Open for Green Innovation: From the Perspective of Green Process and Green Consumer Innovation

Abstract

This study is about open innovation, which suggests that companies should aim to cooperate with other companies or organizations for green innovation. While previous research has focused on the mechanism through which the company achieves green innovation, mainly from the supplier perspective, we have taken a more demand-driven approach to product innovation by introducing the green process and consumer perspectives. Also, this study not only considers collaboration with other companies whose interests are complicated in terms of open innovation but also cooperation with other organizations whose interests are unsophisticated. We examined the relationship between open innovation and green innovation by using the structural equation method and 2496 manufacturing companies in South Korea, and further confirmed the robustness by using OLS (ordinary least square) regression. As a result of the empirical analysis, all four hypotheses were supported, and the effect of collaboration with organizations was stronger than with firms. Based on these results, this study suggests that if managers prioritize green performance, they should consider co-prosperity with other companies and organizations. In addition, this study found that green innovation, which can contribute to the environment while consumers use products with green innovation, is also becoming central. Compared with previous studies, we expect that our alternative approaches to open and green innovation will contribute to corporate sustainability in the future.