Effecting Green Innovation on Competitive Advantage: Thailand’s Manufacturing Industry

Manufacturing firms deploy green innovation in various activities, allowing them to create a competitive advantage through green supplier development and green orientation. As such, this study aims to explore the significant effects of green innovation, green supplier development, and green manufacturing orientation toward competitive advantage and to increase manufacturing firms’ awareness of the impact of green business practices on a firm’s competitive advantage. The research methodology was done by (1) equally cluster sampling of the 402 target manufacturers, (2) researcher collecting online data across six regions of Thailand, (3) performing construct validity by confirmatory factor analysis, and (4) testing the two-level factor structure by PROCESS models 4 and 14 assuming that green innovation can enhance a firm’s competitive advantage when green supplier development is reinforced alongside a strong green manufacturing orientation. It was found that the linkage between green innovation and competitive advantage through green supplier development is positive when a manufacturer deploys either a strong or weak green orientation. Furthermore, the result reveals that deploying a strong green orientation has a substantially greater effect on competitive advantage. Thus, the manufacturer is imperative in emphasizing green orientation to enhance its competitive advantage.