Does the development of environmental innovation require different resources? Evidence from Spanish manufacturing firms

In recent years, environmental innovations are getting increasingly at the center both of the scientific debate and of the policy-maker agenda. Adopting the resource-based view, this paper provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the specific role of - internal, external and hybrid - resources in the environmental innovation development. Using a dataset of 4829 Spanish manufacturing firms and estimating probit models, it is found that internal resources have greater importance for environmental innovations. Moreover, green innovators seem to be characterized by more intensive external relationships. For hybrid resources, acquisition of equipment but not of patents is more relevant. Finally, evidence suggest the relevance of complementing the analysis of the external factors triggering environmental innovations with those of the internal resources the firm has access to in order to fully understand and support the development of environmental innovations.