TY - JOUR
T1 - A new insight into environmental innovation
T2 - Does the maturity of environmental management systems matter?
AU - Inoue, Emiko
AU - Arimura, Toshi H.
AU - Nakano, Makiko
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank Professor Kazuhiro Ueta for giving us an opportunity for this collaboration which finally led to this paper. The authors are grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and Professor Mitsutsugu Hamamoto for providing insightful suggestions on an earlier version of this paper. The authors also thank the participants in the academic conference for their helpful comments. The authors are thankful to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for funding a part of this study. Emiko Inoue thanks the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science for its financial support. Toshi H. Arimura thanks the Seimeikai Foundation and Waseda University Grants for Special Research Projects for their financial support and Kazu Iwata for his insightful comments.
PY - 2013/10
Y1 - 2013/10
N2 - Technological innovation has recently become more essential than ever. To examine the factors that might induce environmental technological innovation, we focus on ISO 14001, a voluntary approach to environmental management, and scrutinise how the proficiency or maturity level of ISO 14001 in facilities influences environment-related research and development (R&D) expenditures that promote environmental technological innovation. We measure the maturity level based on the length of time since a given facility adopted ISO 14001. Using Japanese facility-level data from "Environmental Policy Tools and Firm-Level Management and Practices: An International Survey" (OECD Survey), we estimate two Tobit models by addressing an endogeneity issue in ISO 14001. The estimation results provide empirical evidence that as the ISO 14001 is improved in facilities, those facilities are likely to spend more on environmental R&D. The facility age and market concentration also positively affect environmental R&D. These findings suggest that the maturity level of ISO 14001 is an important factor influencing the investment in environmental R&D.
AB - Technological innovation has recently become more essential than ever. To examine the factors that might induce environmental technological innovation, we focus on ISO 14001, a voluntary approach to environmental management, and scrutinise how the proficiency or maturity level of ISO 14001 in facilities influences environment-related research and development (R&D) expenditures that promote environmental technological innovation. We measure the maturity level based on the length of time since a given facility adopted ISO 14001. Using Japanese facility-level data from "Environmental Policy Tools and Firm-Level Management and Practices: An International Survey" (OECD Survey), we estimate two Tobit models by addressing an endogeneity issue in ISO 14001. The estimation results provide empirical evidence that as the ISO 14001 is improved in facilities, those facilities are likely to spend more on environmental R&D. The facility age and market concentration also positively affect environmental R&D. These findings suggest that the maturity level of ISO 14001 is an important factor influencing the investment in environmental R&D.
KW - Endogeneity
KW - Environmental R&D
KW - Environmental innovation
KW - ISO 14001
KW - Porter Hypothesis
KW - Voluntary action
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U2 - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.07.014
DO - 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2013.07.014
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84883778572
SN - 0921-8009
VL - 94
SP - 156
EP - 163
JO - Ecological Economics
JF - Ecological Economics
ER -