Lean production systems, social sustainability performance and green competitiveness: the mediating roles of green technology adoption and green product innovation

Purpose This study aims to investigate the interrelationships between lean production, green technology adoption, green product innovation, social sustainability performance and green competitiveness. The study further investigates the mediation roles of green technology adoption and green product innovation between lean production systems, social sustainability performance and green competitiveness. Design/methodology/approach The quantitative research approach is used for the study. Data for the study is garnered from 197 managers of manufacturing firms in Ghana via a self-administered questionnaire. Structural equation modeling, specifically partial least square is applied as the methodological tool to test all hypotheses. Findings Results of the study suggest that lean production systems have a significant positive impact on green technology adoption, green product innovation and green competitiveness. However, lean production systems are found to have an insignificant impact on social performance. The results further confirm the mediation roles of both green technology adoption and green product innovation between lean production systems, social sustainability performance and green competitiveness; thus indicating that lean production systems create an efficient condition for firms to adopt green technologies and produce innovative green-based products to leverage superior social sustainability performance and green competitiveness. Originality/value This study proposes and develops a comprehensive research model that is supported by the natural resource-based view theory to investigate the link between lean production systems, green technology adoption, green product innovation, social sustainability performance and green competitiveness from an emergent country perspective.

Research on Enterprises’ Intention to Adopt Green Technology Imposed by Environmental Regulations with Perspective of State Ownership

Environmental regulations (ER) affect enterprise behaviors. Nevertheless, whether the state ownership influences the relationship between environmental regulations and enterprises’ green intentions and behaviors need to be explored further. In this paper, the effects of environmental regulations on enterprises’ intentions to adopt green technologies, especially the moderating role of state ownership between environmental regulations and green technologic adoption intentions (GTAI), are proposed. An empirical study is carried out with the questionnaire data collected from 207 Chinese managers and executives in order to explore the influence of environmental regulations. With the perspective of ownership, the results confirm that the three kinds of environmental regulations (command-and-control (CAC), market-based incentives (MBI) and voluntary environmental (VER) regulations) have positive effects on enterprise green technology adoption intention. Furthermore, the state ownership of enterprise plays a positive moderating role in the relationship between command-and-control environmental regulations and green technology adoption intentions, but plays a negative moderating role in the relationship between voluntary environmental regulations and green technology adoption intentions. It generates no significant moderate effect on the relationship between market-based incentives environmental regulations and green technology adoption intentions. The work verifies that the differences of ownership would lead to varying effects on the intentions of enterprise green technology adoption imposed by regulations. Managerial implications, as well as the limitation of the work, are concluded at the end of this paper.

A study of group decision-making for green technology adoption in micro and small enterprises

Purpose Green technology adoption (GTA) in small and micro enterprises (SMEs) is a complex multi-attribute group decision-making issue. Conflicts of opinions can hamper the achievement of group coherence. The purpose of this paper is to solve the conflict decision-making problem in SMEs. Design/methodology/approach This paper reconstructs the GTA evaluation index system for SMEs and proposes an intragroup coordination relationship model to mitigate group decision-making conflicts based on the cloud model and social networks (GCS). The numerical characteristics of these GTA indicators are determined using fuzzy theory and cloud model. Findings It was found that establishing a trust relationship network and a conflict coordination relationship could improve the consistency of group decision-making. The degree of coordination has subtle differences with the trust relationship. Particularly, the coordination relationship has obvious influences on the decision-making results among small groups in SMEs. Originality/value The conflict coordination model can significantly improve the consistency of group decision-making in SMEs. At the same time, it discusses the differences between the level of conflict coordination and the trust propagation in the process of group decision-making.

An empirical investigation of green initiatives and environmental sustainability for manufacturing SMEs

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to study the extent of green initiatives within manufacturing SMEs, as well as the mediating effect of the owners/managers intention toward green and moderating effect of green technology adoption in building environmental sustainability in the context of the Malaysian manufacturing SMEs.Design/methodology/approachData were collected through a survey questionnaire responded by 260 Malaysian manufacturing SMEs. The relationships proposed in the developed conceptual framework were represented through three hypotheses: there is a significant relationship between green initiatives and environmental sustainability (H1); intention toward green mediates the relationship between green initiatives and environmental sustainability (H2); and green technology adoption moderates the relationship between intention toward green and environmental sustainability (H3). SEM-AMOS nested model comparisons and mediating and moderating analyses were used to test the hypotheses.FindingsThis is the first research toward the green initiatives framework for the manufacturing SMEs. Till date, no framework is available which could guide researchers and practitioners of this high impact on the environment industry. The findings revealed that energy management, water conservation and waste management are related to environmental sustainability. On mediation analysis, it confirms that owners/managers intention toward green fully mediates the association of green initiatives and environmental sustainability. Finally, the moderation analysis revealed that green technology adoption does not have an influence on manufacturing SMEs environmental sustainability.Practical implicationsThis study is expected to help both researchers and practitioners in terms of manufacturing and other industries who are serious toward environmental sustainability implementation and are looking for an appropriate mechanism. It offers a generalized environmental sustainability implementation linking SMEs owners/managers, green practices, green technology policy, process management and supply chain management.Originality/valueThis study is among the very first environmental sustainability implementation research works conducted in the Malaysian manufacturing sector, particularly, in relation to the green initiatives and “four pillars” of green technology policy that manufacturing SMEs in this country need to adopt to make their environmental sustainability a solid competitive vehicle for their development. The results have broader implications for all manufacturing SMEs, particularly in developing economies where the growth of manufacturing and the development of integrated environmental sustainability are key stages in economic development.

Modelling Green Technology Adoption Based on Sustainable Construction Practices

New digital technologies have the potential to monitor the environmental footprint, mainly Carbon emissions due to massive material consumption, earth-moving equipment. However, the construction projects slowly adopt such technologies only for monitoring the footprint and other sustainability purposes. Despite the government’s policies and external pushes, the adoption decision for sustainability innovations largely depends on different stakeholders’ behaviour including developers, consultants, and contractors. This paper presents a novel conceptual model for green technology adoption regarding sustainability in construction industry. This model is developed based on six main constructs organizational facilitating conditions, expected performance, expected efforts, innovativeness, optimism, and user performance.In order to develop the model, factors affecting the green technology adoption process are identified, a questionnaire is designed, and an empirical investigation is conducted to collect data from construction companies. Regression analysis is utilized to analyse the data using SPSS. The findings show the importance of a series of factors influencing sustainable technology adoption. Based on the extensive review on the relevant literature, few empirical studies have been conducted to examine the proposed constructs sustainable technology. The results are also provide a guidance to broaden understanding of users’ adoption behaviour within this context and thereby increasing the chances for successful adoption of sustainable technology and develop activity-level.