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2017 Fiscal Year Annual Research Report

How Japanese Firms Profit from Environmental Innovation

Research Project

Project/Area Number 15K17109
Research InstitutionHitotsubashi University

Principal Investigator

MALEN Joel・B  一橋大学, 大学院商学研究科, 講師 (50722609)

Project Period (FY) 2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
Keywordsbusiness strategy / corporate greening / environmental technology / organizational learning / stakeholder theory / profit from innovation / pollution in Japan
Outline of Annual Research Achievements

The most notable research achievement was the acceptance of “Environmental Externalities and Weak Appropriability: Influences on Firm Pollution Reduction Technology Development” for forthcoming publication in the journal Business & Society. This paper articulates how weak appropriability induces firms to modify their innovation strategies for pollution reduction technology development by increasing the extent to which they engage in organizational exploration (rather than exploitation) and emphasizing incremental (rather than radical) technologies. In addition to this, the project funding enabled me to begin working on two additional empirical studies that examine the relationship between pollution and firm strategy in Japanese firms. “Out of sight, out of mind? The multidimensional role of distance in firm generation of negative social externalities” explores how pollution in Japanese firms becomes more intense as those firms expand into more regions within Japan. “Improving Environmental Performance: The Role of Social Comparison and Stakeholder Salience” examines how Japanese firms respond to environmental performance feedback. In particular, the findings demonstrate that firms respond to failure to meet social aspirations for environmental performance by implementing solutions and improving subsequent environmental performance. The strength of these responses, however, depends on how firms feel pressure from stakeholders in the communities where pollution takes place. From here, these papers will be submitted to highly-ranked global management journals.

  • Research Products

    (2 results)

All 2017

All Journal Article (1 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 1 results,  Peer Reviewed: 1 results,  Open Access: 1 results) Presentation (1 results) (of which Int'l Joint Research: 1 results)

  • [Journal Article] Environmental Externalities and Weak Appropriability2017

    • Author(s)
      Malen Joel、Marcus Alfred A.
    • Journal Title

      Business & Society

      Volume: - Pages: -

    • DOI

      10.1177/0007650317701679

    • Peer Reviewed / Open Access / Int'l Joint Research
  • [Presentation] “Out of sight, out of mind? The multidimensional role of distance in firm generation of negative social externalities”2017

    • Author(s)
      Joel Malen
    • Organizer
      International Association of Business & Society 2017 Annual Meeting. Amsterdam, Netherlands
    • Int'l Joint Research

URL: 

Published: 2018-12-17  

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