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The freedom within framework: A multilevel perspective on developing green capabilities through routines in service organisations

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  • Jeremy Morrow
  • Simon Mowatt

Abstract

The environmental strategy literature accepts that environmental sustainability can be a crucial source of competitive advantage, but approaches based on the resource‐based view require further explanation as to how green capabilities are developed and transmitted and how employees at different levels contribute to these processes. This article examines these processes by investigating three multilevel case studies of New Zealand service industry firms, based on 32 interviews with senior and middle managers and front‐line staff. The study finds that although green routines and green capabilities develop in heterogeneous, path‐dependent and idiosyncratic ways, these follow identifiable processes at the micro level and meso levels of the firm. On the basis of these findings, a framework is developed suggestion pathways explaining how green routines are aggregated into green capabilities across the whole firm, which is termed the freedom within framework.

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  • Jeremy Morrow & Simon Mowatt, 2020. "The freedom within framework: A multilevel perspective on developing green capabilities through routines in service organisations," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(7), pages 2895-2907, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:bstrat:v:29:y:2020:i:7:p:2895-2907
    DOI: 10.1002/bse.2579
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    2. Ching‐Hsun Chang & Meng‐Yi Shih & Hsin‐Ju Peng, 2022. "Enhancing entrepreneurial opportunity recognition: Relationships among green innovative capability, green relational capability, and co‐innovation behavior," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1358-1368, May.
    3. Achi, Awele & Adeola, Ogechi & Achi, Francis Chukwuedo, 2022. "CSR and green process innovation as antecedents of micro, small, and medium enterprise performance: Moderating role of perceived environmental volatility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 139(C), pages 771-781.
    4. Gabriel Eweje, 2020. "Sustainability discourse: Contemporary issues from different perspectives," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(7), pages 2893-2894, November.

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