Fostering green innovation for corporate competitive advantages in big data era: the role of institutional benefits

With severe environmental degradations around the world, green innovation is currently considered an important initiative to promote firms' competitive advantages. It is critically important to identify the drivers and the mechanisms for promoting corporate green innovation conjugating unprecedented technology progress. Employing a questionnaire survey of Chinese manufacturing firms, we proposed and tested a holistic framework for comprehending the role of big data and external institutions on corporate green innovation and competitive advantage. Based on a moderated mediation analysis, the empirical results showed that both formal (e.g. government support) and informal (e.g. social legitimacy) institutions positively influenced corporate competitive advantage. Green innovation acted as a mediator in the relationship between external institutions and competitive advantage. The adoption of big data and predictive analytics positively moderated this mediation effect. These findings not only exhibit that the power from external institutions could forcefully drive firms to initiate green innovation, but also discover the role of big data in conquering technological challenges and attaining competitive advantage.