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Does corporate environmental responsibility make firms greener in innovation? The role of knowledge flows

Deping Xiong (School of Finance, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming, China)
Hanxiao Liu (School of Economies, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming, China)
Meng Yang (Business School, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming, China)
Yunlong Duan (Division of Science and Technology Administration, Yunnan University of Finance and Economics, Kunming, China and Yunnan Key Laboratory of Service Computing, Kunming, China)

Journal of Knowledge Management

ISSN: 1367-3270

Article publication date: 2 December 2024

11

Abstract

Purpose

In the context of severe environmental pollution and resource shortage, this study aims to examine how knowledge flows affect the green activities of firms. Specifically, this paper explored whether the firms’ knowledge flows, namely, knowledge inflow (KIF) and knowledge outflow (KOF), play a moderating role in relationship between corporate environmental responsibility (CER) and green innovation in Chinese high-polluting firms.

Design/methodology/approach

The analysis was carried out based on a panel data set of 305 heavy-polluting Chinese listed firms from 2010 to 2020. Meanwhile, this paper adopted the fixed model to empirically attest the proposed hypotheses regarding the relationships among CER, knowledge flows and green innovation.

Findings

The results indicate that there is a U-shaped relationship between CER and green innovation, while the two dimensions of knowledge flows exert opposing effects on the nonlinear link between CER and green innovation. Specifically, KIF positively moderates the effect of CER on green innovation, whereas KOF negatively moderates the effect of CER on green innovation.

Originality/value

This study demonstrates how green innovation can be influenced by CER and, moreover, provides a more nuanced understanding of the value of knowledge management (KM) in firms’ green activities. In this way, this paper answers the call for understanding the importance of green transformation in the context of KM.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The paper was supported by Science and technology development strategies and policy Research of Yunnan Provicne Science and technology department Grant 202304AL030027; Science Research Foundation of Department of Education of Yunnan Province under Grant 2024Y493.

Disclosure statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Citation

Xiong, D., Liu, H., Yang, M. and Duan, Y. (2024), "Does corporate environmental responsibility make firms greener in innovation? The role of knowledge flows", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-09-2023-0896

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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