IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/sustdv/v33y2025i1p668-680.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Formal institutions, informal institutions, and firms' environmental innovation: An application of the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method

Author

Listed:
  • Zhongju Liao
  • Yuhan Wu

Abstract

The institutional environment is an important component of the business environment, and it has a significant impact on firms' strategic decision‐making. Based on institutional theory, this study explores the specific paths by which four types of formal institutions, and two types of informal institutions, jointly affect firms' environmental innovation. Thirty provinces in China were selected as the research sample, and the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method was used to analyze the data. The results indicate four paths of high‐level environmental innovation and two paths of non‐high‐level environmental innovation in institutional combinations. Based on the core conditions of each path, the results can be divided into five types of institutional combinations; formal institutions are found to play an irreplaceable role in the overall institutional environment. The study findings provide a reference for the government to optimize formal and informal institutions to promote firms' environmental innovation.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhongju Liao & Yuhan Wu, 2025. "Formal institutions, informal institutions, and firms' environmental innovation: An application of the fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis method," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 668-680, February.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:sustdv:v:33:y:2025:i:1:p:668-680
    DOI: 10.1002/sd.3151
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.3151
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1002/sd.3151?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
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:wly:sustdv:v:33:y:2025:i:1:p:668-680. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/(ISSN)1099-1719 .

    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.