Green intellectual capital and green competitive advantage: examining the role of green technological innovation and environmental management accounting

Purpose This study aims to investigate how green intellectual capital (GIC) impacts green competitive advantage (GCA) in Spanish wineries, further exploring the mediating roles of green technological innovation (GTI) and environmental management accounting (EMA) in the primary GIC-GCA linkage. Moreover, the wineries’ age, size and membership in a protected designation of origin (PDO) are introduced as control variables to enhance the accuracy of the examined cause-effect associations. Design/methodology/approach This study, based on a theoretical framework developed by previous academic studies, uses partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) to analyze data collected from 207 Spanish wineries between September 2023 and February 2024. Findings The findings indicate that GIC positively impacts the GCA of Spanish wineries, with GTI and EMA partially mediating this relationship. Originality/value This study stands out for its incursion into the joint analysis of GTI and EMA as mediating factors in the GIC-GCA relationship, a perspective not previously examined in the academic literature, as well as for its contextualization in the wine business setting, thus tracing a novel path in the understanding of environmental management and wineries’ intellectual capital.