Motivations and outcomes of environmental corporate sustainability in family and non-family Mexican firms: the mediating role of eco-innovation strategy

Abstract

This study examines how different motivations impact environmental corporate sustainability outcomes in terms of eco-innovation product and process adoption, and the mediating role of eco-innovation strategy on these relationships. The empirical study uses a sample of 271 Mexican manufacturing and services firms of all sizes, 149 of which are family firms (FFs), and applies Baron and Kenny's procedure with hierarchical regression and sensitivity analysis to test mediation. The results show that eco-innovation strategy plays a critical mediating role in transforming eco-innovation motivations to environmental sustainability outcomes and provides evidence of differences in the environmental sustainability behaviour of family and non-family firms. While FFs seem to be driven mainly by internal motivations, which lead them to adopt a more proactive eco-innovation strategy that positively influences their environmental sustainability outcomes, for non-family firms the external pressures are the main drivers of environmental outcomes, both directly and indirectly, through the firm's eco-innovation strategy. In light of these findings, it seems clear that the academic debate on the differences between family and non-family firms in driving eco-innovation strategies and outcomes remains open; thus, more research is needed to complete the picture of the eco-innovation management domain.