock market reacts positively. Additionally, companies that have strong marketing capability but limited innovation capability tend to have better stock market performance. However, the effect of those capabilities on the relationship between stock market return and green acquisition is affected by the environmental sensitivity of the industry. The second study examines the major drivers of green strategies (i.e., green acquisition and green innovation). It shows how environmental regulation stringency and media attention affect those two green strategies differently with the presence of the top management team’s sustainability commitment.

Problem – Logistics services worldwide are not considered to be environmental sustainable because of their high emissions of greenhouse gasses (GHG) as well as its air, soil and water pollution. Since fourth party logistics providers (4PLs) manage the entire supply chain they can reduce their harmful environmental impact on a large scale through green logistics innovation., There are however difficulties for 4PLs to innovate in green logistics.  Purpose – This paper investigates how 4PLs generate and manage green logistics innovation. It also explores what drivers and barriers there are for developing green logistics innovation.  Method – This paper is based on a single case study that uses CIMO logic in the theoretical framework to thoroughly explore and clarify the area of green logistic innovation among 4PLs. Semi structured interviews and a questionnaire were constructed as the main source for gathering empirical evidence.   Results – The case company provided evidence for how 4PLs innovate by being close to their suppliers and customers and finding new opportunities for green logistics innovation. Drivers and barriers are also identified for green logistics innovation.  Conclusions – The study shows how 4PLs can manage and generate innovations as well as create their own playing field by developing competence for new areas of business, enlarging the boundaries for 4PLs to innovate in. The study also shows the importance of considering the goods as a factor in green logistics (particularly reverse logistics).

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate what barriers and drivers influences the internationalization of private Swedish cleantech firms. The model of a multiple case study was chosen together with a qualitative method and an abductive approach. This was done by acquiring primary information from seven private cleantech companies, all located in Sweden and active in international markets. Furthermore, the theoretical framework presented the Uppsala model, network perspective, international new ventures, born globals, transaction cost theory and the OLI-model. With this theoretical framework, a conceptual model was created which shows how the parts are connected. In the empirical chapter, the primary data is presented to visualize what each individual company said regarding the different constructs of internationalization, drivers, barriers and internationalization decisions. Moreover, the analysis chapter visualizes the similarities and the dissimilarities between the theory and the empirical findings. The thesis concludes that there are both general, as well as specific barriers and drivers that are influential in the internationalization process of private Swedish cleantech firms. These are shown to influence the internationalization decision of managers to take an incremental approach to internationalization. The authors of the thesis also present the view that Swedish cleantech companies are generally too small, lack the financial resources and managerial drive needed to internationalize. The authors also present the theoretical and practical implications and provide recommendations for future research.

The aim of this study is to examine the effects of a market-based greenhouse gases price on green innovation by testing the Hicksian theory of induced innovation. To test whether causality exists, panel data compiled of 30 countries over 13 years (2005-2017) have been used. The study is restricted to the European Union emission trading scheme, where the price of EUA has been used as a market-based price for greenhouse gases. To capture the effect on innovation, an approximation for innovation in the form of patent counts have been employed using the patent category Y02 constructed by the EPO. The result suggests that green innovation is affected by the price of the EUA, total CO2 emissions and tax revenue from energy. This study employed a knowledge stock variable that was not found to be significant, contrary to previous literature on induced innovation. The incidence rate ratio associated with the  permits price indicates that a one euro increase in price would result in a 1.135 % increase in the patenting of green technology. The result suggests that a higher price in  permits would stimulate innovation of green technology within the European Union.

Socio-Emotional Wealth in family firms and its influence on green product innovations is an important theme in general management research. The purpose of the study was to understand the link between the socio-emotional wealth of family firms and green innovation to understand how family firms in their quest to preserve their socio-emotional wealth will influence green innovation motives. The study was based on a single case study, a packaging company chosen with an innovation center for green solutions. A total of 11 interviews were conducted. The study is based on constructionism and relativism research philosophy. The findings show that there is an influence of the dimensions of the FIBER model of socio-emotional wealth on green innovation while preserving their socio-emotional wealth. Organizations can use these findings to get an understanding of green innovation, as well as that family firms, need to embrace more their uniqueness as it’s the result of their reliance on socio-emotional wealth.

No description available.

As empresas podem responder por mudanças significativas em prol da sustentabilidade por meio de inovações, através do desenvolvimento de novas tecnologias, serviços ou produtos que se destinam a reduzir os problemas ambientais e climáticos - nomeadamente inovações verdes. Estas são conduzidas por recursos internos, bem como forças institucionais e algumas capacidades organizacionais, tais como a capacidade de absorção, podem ser relevantes em melhorar o desempenho em inovações verdes. Portanto, este estudo teve como objetivo avaliar empiricamente a relação entre as forças institucionais e capacidades internas na condução de inovações verdes no setor de energia elétrica brasileiro. A técnica de equações estruturais (PLS) foi aplicada aos dados coletados por meio de uma survey realizada entre dezembro de 2015 e maio de 2016. A validade do modelo estrutural foi assegurada através de vários testes e os resultados permitiram concluir que os condutores internos são positivamente relacionados com as forças institucionais e a capacidade de absorção. Ainda, estes mediam a relação entre estes construtos. Além disso, os condutores internos estão positivamente relacionados com o desempenho da inovação verde em produtos e processos. Portanto, o estudo tem várias implicações teóricas para área de gestão, especialmente em capacidades dinâmicas, VBR e teoria da inovação verde. Além disso, as implicações políticas do estudo estão relacionadas com a composição de políticas de um país, a fim de desenvolver regulamentações ambientais que favoreçam a inovação. / Green innovations can be an answer that companies develop as ways to mitigate climate change. These are driven by internal resources as well as institutional forces, and some organizational capabilities such as absorptive capacity can be relevant in spurring green innovations performance. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing empirically the relationship among institutional forces and internal capabilities in driving green innovations in the Brazilian electricity power sector. Partial Least Square Structural Modelling Equation was applied to the data collected through the survey conducted between December 2015 and May 2016. The structural model validity was validated through several tests and the results have indicated that Internal Drivers are positively related to the Institutional Forces and Absorptive Capacity, and mediate the relationship among those constructs. Also, the Internal Drivers are positively related with Green Innovation Performance in products and processes. Therefore, the study has several theoretical implications for management area, especially on dynamic capabilities, RBV and green innovation theory. Also, policy implications of the study are related to the composition of a country\'s policy mix in order to develop environmental regulations which favour innovation.