The Antecedents and Outcomes of Environmental Innovation: Lessons from Russia

The preservation of the natural environment has become of central concern for research and practice alike. To date, research has concentrated on investigating external factors that trigger sustainable corporate behaviour such as stakeholder pressure or regulation while less attention has been paid to specific organization-internal characteristics as drivers. An organization’s entrepreneurial orientation may be one relevant factor to examine in this context. Sustainability with its three dimensions and multiple challenges if, oftentimes, difficult to understand and may be facilitated by an organizational culture that fosters risk taking and innovativeness. Therefore, this study argues that organization’s level of entrepreneurial orientation supports the adoption of pollution prevention and product stewardship initiatives to, ultimately, improve financial performance. Drawing on empirical data from survey based research among Russian organizations the study finds that innovativeness significantly and positively relates to pollution prevention and product stewardship initiatives, while risk taking does not. This finding contributes to our understanding of why some organizations adopt more comprehensive sustainability strategies than others – even though exposed to similar levels of external institutional pressure.