IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v149y2022icp786-794.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Sustainable corporate governance for environmental innovation: A configurational analysis on board capital, CEO power and ownership structure

Author

Listed:
  • Shui, Xiaolong
  • Zhang, Minhao
  • Smart, Palie
  • Ye, Fei

Abstract

CEOs, boards of directors, and owners are believed to be important actors in affecting environmental innovation. Yet, there is a lack of combined view on the three actors in the literature. This study aims to explore the sources of environmental innovation from the perspective of corporate governance bundles. Considering the interdependent nature of the three, this study proposes a configurational model consisting of CEO (formal and informal) power, board capital (breadth and depth), and ownership (institutional and insider). We undertake a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) on a sample of 250 dirty firms and discover six sufficient configurations for high environmental innovation. These configurations suggest that there are multiple paths for achieving high environmental innovation. Furthermore, both powerful and weak CEOs can be environmental innovation facilitators if they are accompanied by suitable board archetypes and ownership structure.

Suggested Citation

  • Shui, Xiaolong & Zhang, Minhao & Smart, Palie & Ye, Fei, 2022. "Sustainable corporate governance for environmental innovation: A configurational analysis on board capital, CEO power and ownership structure," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 786-794.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:149:y:2022:i:c:p:786-794
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.05.037
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296322004659
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.05.037?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sariol, Ana M. & Abebe, Michael A., 2017. "The influence of CEO power on explorative and exploitative organizational innovation," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 38-45.
    2. Philippe Aghion & John Van Reenen & Luigi Zingales, 2013. "Innovation and Institutional Ownership," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 103(1), pages 277-304, February.
    3. Ilir Haxhi & Ruth V. Aguilera, 2017. "An Institutional Configurational Approach to Cross-National Diversity in Corporate Governance," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(3), pages 261-303, May.
    4. Joern H. Block & Marcus Wagner, 2014. "The Effect of Family Ownership on Different Dimensions of Corporate Social Responsibility: Evidence from Large US Firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(7), pages 475-492, November.
    5. Judith L. Walls & Pascual Berrone, 2017. "The Power of One to Make a Difference: How Informal and Formal CEO Power Affect Environmental Sustainability," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 145(2), pages 293-308, October.
    6. Rong, Zhao & Wu, Xiaokai & Boeing, Philipp, 2017. "The effect of institutional ownership on firm innovation: Evidence from Chinese listed firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(9), pages 1533-1551.
    7. Jensen, Michael C. & Meckling, William H., 1976. "Theory of the firm: Managerial behavior, agency costs and ownership structure," Journal of Financial Economics, Elsevier, vol. 3(4), pages 305-360, October.
    8. Rodrigues, Ricardo & Samagaio, António & Felício, Teresa, 2020. "Corporate governance and R&D investment by European listed companies," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 289-295.
    9. Haemin Dennis Park & Daniel Tzabbar, 2016. "Venture Capital, CEOs’ Sources of Power, and Innovation Novelty at Different Life Stages of a New Venture," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(2), pages 336-353, April.
    10. Katalin Takacs Haynes & Amy Hillman, 2010. "The effect of board capital and CEO power on strategic change," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(11), pages 1145-1163, November.
    11. JOSEPH A. McCAHERY & ZACHARIAS SAUTNER & LAURA T. STARKS, 2016. "Behind the Scenes: The Corporate Governance Preferences of Institutional Investors," Journal of Finance, American Finance Association, vol. 71(6), pages 2905-2932, December.
    12. Muhammad Nadeem & Stephen Bahadar & Ammar Ali Gull & Umer Iqbal, 2020. "Are women eco‐friendly? Board gender diversity and environmental innovation," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 29(8), pages 3146-3161, December.
    13. Ruth V. Aguilera & Igor Filatotchev & Howard Gospel & Gregory Jackson, 2008. "An Organizational Approach to Comparative Corporate Governance: Costs, Contingencies, and Complementarities," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 475-492, June.
    14. Daniel Tzabbar & Jaclyn Margolis, 2017. "Beyond the Startup Stage: The Founding Team’s Human Capital, New Venture’s Stage of Life, Founder–CEO Duality, and Breakthrough Innovation," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 28(5), pages 857-872, October.
    15. Ibrahim Bostan & G. Mujtaba Mian, 2019. "Inventor Chief Executive Officers and Firm Innovation," International Review of Finance, International Review of Finance Ltd., vol. 19(2), pages 247-286, June.
    16. Guldiken, Orhun & Darendeli, Izzet Sidki, 2016. "Too much of a good thing: Board monitoring and R&D investments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(8), pages 2931-2938.
    17. Eric (Er) Fang, 2011. "The Effect of Strategic Alliance Knowledge Complementarity on New Product Innovativeness in China," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 22(1), pages 158-172, February.
    18. Bicen, Pelin & Hunt, Shelby D. & Madhavaram, Sreedhar, 2021. "Coopetitive innovation alliance performance: Alliance competence, alliance’s market orientation, and relational governance," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 23-31.
    19. Hicheon Kim & Heechun Kim & Peggy M. Lee, 2008. "Ownership Structure and the Relationship Between Financial Slack and R&D Investments: Evidence from Korean Firms," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 19(3), pages 404-418, June.
    20. Li, Guan-Cheng & Lai, Ronald & D’Amour, Alexander & Doolin, David M. & Sun, Ye & Torvik, Vetle I. & Yu, Amy Z. & Fleming, Lee, 2014. "Disambiguation and co-authorship networks of the U.S. patent inventor database (1975–2010)," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(6), pages 941-955.
    21. Sumrin, Samina & Gupta, Suraksha & Asaad, Yousra & Wang, Yichuan & Bhattacharya, Saurabh & Foroudi, Pantea, 2021. "Eco-innovation for environment and waste prevention," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 627-639.
    22. Ho, Joanna & Huang, Cheng Jen & Karuna, Christo, 2020. "Large shareholder ownership types and board governance," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    23. Beynon, Malcolm J. & Jones, Paul & Pickernell, David, 2020. "Country-level entrepreneurial attitudes and activity through the years: A panel data analysis using fsQCA," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 443-455.
    24. Xiaoping He & Shuo Jiang, 2019. "Does gender diversity matter for green innovation?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(7), pages 1341-1356, November.
    25. Brian R. Golden & Edward J. Zajac, 2001. "When will boards influence strategy? inclination × power = strategic change," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(12), pages 1087-1111, December.
    26. Talke, Katrin & Salomo, Søren & Kock, Alexander, 2011. "Top ManagementTeam Diversity and Strategic Innovation Orientation: The Relationship and Consequences for Innovativeness and Performance," Publications of Darmstadt Technical University, Institute for Business Studies (BWL) 63286, Darmstadt Technical University, Department of Business Administration, Economics and Law, Institute for Business Studies (BWL).
    27. Ruchunyi Fu & Yi Tang & Guoli Chen, 2020. "Chief sustainability officers and corporate social (Ir)responsibility," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(4), pages 656-680, April.
    28. Nofsinger, John R. & Sulaeman, Johan & Varma, Abhishek, 2019. "Institutional investors and corporate social responsibility," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 700-725.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Xu, Aiting & Zhu, Yuhan & Wang, Wenpu, 2023. "Micro green technology innovation effects of green finance pilot policy—From the perspectives of action points and green value," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 159(C).
    2. Huang, Ruilei & Wei, Jiuchang, 2023. "Does CEOs’ green experience affect environmental corporate social responsibility? Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 205-231.
    3. Xiangyuan Ao & Tze San Ong & Boon Heng Teh, 2023. "Corporate Sustainability Development Strategy and Corporate Environmental Governance—The Moderating Role of Corporate Environmental Investments," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(5), pages 1-15, March.
    4. Sanjukta Brahma & Fotini Economou, 2024. "CEO power and corporate strategies: a review of the literature," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 62(3), pages 1069-1143, April.
    5. Habiba Al-Shaer & Khaldoon Albitar & Jia Liu, 2023. "CEO power and CSR-linked compensation for corporate environmental responsibility: UK evidence," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 60(3), pages 1025-1063, April.
    6. Ma, Xuejiao & Che, Tianqi & Sun, Xiaohua, 2024. "A carbon information disclosure perspective on carbon premium: Evidence from China," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 173(C).
    7. Ibrahim A. Elshaer & Alaa M. S. Azazz & Sameh Fayyad, 2023. "Green Management and Sustainable Performance of Small- and Medium-Sized Hospitality Businesses: Moderating the Role of an Employee’s Pro-Environmental Behaviour," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(3), pages 1-17, January.
    8. Pingguo Xu & Leyi Chen & Huajuan Dai, 2022. "Pathways to Sustainable Development: Corporate Digital Transformation and Environmental Performance in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-21, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Yousaf, Umair Bin & Ullah, Irfan & Jiang, Junchen & Wang, Man, 2022. "The role of board capital in driving green innovation: Evidence from China," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Finance, Elsevier, vol. 35(C).
    2. Kang, Sanggyu & Chung, Chune Young & Kim, Dong-Soon, 2019. "The effect of institutional blockholders' short-termism on firm innovation: Evidence from the Korean market," Pacific-Basin Finance Journal, Elsevier, vol. 57(C).
    3. Oh, Frederick Dongchuhl & Shin, Sean Seunghun, 2020. "Does product market competition affect corporate governance? Evidence from corporate takeovers," Journal of Empirical Finance, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 68-87.
    4. Beatriz Aibar-Guzmán & José-Valeriano Frías-Aceituno, 2021. "Is It Necessary to Centralize Power in the CEO to Ensure Environmental Innovation?," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(1), pages 1-21, March.
    5. Othar Kordsachia & Maximilian Focke & Patrick Velte, 2022. "Do sustainable institutional investors contribute to firms’ environmental performance? Empirical evidence from Europe," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 16(5), pages 1409-1436, July.
    6. Shaikh, Ibrahim A. & O'Brien, Jonathan Paul & Peters, Lois, 2018. "Inside directors and the underinvestment of financial slack towards R&D-intensity in high-technology firms," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 192-201.
    7. Ilya Ivaninskiy & Irina Ivashkovskaya & Joseph A. McCahery, 2023. "Does digitalization mitigate or intensify the principal-agent conflict in a firm?," Journal of Management & Governance, Springer;Accademia Italiana di Economia Aziendale (AIDEA), vol. 27(3), pages 695-725, September.
    8. Sheikh, Shahbaz, 2018. "The impact of market competition on the relation between CEO power and firm innovation," Journal of Multinational Financial Management, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 36-50.
    9. Lee, Gilsoo & Cho, Sam Yul & Arthurs, Jonathan & Lee, Eun Kyung, 2020. "Celebrity CEO, identity threat, and impression management: Impact of celebrity status on corporate social responsibility," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 69-84.
    10. Zhou, Taiyun & Liu, Mingxuan & Zhang, Xiyu & Qi, Zheng & Qin, Ni, 2024. "Does institutional ownership affect corporate social responsibility? Evidence from China," Economic Analysis and Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 84-98.
    11. Guerini, Mattia & Harting, Philipp & Napoletano, Mauro, 2022. "Governance structure, technical change, and industry competition," Journal of Economic Dynamics and Control, Elsevier, vol. 135(C).
    12. Alexandre Garel & Jose Martin-Flores & Arthur Petit-Romec & Ayesha Scott, 2021. "Institutional investor distraction and earnings management," Post-Print hal-03096196, HAL.
    13. Thi-Thanh Phan & Hai-Chin Yu, 2022. "Innovation, institutional ownerships and board diversity," Review of Quantitative Finance and Accounting, Springer, vol. 59(4), pages 1647-1693, November.
    14. Hammad, Maryam, 2023. "Power to the CEO? Sources of CEO Power and Its Influences on Strategic Choices and Firm Performance," Junior Management Science (JUMS), Junior Management Science e. V., vol. 8(4), pages 827-844.
    15. Choi, Paul Moon Sub & Chung, Chune Young & Vo, Xuan Vinh & Wang, Kainan, 2020. "Are better-governed firms more innovative? Evidence from Korea," International Review of Economics & Finance, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 263-279.
    16. García-Sánchez, Isabel-María & Aibar-Guzmán, Cristina & Aibar-Guzmán, Beatriz, 2020. "The effect of institutional ownership and ownership dispersion on eco-innovation," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    17. Da Teng & Jingtao Yi, 2017. "Impact of ownership types on R&D intensity and innovation performance—evidence from transitional China," Frontiers of Business Research in China, Springer, vol. 11(1), pages 1-25, December.
    18. Driss, Hamdi & Drobetz, Wolfgang & El Ghoul, Sadok & Guedhami, Omrane, 2021. "Institutional investment horizons, corporate governance, and credit ratings: International evidence," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 67(C).
    19. Fernando, Guy D. & Schneible, Richard A. & Zhang, Wei, 2024. "Institutional ownership and women in the top management team," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 170(C).
    20. Sayili, Koray & Yilmaz, Gokhan & Dyer, Douglas & Küllü, A. Melih, 2017. "Style investing and firm innovation," Journal of Financial Stability, Elsevier, vol. 32(C), pages 17-29.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:149:y:2022:i:c:p:786-794. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.