Resumo

Environmental innovation “is the production, assimilation or exploitation of a product, production process, service or management or business method that is novel to the organisation (developing or adopting it) and which results, throughout its life cycle, in a reduction of environmental risk, pollution and other negative impacts of resources use (including energy use) compared to relevant alternatives” (Kemp & Pearson, 2007).

This study seeks to answer the research question: To what extent does board cultural diversity influence environmental innovation?

Theoretically, we use resource dependence theory. According to the resource dependence theory, firms depend on resources to survive (Shi et al., 2021) and resource dependence theory it was developed for the purpose of understanding the kind of relationships within firms that play an important role in market failures (Pfeffer & Salancik, 2003).

To test the hypotheses, we use a sample consisting of 450 firms-year observation of 76 firms from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru between 2010 and 2020. The sample is composed of countries belonging to the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Emerging Markets Latin America Index, created in 1990, which represents medium and large capitalization in six Latin American Emerging Market countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and Peru) (MSCI, 2021). We employed Feasible Generalized Least Squares (FGLS) regression.

The results indicate that board cultural diversity positively influences environmental innovation. The results also indicate that firm size positively influences environmental innovation. Finally, the results indicate that CSR committee, CEO duality, board size, profitability, and indebtedness do not influence environmental innovation.

The study has theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, the results indicate that companies with cultural diversity have unique resources, which assist in the survival of the company and also in the adoption of environmental innovation practices, with this, the study reinforces the importance of the resource dependence theory. The results can also assist researchers to future research of environmental innovation and board cultural diversity from resource dependence. As practical implications, we conclude that policies are needed to increase the board cultural diversity.

Martínez?Ferrero, J., Lozano, M. B., & Vivas, M. (2021). The impact of board cultural diversity on a firm’s commitment toward the sustainability issues of emerging countries: The mediating effect of a CSR committee. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 28(2), 675–685.