The direct and interacting effects of strategic environmental management and socially responsible practices on new product advantage

A substantial body of literature has shown the relationship between corporate sustainability (CS) and firm performance, but the effects of individual CS practices on new product advantage (NPA) remain ambiguous. Drawing on stakeholder theory and relevant CS literature, the purpose of this study is to investigate the direct and interacting effects on NPA of four CS practices, namely, strategic environmental management (SEM), CS management control, safety climate, and community relationship management. Our study method involved a multi-respondent questionnaire survey of 198 Chinese manufacturers, and we statistically verified the survey data to test the research model with three hypotheses. The findings of this study show that all CS practices can directly improve NPA. We found that, in affecting NPA, SEM interacts positively with CS management control, negatively with community relationship management, and not at all with safety climate. Our findings provide new evidence to prioritize and balance the efforts of CS practices on new product performance. They also primarily clarify the conflicting or unclear relationships among the four CS practices for new product development (NPD).