Green Innovation Adoption Through Identification Of Key Drivers,Barriers And Strategies

Green innovation is becoming more common among researchers and practitioners around the world.The implementation of green innovation is crucial for achieving global sustainable development.However,green innovation adoption is influenced by numerous issues and its promotion is a difficult task for especially developing countries.To effectively promote green innovation adoption,it is critical to understand green innovation and the issues influencing their adoption.This study aims to achieve the following objectives:(1)to identify the major drivers for encouraging green innovation practices in Pakistani manufacturing sector;(2)to evolve interrelationship among identified drivers;(3)to rank green innovation drivers on the basis of importance;(4)to identify the critical barriers to green innovation adoption in manufacturing industry;(5)to develop contextual relationship among major barriers;(6)to create hierarchy level of barriers on the basis of importance level;and(7)to propose an implementation strategy on the basis of the study results which is helpful in promoting green innovation adoption in Pakistan.Pakistan is a developing country in Southeast Asia,which is currently attempting to achieve major progress in green practices adoption and development.Therefore,this study’s outcomes will be useful for Pakistan and other developing coun tries.It is worth m entioning th at while numerous studies have been conducted on most of the issues being addressed in this study,the studies in the developing countries’ context,as well as those analyzing the influences of barriers,drivers,and promotion strategies on green in novation adoption are inadequate.The objectives were achieved through comprehensive literature reviews and question naire surveys with experts and academicians in Pakistan.Data were analyzed using various analysis techniques.A hybrid methodology—Fuzzy Delphi method(FDM),interpretive structural m odeling(ISM),and cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification(MICMAC)used to develop a novel framework for analyzing the green innovation drivers and barriers.Initially,green innovation drivers and barriers were identified from past studies;they were further filtered by applying Fuzzy Delphi method(FDM).The interpretive structural modeling(ISM)structured a model of key green innovation drivers and barriers on basis of importance level.The results indicate that "cost reduction," and "governm ent support" are the most significant drivers however,"green image" appeared as the least significant driver.The MICMAC analysis were used for identifying the driving and dependence power of green innovation drivers and barriers.The study found "cost reduction," and "government support"have the highest driving power while,a high interaction among green innovation drivers is observed.Moreover,the study found "lack of enforceable laws regarding returned goods and recycled products" as most critical barrier to green innovation adoption in Pakistani manufacturing sector.The MICMAC analysis also indicated that "lack of enforceable laws regarding returned goods and recycled products" has a highest driving power.Also,we find a high interaction among m any green innovation barriers.Finally,this study also proposed significant policies to minimize barriers using systematic literature review.Results of the study highlighted that environmental rules and practices and financial incentives,green tax and subsidy are the most significant strategies in minimizing the green innovation barriers in Pakistan manufacturing industry.There are a number of reasons why manufacturers and organizations develop cost reduction strategies.The most interesting thing is that they want to reduce costs to improve their financial and economic performance.Managers often investigate adding technology to improve efficiency because organizations usually find that cost reduction can actually increase profits.A sustainable approach can lead to internal cost saving,open new markets and find more productive uses of scarce resources.The implementation of green strategy can have positive im pact on organizational costs.This can reduce the cost of energy consumption,waste treatment an d discharge,and avoid fines in the case of environmental accidents.Green manufacturing also enhance corporate image,competitive advantage,and marketing exposure,resulting in improved corporate performance.The findings of this study have some significant contributions.First,this study presents the hierarchy level of green innovation dri vers with the help of unique hybrid methodology—FDM,ISM and MICMAC approach.Previous studies have not developed a suitable roadmap for adopting green innovation through investigations of important drivers.The study is unique because this study identified large set of drivers with literature review and experts help.In the spirit of encouraging manufacturing companies to adopt sustainable practices,I developed ISM model of comprehensive set of drivers which practitioners and policymakers can easily implement.Such as cost reduction is the most important driver based on hierarchy level therefore,the current study contribution may persuade Pakistani companies in investing money on environmentally friendly initiatives.Second,I contribute to the existing literature by identifying the most important barriers through a novel fram ework—fuzzy Delphi method,ISM and MICMAC approach.The study is special because previous studies have not structured barriers on the basis of importance level.There is lack of studies to investigate the obstacles and to analyze how these obstacles interact with one another on the basis of their driving and dependence power.In developing countries,the green practices implementation is more challenging and to reduce the negative consequences of these barriers,one of the most important responsibility of top leadership is to recognize and understand the relationship between these barriers.Therefore,this study investigates the obstacles and analyzes how these obstacles interact with one another on the basis of their driving and dependence power.Additionally,the presentation of important obstacles in structural form can assist policymakers to remove or lessen the strength of major barriers by suggesting proper policies.Since our results indicates that lack of enforceable laws regarding returned and recycled products are most critical barrier while ’fear of failure about green innovation’ found least significant barrier so,field experts and goveatment agencies can focus more on major identified barriers.Third,this study contributes by suggesting suitable strategies to overcome the barriers which hamper the implementation of green innovation in Pakistani manufacturing industry.Previous studies have ignored to present solutions,strategies or policies for green innovation obstacles.However,this study finds the green inn ovation strategies with the h elp of literature based approach.As the findings of the previous studies highlighted that green innovation barriers hampers the sustainability initiatives of the manufacturing sector.So,it is pertinent to know which policies can reduce the strength of the green adoption barriers.Employing a literature survey and expert’s opinion,the study identified various policies that can provide optimum solutions.The study finds that rules and regulations and government support can play central role in green practices adoption in the manufacturing sector.Thus,it also confirms our study findings that effective environmental rules and regulations can solve the green innovation issues.Finally,this study contributes to the previous literature by providing the new empirical evidence from the merging economy(Pakistan).Studies especially concentrating on the uptake of green ingovations in underdeveloped nations are relatively rare.From developing nation’s perspective,there is still a fundamental need to investigate the situation of the major polluted industries today.Prior researchers have focused green innovation adoption in western and European context,but it is believed that green innovation adoption is mainly dep ends on each country’s cultural system,legal,financial and economic system therefore,it gives us an opportunity to examine the unexplored regions.Surprisingly,there is less awareness of pollution reduction in Pakistani manufacturing sector.Our analysis indicates that previous studies have mostly explored the factors that influence how environmental innovation is adopted in various contexts,including SMEs,the brewing sector,the paper&pulp industry,and construction companies.The manufacturing companies which significantly contributes to carbon emissions lacks comprehensive studies.One of the main sector that contributes to poor environmental performance in Pakistan is industrial pollution generated from manufacturing sector,which provide interesting case for this study.This study offers interesting clues to promote green innovation in manufacturing industry.The findings have significant implications for managers and policymakers to promote green practices.Moreover,this study findings have practical implications for stakeholder theory,institutional theory and resource based view.The study results depicted the true picture of Pakistan therefore,the policymakers and practitioners should place a high emphasis on these factors.Overall,this study provides empirical support for the notion that cost reduction and enforcement of environmental regulations can expedite the green innovation implementation for any developing country such as Pakistan,where regulations are not properly entrenched and saving cost of production plays vital role.