Institutional logics and organizational green transformation: Evidence from the agricultural industry in emerging economies

While the agricultural green transformation has garnered significant attention on the political stage as a crucial strategy for climate change mitigation and sustainable development, there remains a notable gap in our understanding of the prevailing logics that shape organizational decisions on this change in emerging economies. Drawing on the institutional logics perspective, this study explores the impact of state logic (manifested through green credit policy) and market logic (manifested through analyst attention) on agriculture-related firms' (ARFs') green transformation, as well as the moderating effects of organizational transparency and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) level. Using longitudinal data on 201 publicly listed ARFs in China from 2008 to 2020, we find that both state and market logics exert unique effects on facilitating the green transformation of ARFs. More notably, a complementarity between the two logics in offering value for ARFs' green transformation is revealed. This complementary effect becomes more pronounced for organizations with a higher level of transparency or a superior ESG profile. Our study contributes to the neo-institutional perspective of organizational green transformation, a better understanding of conflicting institutional logics in emerging economies, and research on agricultural sustainability.