Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-8ctnn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T04:20:26.626Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Salient stakeholder voices: Family business and green innovation adoption

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2015

Yi-Chun Huang
Affiliation:
Department of Business Administration, National Kaohsiung University of Applied Sciences, Taiwan
Hung-Bin Ding
Affiliation:
Department of Management and International Business, Sellinger School of Business and Management, Loyola College in Maryland, USA
Ming-Rea Kao
Affiliation:
Department of Business Administration, National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan

Abstract

One striking finding from recent natural environmental management research is that family firms are more likely to engage in environmentally friendly practices. However, the source of such difference is less clear. The primary objective of our research is to investigate if family firms react to stakeholder pressures differently when making natural environmental management decisions. We survey 235 manufacturing firms from the chemical, and the electronic and information technology industries in Taiwan to test our hypotheses. The results of regression analysis show that family firms pay much more attention to their internal stakeholders than non-family firms. This finding complements the current discussions on family business uniqueness. It also contributes to provide a more comprehensive framework of stakeholder salience.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and Australian and New Zealand Academy of Management 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adler, J (1995) Environmentalism at crossroads, Washington DC: Capital Research Center.Google Scholar
Agle, BR, Mitchell, RK and Sonnenfeld, JA (1999) Who matters to CEOs? An investigation of stakeholder attributes and salience, corporate performance, and CEO values, Academy of Management Journal 45(5): 507525.Google Scholar
Aiken, LS and West, SG (1991) Multiple regression: Testing and. interpreting interactions, Newbury Park CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Aragon-Correa, JA (1998) Strategic proactivity and firm approach to the natural environment, Academy of Management Journal 41(5): 556567.Google Scholar
Armstrong, JS and Overton, TS (1977) Estimating non-response bias in the mail survey, Journal of Marketing Research 14: 396402.10.1177/002224377701400320Google Scholar
Aronoff, C (2004) Self-perpetuation family organization built on values: Necessary condition for long-term family business survival, Family Business Review 17(1): 5559.Google Scholar
Banerjee, SB, Iyer, ES and Kashyap, RK (2003) Corporate environmentalism: Antecedents and influence of industry type, Journal of Marketing 67(2): 106122.Google Scholar
Bentler, PM and Bonett, DG (1980) Significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structure, Psychological Bulletin 88: 588606.Google Scholar
Bhappu, AD (2000) The Japanese family: An institutional logic for Japanese corporate networks and Japanese management, Academy of Management Review 25(2): 409415.Google Scholar
Blum-Kusterer, M. and Hussain, S. S. (2001) Innovation and corporate sustainability: An investigation into the process of change in the pharmaceuticals industry, Business Strategy and the Environment 10: 300316.Google Scholar
Buysse, K and Verbeke, A (2003) Proactive environmental strategies: A stakeholder management perspective, Strategic Management Journal 24: 453470.Google Scholar
Cater, J and Schwab, A (2008) Turnaround strategies in established small family firms, Family Business Review 21(1): 3150.Google Scholar
Child, J (1972) Organization structure, environment and performance: The role of strategic choice, Sociology 6: 122.Google Scholar
Christmann, P (2004) Multinational companies and the natural environment: Determinants of global environmental policy, Academy of Management Journal 47(5): 747760.Google Scholar
Christmann, P and Taylor, G (2001) Globalization and the environment: Determinants of firm selfregulation in China, Journal of International Business Studies 32(3): 439458.Google Scholar
Craig, J and Dibrell, C (2006) The Natural environment, innovation, and firm performance: A comparative study, Family Business Review 19(4): 275288.Google Scholar
Damanpour, F and Evan, WM (1984) Organizational innovation and performance: The problem of organizational lag, Administrative Science Quarterly 29: 392409.Google Scholar
Davis, PS and Harveston, PD (1998) The influence of the family on the family business succession process: A multi-generational perspective, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 22(3): 3153.Google Scholar
Davis, JH, Schoorman, FD and Donaldson, L (1997) Toward a stewardship theory of management, Academy of Management Review 22(1): 2047.Google Scholar
Déniz, D and Suárez, MKC (2005) Corporate social responsibility and family business in Spain, Journal of Business Ethics 56(1): 2736.Google Scholar
Drobny, NL (1994) Strategic environmental management- competitive solutions for the twenty-first century, Cost Engineering 36(8): 1923.Google Scholar
Drumwright, ME (1994) Socially responsible organizational buying: Environmental concern as a noneconomic buying criterion, Journal of Marketing 58(3): 119.Google Scholar
Dyer, WG Jr (1988) Culture and continuity in family firms, Family Business Review 1(1): 3750.Google Scholar
Egri, CP and Herman, S (2000) Leadership in the North American environmental sector: Values, leadership styles, and contexts of environmental leaders and their organizations, Academy of Management Journal 43(4): 571604.Google Scholar
Elkington, J (1994) Towards the sustainable corporation: Win-win-win business for sustainable development, California Management Review, Winter: 90100.Google Scholar
Epstein, ME and Roy, MJ (1998) Managing corporate environmental performance: A multinational perspective, European Management Journal 16(3): 284296.Google Scholar
Fineman, S and Clarke, K (1996) Green stakeholders: Industry interpretations and response, Journal of Management Studies 33(6): 715730.10.1111/j.1467-6486.1996.tb00169.xGoogle Scholar
Ford, JC, McCallum, RC and Tait, M (1986) The application of exploratory factor analysis in applied psychology: A critical review and analysis, Personnel Psychology 39: 291314.Google Scholar
Fornell, C and Larcker, DF (1981) Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error, Journal Marketing Research 18(1): 3950.Google Scholar
Freeman, RE (1984) Strategic management: A stakeholder approach, Boston MA: Pitman.Google Scholar
Frooman, J (1999) Stakeholder influence strategies, Academy of Management Review 24: 191205.Google Scholar
Gallo, MA (2004) The family business and its social responsibilities, Family Business Review 17(2): 135149.Google Scholar
Gladwin, TN, Kennelly, JJ and Krause, T (1995) Shifting paradigms for sustainable development: Implications for management theory and research, Academy of Management Review 20: 874907.Google Scholar
Gómez-Mejía, LR, Haynes, KT, Núñez-Nickel, M, Jacobson, KJL and Moyano-Fuentes, J (2007) Socioemotional wealth and business risks in family-controlled firms: Evidence from Spanish olive oil mills, Administrative Science Quarterly 52(1): 106137.Google Scholar
Greeno, L and Robinson, SN (1992) Rethinking corporate environmental management, The Columbia Journal of World Business 27(3&4): 222232.Google Scholar
Hair, JF, Anderson, RE, Tatham, RL and Black, WC (1998) Multivariate data analysis with reading, 5th edn, Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall.Google Scholar
Harris, SG (1994) Organizational culture and individual sensemaking: A schema-based perspective, Organization Science 5(3): 309321.Google Scholar
Hart, SL (1995) A natural-resource-based view of the firm, Academy of Management Review 20: 9861014.Google Scholar
Henriques, I and Sadorsky, P (1996) The determinants of an environmentally responsive firm: An empirical approach, Journal of Environmental Economics and Management 30(3): 381395.Google Scholar
Henriques, I and Sadorsky, P (1999) The relationship between environmental commitment and managerial perceptions of stakeholder importance, Academy of Management Journal 42(1): 8799.Google Scholar
Hollander, BS and Bukowitz, WR (1990) Women, family culture, and family business, Family Business Review 3(2): 139151.Google Scholar
Hult, TG and Swan, SK (2003) A research agenda for the nexus of product development and supply chain management process, Journal of Product Innovation Management, 20(5): 333336.Google Scholar
Jaccard, J and Turrisi, R (2003) Interaction effects in multiple regression, 2nd edn, Thousand Oaks CA: Sage.Google Scholar
James, L R, Muliak, SA and Brett, JM (1982) Causal analysis: Assumption, models and data, Beverly Hills CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Kaufman, D (1995) Externalities and welfare improving preference changes. Environmental and Resource Economics 6: 5371.Google Scholar
Khanna, M and Anton, WQ (2002) Corporate environmental management: Regulatory and market-based pressure, Land Economics 78: 539558.Google Scholar
Kimberly, JR and Evanisko, MJ (1981) Organizational innovation: The influence of individual, organizational, and contextual factors on hospital adoption of technological and administrative innovation, Academy of Management Journal 24(4): 680713.Google Scholar
Kitchell, S (1995) Corporate culture, environmental adaptation, and innovation adoption, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science 23(3): 195205.Google Scholar
Mariussen, A, Wheelock, J and Baines, S (1998) The family business tradition in Britain and Norway: Modernization and reinvention? International Journal of Management and Organization 27(3): 6485.Google Scholar
Maynard, C (2008) Sustainability- what and why, Journal of Commerce 9(19): 40.Google Scholar
McConaughy, DL, Matthews, CH and Fialko, AS (2001) Founding family controlled firms: Performance, risk, and value, Journal of Small Business Management 39(1): 3149.Google Scholar
Mitchell, RK, Agle, BR and Wood, DJ (1997) Toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: Defining the principle of who and what really counts, Academy of Management Review 22: 853886.Google Scholar
Naldi, L, Nordqvist, M, Sjöberg, K and Wiklund, J (2007) Entrepreneurial orientation, risk taking, and performance in family firms, Family Business Review 20(1): 3347.Google Scholar
Nehrt, C (1998) Maintainability of first mover advantages when environmental regulations differ between countries, Academy of Management Review 23: 7797.Google Scholar
Neubauer, F and Lank, AG (1998) The family business: Its governance for sustainability. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Neville, BA, Bell, SJ and Whitwell, G (2004) Stakeholder salience revisited: Toward an actionable tool for the management of stakeholders. Academy of management Best Conference paper Proceedings SIM: D1-D6.Google Scholar
Newman, JC and Breeden, KM (1992) Managing in the environmental era: Lesson from environmental leaders, The Columbia Journal of World Business 27(3-4): 210221.Google Scholar
Nunnally, J (1978) Psychometric theory (2nd edn), New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Ottman, JA (1992) Green marketing challenges and opportunities for the new marketing age, Chicago: NTC Business Books.Google Scholar
Peattie, K (1992) Green marketing, London: Pitman Publishing.Google Scholar
Polonsky, MJ (1995) A stakeholder theory approach to designing environmental marketing strategy, The Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing 10(3): 2946.Google Scholar
Pujari, D (2006) Eco-innovation and new product development: Understanding the inferences on market performance, Technovation 26: 7685.Google Scholar
Pujari, D, Wright, G and Peattie, K (2003) Green and competitive: Influences on environmental new product development performance, Journal of Business Research 56(8): 657671.Google Scholar
Ram, M and Holliday, R (1993) Relative merits: Family culture and kinship in small firms, Sociology 27(4): 629648.Google Scholar
Ramus, CA (2001) Organizational support for employees: Encouraging creative ideas for environmental sustainability, California Management Review 43(3): 85105.10.2307/41166090Google Scholar
Ramus, CA and Steger, U (2000) The roles of supervisory support behaviors and environmental policy in employee, Academy of Management Journal 43(4): 605626.Google Scholar
Schmidheiny, S (1992) Changing course: A global business perspective on development and the environment, Cambridge MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Sharma, S and Henriques, I (2005) Stakeholder influences on sustainability practices in the Canadian forest products industry, Strategic Management Journal 26: 159180.Google Scholar
Shrivastava, P (1994) Castrated environment: Greening organizational studies, Organization Studies 15: 705726.Google Scholar
Starik, M and Marcus, AA (2000) Introduction to the special research forum on the management of organizations in the natural environment, Academy of Management Journal 43(4): 539546.Google Scholar
Starik, M and Rands, GP (1995) Weaving an integrated web: Multilevel and multisystem perspectives of ecologically sustainable organizations, Academy of Management Review 20(4): 908935.Google Scholar
Stavrou, E and Swiercz, PM (1998) Securing the future of the family enterprise: A model of offspring intentions to join the business, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 23(2): 1931.Google Scholar
Stavrou, E, Kassinis, G and Filotheou, A (2007) Downsizing and stakeholder orientation among the Fortune 500: Does family ownership matter? Journal of Business Ethics 72: 149162.Google Scholar
Stoica, M, Liao, J and Welsch, H (2004) Organizational culture and patterns of information processing: The case of small and medium-sized enterprises, Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship 9(3): 251266.Google Scholar
Suchman, M. C (1995) Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches, Academy of Management Review 20: 571610.Google Scholar
Taylor, G and Welford, R (1993) An integrated system approach to environmental management: A case study of IBM (UK), Business Strategy and the Environment 2(3): 111.Google Scholar
Westhead, P and Howorth, C (2006) Ownership and management issues associated with family firm performance and company objectives, Family Business Review 19(4): 301316.Google Scholar
Whitley, RD (1990) Eastern Asian enterprise structure and the comparative analysis of forms of business organization, Organization Studies 11(1): 4774.Google Scholar
Zahra, SA (2003) International expansion of US manufacturing family businesses: The effect of ownership and involvement, Journal of Business Venturing 18(4): 495512.Google Scholar
Zahra, SA, Hayton, JC and Salvato, C (2004) Entrepreneurship in family vs. non-family firms: A resource-based analysis of the effect of organizational culture, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice 28(4): 363381.Google Scholar