Research On Green Entrepreneurial Orientation Driving Mechanism And Its Impact On Green Competitive Advantage

With the progress of science and technology and the rapid development of global economic activities,the problems of resource depletion and environmental destruction have become increasingly serious.COVID-19,food crisis,carbon emissions and other issues have once again triggered a global wave of ecological and environmental protection,and a new round of thinking on how man and nature can live in harmony.Entrepreneurship is a double-edged sword because entrepreneurship activities may be the "perpetrators" of environmental problems,or they may become the key "solvers" of environmental and development problems.Therefore,green entrepreneurship has gradually become the focus of attention in academia and practice.Enterprises are unlikely to return to the paradigm in which the pursuit of profit maximization is the sole goal of the traditional economic viewpoint.In the future,businesses and markets will inevitably be restricted and dependent on the ecosystem.Smart enterprises will choose environmentally-related products and strategies to shape competitive advantages,especially low-cost and differentiated advantages related to green,such as green competitive advantage.Along with this trend,the new environmental management concepts have forced companies to reposition their future development direction and ways to gain competitive advantage.Green entrepreneurial orientation is the prerequisite for green entrepreneurship,reflecting the proactive strategic tendency of the firm's level,and has the characteristics of green proactiveness orientation,green innovation orientation and green risk-taking orientation.Through the review of the literature,this study finds that although scholars are interested in green entrepreneurial orientation and the research content and results,their understanding of green entrepreneurial orientation is far from comprehensive.First,previous studies have paid insufficient attention to the driving factors of green entrepreneurial orientation,they focused on examining the direct impact of various independent variables on green entrepreneurial orientation.However,the driving factors of green entrepreneurial orientation are complex and diverse,involving multiple levels,including macro and micro,internal and external,political and economic,and each level may influence each other and have synergistic effects.Second,previous research mainly focused on the green entrepreneurial orientation to firm performance or sustainable competitive advantage,and less focused on green competitive advantage.Green competitive advantage characterized by green low cost and green differentiation,which is an effective means to prevent companies from falling into a green dilemma due to increased environmental costs.However,few studies have explored the path mechanism and boundary conditions between green entrepreneurial orientation and green competitive advantage.In view of this,this study takes the green entrepreneurial orientation as the core,to clarifies its concepts,dimensions and related research,from the perspective of the process of "why" and "how",and focuses on the theme of "driving factors of green entrepreneurial orientation and its impact on green competitive advantage".Therefore,two sub-studies are focused on to try to answer in this study:(1)Among the internal and external political and economic factors,which factors have promoted or inhibited companies' green entrepreneurial orientation choices? How do these factors affect? Which of the factors are necessary and which constitute sufficient conditions?(2)Does green entrepreneurial orientation can improve the green competitive advantage? Can green supply chain learning and green innovation help companies obtain green competitive advantages from green entrepreneurial orientation? Especially in the turbulent environment of green technology?In order to explore the above issues,this study has carried out two sub-studies,including "Research on the driving mechanism of green entrepreneurial orientation"(Sub-study 1)and "Research on the mechanism of green entrepreneurial orientation on green competitive advantage"(Sub-study 2).Sub-study 1 is based on the stakeholder theory and political economic framework theory,using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis(fs QCA),starting from the complex behavior logic of the main stakeholders-government,consumers,and enterprises,and further reducing the policy pressure and managers' environmental commitments are classified as political influencing factors,and consumer pressure and managers' awareness of environmental benefits are classified as economic influencing factors,and then configuration is carried out.Sub-study 2 is drawing on the theory of natural resource-based view and contingency theory,and based on the logical relationship of "orientation-behavior-result".It using empirical analysis methods and starting from the tactical perspectives of corporate extroverted behavior and introverted behavior,and introducing green supply chain learning and green innovation as mediating explanatory mechanism in the path of "green entrepreneurial orientation-green competitive advantage",and verify the moderating role of green technology turbulence.This study draws the following conclusions: First,the green entrepreneurial orientation is the result of multiple factors and multiple configuration.The manager's awareness of environmental benefits is a necessary condition for driving the high green entrepreneurial orientation,which further verifies that the pursuit of green entrepreneurial orientation and other traditional business strategies do not deviates too much,its core essence is still profit-seeking.Second,there are four configuration paths leading to high green entrepreneurial orientation,which can be summarized into three categories: profit-driven,manager-led,and internal and external coordination.The type has the characteristics of "different routes and the same goal",that is,the path that causes companies to choose green entrepreneurial orientation is not the only one,and the combination of different condition factors leads to the same result.Third,the configuration path between high green entrepreneurial orientation and non-high green entrepreneurial orientation.There is asymmetry,that is,the reasons leading to the high green entrepreneurial orientation are quite different from the reasons leading to the non-high green entrepreneurial orientation.Fourth,as an important intangible resource for enterprises,green entrepreneurial orientation has a significant positive impact on green competitive advantages.Fifth,as an important inter-organizational practice,green supply chain learning and its dimensions play a part of the mediating role in the mechanism by which green entrepreneurial orientation positively affects green competitive advantage;as an important intra-organizational practice,green innovation and its dimensions play a part of the mediating role in the mechanism by which green entrepreneurial orientation positively affects green competitive advantage.Further research found that there is a transmission path of "green entrepreneurial orientation-green supply chain learning-green innovation-green competitive advantage".Sixth,green technological turbulence negatively moderating the relationship between green entrepreneurial orientation and green competitive advantage,as well as the relationship between green innovation and its dimensions and green competitive advantage.Further,green technological turbulence negatively moderates the mediating role of green innovation in the relationship between green entrepreneurial orientation and green competitive advantage.On the basis of clarifying the connotation and characteristics of green entrepreneurial orientation,this article focuses on the characteristics of the industry in which manufacturing companies are located.On the one hand,from the perspective of stakeholder pressure and the combination of internal and external political economic factors,it explores the antecedent conditions that drive green entrepreneurial orientation.As well as the multiple interactions between different driving factors,it analyzes the core and marginal conditions that promote and inhibit the green entrepreneurial orientation,enriches the theoretical results of the green entrepreneurial orientation,and expands and deepens the green entrepreneurial theory.On the other hand,this study construct and verify the mediating effect of green supply chain learning and green innovation,as well as the moderating effect of green technological turbulence,revealing the internal mechanism of the development and transformation of "green entrepreneurial orientation-green competitive advantage" will help deepen the scientific understanding of green entrepreneurial orientation and enrich green entrepreneurial management theory.This article has certain reference value for driving high-level green entrepreneurial orientation in China and building green competitive advantages of enterprises.