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The Virtues of Green Strategies: Some Empirical Support from the Alliance Context

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Abstract

Whilst strategic alliance performance has been extensively researched through the resource-based lens, it has yet to be examined under the natural-resource-based view (NRBV) of the firm. Building on the NRBV, this article argues that a firm’s level of environmental proactiveness affects its level of alliance satisfaction. The argument is tested by surveying Norwegian CEOs, and the results confirm a positive relationship. Moreover, the partner’s environmental proactiveness equally influences the focal firm’s satisfaction with the alliance, in consistent with related studies. In addition to providing new empirical evidence in support of the NRBV, and extending the alliance performance literature, the findings add to the corporate environmentalism literature by offering insights on the virtues of green strategies in an underexplored context.

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Abbreviations

CEO:

Chief executive officer

NRBV:

Natural-resource-based view

R&D:

Research and development

RBV:

Resource-based view

VIF:

Variance inflation factor

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Acknowledgments

I thank Editor Cory Searcy, the two anonymous reviewers, and Pierre-Xavier Meschi for their insightful and constructive comments. Thanks are also extended to the members of KEDGE Business School’s CSR/CS research cluster and other colleagues for their helpful remarks and suggestions; in particular: Pierpaolo Andriani, Ralf Barkemeyer, Breeda Comyns, Simona d’Antone, Frank Figge, Elizabeth Franklin-Johnson, Philippe Givry,  Ante Glavas, Tobias Hahn, and Robert Spencer.

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  1. KEDGE Business School, Domaine de Luminy – BP 921, 13288, Marseille Cedex 9, France

    Anne Norheim-Hansen

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Correspondence to Anne Norheim-Hansen.

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Norheim-Hansen, A. The Virtues of Green Strategies: Some Empirical Support from the Alliance Context. J Bus Ethics 151, 1161–1173 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3274-8

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