Stakeholders’ Pressure and Green Innovation Practices in Chemical Manufacturing Firms in Kenya.

Abstract

The study was inspired by a scarcity of research in the area of green innovation in the less developed countries despite it being a topical area in emerging and developed economies. The study was steered by two objectives: to determine the extent to which green innovation practices have been adopted by the chemical manufacturing firms in Kenya and to establish the effect of stakeholders’ pressure on green innovation among chemical manufacturing firms in Kenya. The study employed a cross sectional descriptive design. The total population was 102 chemical manufacturing firms and since the population was large, sampling was done. 82 chemical manufacturing companies in Kenya spread over 4 sub sectors formed the sample of the study. The top management in supply chain, operations, logistics and Innovations departments were the preferred respondents as they are deemed to be the most knowledgeable about the research area. The study used primary data which was collected by way of questionnaires and then analyzed using SPSS. Mean and standard deviation were utilized to evaluate the extent of adoption of green innovation by chemical manufacturing companies in Kenya whereas regression analysis was utilized to analyze the effect of stakeholders’ pressure on green innovation adoption. The findings point out that most of the chemical manufacturing firms in Kenya have adopted green process innovations, green product innovation and green organizational innovations to a large extent. Customer pressure and competitor pressure positively and significantly influenced the adoption of green innovation practices while government pressure, supplier pressure and employee pressure had no influence on the adoption of green innovation practices. The study was limited contextually as it only focused on chemical manufacturing firms and bureaucracy could not allow the collection of all the questionnaires and thus 66 out of the 82 were collected. The respondents were however guaranteed on the privacy of the information they gave. The study recommends that firms should engage stakeholders as they determine the adoption of key practices in their institutions. From the findings of the study, the researcher suggests that further study should focus on why government pressure, employee pressure and supplier pressure do not influence green innovations. The study can be done in other sectors away from the chemical manufacturing firms.