Dear Colleagues,
we are pleased to share with you the first issue of Industry & Innovation for 2025, a special issue titled "Leveraging Culture to Cultivate Green Innovation in Organizations and Institutional Fields."
This issue begins with an editorial by our guest editors Georg Reischauer, Claudio Biscaro, and Lianne Lefsrud setting the stage for the five articles included. These contributions examine the role of culture in green innovation across three levels: field, inter-organizational, and organizational. They also shed light on how cultural elements enable green innovation in established organizations and institutional fields.
We hope you will enjoy the reading:
Editorial
Cultivating green innovation in established organisations and fields
Georg Reischauer, Claudio Biscaro, & Lianne Lefsrud
Target Article
The business case for sustainability: six takes on a cultural artefact
Todd Schifeling & Dror Etzion
Abstract
The business case as the prime mover of business decision-making retains an iron grip on the public imagination and the business school curriculum. Recent studies suggest its influence may be exaggerated, and that its depiction as totalising is somewhat cartoonish. We survey the role and effects of the business case in corporate sustainability efforts. Rather than examining its validity or correctness, we approach the business case as a commonly employed cultural artefact. We argue that the business case is neither sufficient nor necessary for sustainable innovation, and examine how it operates as a fixation and impediment, as well as occasional enabler. We conclude by laying out paths for sustainability champions to innovate with and beyond the business case.
Research Articles
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13662716.2024.2390012
Click to follow link." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Partnering with green start-ups: a vehicle for eco-innovation?
Andra Riandita, Anders Broström & Raffaella Cagliano
Abstract
Established firms are increasingly forming alliances with green start-ups, i.e. newly-started ventures dedicated to eco-innovation. This study explores the rationales for the initiation and continuation of such alliances. We investigate how established firms leverage these alliances to facilitate eco-innovation adoption alongside their pursuit of legitimacy. Findings from a case study on seven alliances focused on food waste reduction initiatives in Italy and Sweden indicate that legitimacy-seeking rationales are predominant during alliance formation. As alliances evolve, they transition into a phase where firms identify opportunities for eco-innovation, while ambitions of capability-building and new revenue creation shape the development of the alliances. This study contributes to eco-innovation and environmental alliance literature by showcasing how the pursuit of legitimacy facilitates established firms' adoption and implementation of eco-innovation through alliances with green start-ups.
Corporate board network and green technological innovation: a view of guanxi culture in China
Yanmin Shao & Kunliang Xu
Abstract
Given the pivotal role of guanxi as an informal arrangement for resource acquisition in China, this study integrates social capital theory with social network analysis to explore the effect of firms' guanxi in board networks on green technological innovation (GTI). The findings suggest that firms with more stable and flexible guanxi are likely to have access to more adequate and diverse social capital to support GTI. Furthermore, we theorise that these relationships are more pronounced for firms with better corporate social responsibility performance, as this may strengthen connected firms' trust in the focal firm and allow it to draw more GTI resources. This effect, however, only holds for non-state-owned firms. Stronger absorptive capacity also enhances the contribution of guanxi to GTI by helping firms gain more recognition from connected firms for GTI engagement, thereby positively moderating the relationships. This study may provide insights for shareholders to promote firms' GTI.
Greening from within: the role of organisational purpose shift in building internal legitimacy for fossil fuel incumbents' green innovation
Hannah Schupfer & Birthe Soppe
Abstract
Green innovation that reduces harmful emissions and impacts on the natural environment is crucial in combatting the climate crisis. Yet, incumbents in carbon-intensive industries struggle with its development due to their lack of organisational commitment. We investigate how fossil fuel incumbents can overcome this obstacle and build internal legitimacy for green innovation. Through a longitudinal case study of a Norwegian oil major over 20 years, we highlight the important role of organisational purpose shift. We derive a process model of how fossil fuel incumbents can shift from a goal-based organisational purpose focused on profitability towards a duty-based purpose connected to sustainability-oriented values, building internal legitimacy for green innovation. Our study also demonstrates that organisational purpose shift, when only selectively and gradually realised, impedes full decarbonisation. We contribute to the literature on innovation studies by discussing how organisational purpose shift and internal legitimacy can enhance sustainable innovation in fossil fuel incumbents.
Exploring the nexus of organisational culture and sustainability for green innovation
James Demastus, Brian M. Ohsowski & Nancy E. Landrum
Abstract
Organisations have embraced green innovation, but the desired environmental impacts remain unrealised. We approach this problem by focusing on how a driver of green innovation, sustainability, relates to organisational culture. Prior research suggests that understanding culture is fundamental to managing sustainability, but empirical research relating the two concepts is lacking. Global Reporting Initiative documents and annual reports to shareholders from 197 organisations were examined via content analysis to measure their sustainability strength with the Stages of Sustainability model and to quantify their organisational culture profiles on the Competing Value Framework. Expectedly, organisations oriented towards Hierarchy, and Market typologies were purveyors of weak sustainability. Unexpectedly, Clan organisations were found to reduce weak sustainability while Adhocracy types had no significant effect on sustainability strength. These findings result in implications for shifting organisational culture for strong sustainability. This knowledge can be leveraged in future research to cultivate impactful green innovation.
Best regards
Alessandra Perri and Vera Rocha
Co-Editors-in-Chief, Industry and Innovation
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Vera Rocha
Copenhagen Business School
Kilevej
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