A influência da inovação verde na busca de vantagem competitiva das empresas dos setores elétrico e eletrônico brasileiro

Abstract

Companies attempt to overcome their competitors by creating and sustaining competitive advantage. Innovation, understood as the introduction of a new good or service in the economic system by the producers, who educate consumers to look for new things that differ from those already on the market (SCHUMPETER, 1989) is configured as one of the most important means to achieve advantage over the rivals. Allied to this, the need for preservation of natural resources and the growing environmental appeal in recent years has motivated organizations to think green during the process and manufacture of its goods or services. Inserted in this scenario, the present study aimed to verify how the adoption of green innovation influences the achieving competitive advantage of companies in the electrical and electronic sectors Brazilian. Using a quantitative/descriptive model, the study adopted the conceptual model proposed by Chen, Lai and Wen (2006), which are presented two research hypotheses: (H1) green product innovation has a positive effect the pursuit of competitive advantage of organizations and (H2) green process innovation has a positive effect the pursuit of competitive advantage of organizations. Using a target population of the companies linked to the Brazilian Association of Electrical and Electronics Industry (ABINEE), the sample consisted of 113 organizations representing 20.62% of this population. Data collection occurred between the months of October to December 2011 and used a Likert-type questionnaire with five-point scale. The results showed that the level of adoption of green innovative practices, as well as the level of adoption of factors that lead to competitive advantage between the firms is high, because all the variables measured presented averages above the midpoint of the scale (3.00). Also it was verified by means Regression Analysis, that the relationship between green product innovation and achieving competitive advantage, and the relationship between green process innovation and achieving competitive advantage is considered significant, but at the moderate level, because the value of R2 was found 0.274, indicating that 27.4% of the variation of competitive advantage can be explained from the green innovation. Thus, it was found that both the green product innovation and green process innovation affect positively the pursuit of competitive advantage, and innovation process with greater intensity.