Is green customer integration always a facilitator for green product innovation?: A conflict-based view
European Journal of Innovation Management
ISSN: 1460-1060
Article publication date: 12 April 2022
Issue publication date: 23 November 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Although the facilitating role of green customer integration in business-to-business (B2B) markets has been highlighted in some green product innovation literature, analysis of the difficulties it can pose is still an underdeveloped field. This paper extends the conflict-based view and examines the effect of green customer integration on customer–firm conflicts and thereby investigates the influence of conflict on green product innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducts a questionnaire survey. Ordinary Least Square regression and structural equation model with Maximum Likelihood Estimation are applied to test the hypotheses.
Findings
The results show that green customer information integration is positively related to cognitive conflict, whereas green customer process integration has an inverted U-shaped relationship with cognitive conflict and a positive relationship with affective conflict. Moreover, green product innovation is promoted by cognitive conflict and is damaged by affective conflict.
Originality/value
This study highlights the conflict-related factors that play a role in firm–customer collaboration for green product innovation in B2B markets. It also reveals the potential dark side of green customer integration by explicitly delineating its effects on conflicts.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the Editor, Dr. Carlo Giglio, and the anonymous reviewers for their efforts to help us to improve this paper. The authors also thank Mr. Xiaofeng Zhang for his availability in providing all the support for this research. This research was supported by Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province of China (grant number 2019A1515110715).
Citation
Chen, J. and Liu, L. (2023), "Is green customer integration always a facilitator for green product innovation?: A conflict-based view", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 26 No. 6, pp. 1524-1546. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-09-2021-0477
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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