From Corporate Environmental Responsibility to Green Innovation: Organizational Mechanisms and Institutional Influences in Emerging Economies

Abstract

Environmental responsibility has become an important element of corporate sustainability strategies, yet the organizational processes through which it leads to green innovation remain insufficiently understood. This study examines how perceived environmental responsibility translates into green innovation and explores the organizational and institutional conditions that shape this relationship. Drawing on corporate Social Responsibility Theory, the Resource-Based View, and Institutional Theory, the study proposes a framework in which corporate culture and resource commitment act as key organizational mechanisms linking environmental responsibility to innovation outcomes. Data were collected from 338 manufacturing firms in Vietnam and analyzed using PL-SEM. The results show that perceived environmental responsibility has a significant positive effect on green innovation. More importantly, green corporate culture and green resource commitment significantly mediate this relationship, indicating that environmental responsibility becomes more effective when it is embedded in organizational values and supported by concrete resource allocation. Additional Response Surface Plot Analysis (RSPA) uncovers nonlinear interaction patterns, showing that the impact of environmental responsibility on green innovation becomes substantially stronger when firms simultaneously develop a strong green culture and commit sufficient organizational resources. The findings also reveal that government incentives, market demand for green products, and industry pressure strengthen the relationships within the model. Overall, the study provides new evidence on how organizational mechanisms and institutional conditions jointly shape green innovation in manufacturing firms, offering both theoretical insights and practical implications for advancing corporate sustainability.