Abstract:

This paper examines how firms’ environmental and social ESG orientations translate into innovation and how interorganizational cooperation shapes these returns. Framed by the resource-based view, stakeholder theory, and the proximity lens, we address four gaps by: (i) disentangling environmental versus social ESG orientations; (ii) modeling cooperation as a moderator rather than a mere correlate; (iii) unpacking cooperation heterogeneity by partner geography and stakeholder type; and (iv) deploying a comprehensive innovation outcome that jointly captures patenting and product/process innovation. Using firm-level data from the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC), we analyze 3,463 firms (20,710 firm-year observations), measure innovation over a two-year window, estimate hierarchical OLS models with two-period lags and robust errors, and conduct extensive robustness checks. Results show that both environmental and social orientations are positively associated with innovation. Cooperation systematically strengthens the environmental orientation-innovation link, while the moderating effect for social orientation proves more context dependent. Partner location is a critical contextual factor: collaboration with European partners enhances the innovation returns to ESG orientations, whereas non-European collaboration does not have any effect. Our complementary analysis reveals that cooperation with secondary stakeholders (competitors and scientific organizations) boosts the innovation payoffs of both ESG dimensions, while cooperation with primary stakeholders (customers and suppliers) primarily leverages environmental orientation. The study advances sustainability-oriented innovation research by clarifying mechanisms and conditions and offers actionable guidance for configuring collaboration portfolios, prioritizing European and secondary-stakeholder partnerships, to maximize ESG-driven innovation.

Please choose your submission type: Full Paper

Primary Track: Inter-Organizational Collaboration: Partnerships, Alliances and Networks

Keywords: Collaboration;Partnerships;Resource-based view;Innovation, R&D, technology;International

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Prof Óscar González-Benito