Green organizational identity: sources and consequence

Purpose – This study aims to develop an original framework of green organizational identity to explore the positive effects of environmental organizational culture and environmental leadership on green competitive advantage through the partial mediator – green organizational identity. Design/methodology/approach – This study proposes an original concept – green organizational identity – to develop an integral framework to enhance green competitive advantage. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is applied to verify the research framework. Findings – The results showed that environmental organizational culture and environmental leadership are positively associated with green organizational identity and green competitive advantage. Green organizational identity had a partial mediation effect on the positive relationships between two antecedents – environmental organizational culture and environmental leadership – and green competitive advantage. Companies should enhance their environmental organizational culture and environmental leadership to raise their green organizational identity and further to increase their green competitive advantage. Furthermore, this study found that environmental organizational culture, environmental leadership, green organizational identity, and green competitive advantage of medium and small enterprises (SMEs) were all significantly less than those of large enterprises in the manufacturing industry in Taiwan. Practical implications – It is imperative for SMEs to enhance their environmental organizational culture and environmental leadership to strengthen their green organizational identity and further to improve their green competitive advantage. Originality/value – This study applies the theory of organizational identity to propose a novel concept – green organizational identity – and develops an integral conceptual model to explore its managerial implications, antecedents, and consequence.