Green innovation and competitive advantages in a furniture industrial cluster: A survey and structural model

The purpose of this article is to define how green innovation supports competitive advantage in a cluster of furniture companies located in Southern Brazil. The cluster encompasses 245 companies located in Southern Brazil. The research method is a survey, which returned 98 valid responses from the companies sampled followed by a structural equation modeling by partial least squares executed by the SMART-PLS software. A literature review produced a reference model for green innovation comprising 30 manifest variables. Factor analysis by principal components deleted two manifest variables and classified the others in three factors, operation and process, product and customer, and eco-efficiency. The model includes two endogenous latent constructs. The first is competitive enablers, supported by corporate image, customer satisfaction, and market share. The second is competitive advantage, supported by cost reduction and differentiation. The main results are: green innovation focused on operation and process does not positively influence competitive enablers but influences competitive advantages; green innovation focused on product and customers, and eco-efficiency positively influence the competitive enablers; competitive enablers based only on product and customers and on eco-efficiency positively influences the competitive advantage. (C) 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.