Green Innovations and Competitive Market Performance

This research paper was inspired by the rising popularity of the topic of sustainability. It is always interesting to analyze the various externalities resulting from the implementation of a corporate Green Strategy. One of those externalities is the possible direct effect of companies` green actions on their competitive performance. Usually, it is expected that being green is beneficial for the corporate image and, therefore, stimulates the demand for a companies` products. A fair amount of scientific efforts have been made in order to identify the drivers of firm performance. However, none of them focuses specifically on sustainability actions and competitiveness. This paper fills in the gap, by elaborating on the effect of Hybrid/EV car introductions, green technology developments, share of green vehicle sales, share of green product advertising and manufacturing resource efficiency (CO2, Water and Waste) on companies` market performance. The research is being executed within a specific environment - the U.S. automotive market.