The synergy impact of external environmental pressures and corporate environmental commitment on innovations in green technology

Abstract The adoption of innovations in green technology by enterprises is a decision‐making process that is subject to both external environmental pressures and internal factors. Using data from 4549 private companies in China, this study empirically analyzes the independent and joint effects of four forms of external environmental pressure and environmental commitment on green‐process innovation and green‐product innovation, respectively. The results show that the adoption of innovations in green technology by companies is affected by stakeholder pressure and does not change according to the type of green technology. The marginal effects of external environmental pressure on enterprises' innovations in green technology differ; this is reflected not only in the types of green technology innovation, but also in the types of pressure. Corporate environmental commitment positively moderates the relationship between external environmental pressure and green‐process innovation and the relationship between government‐led environmental regulation and green‐product innovation. However, the relationships between the other three external environmental pressures and green‐product innovation are not significant. This means that for different types of green technological innovation, there are variations in the extent of the synergy between external environmental pressures and corporate environmental commitment.