An environmental policy of green intellectual capital: Green innovation strategy for performance sustainability

Abstract This study examines how green intellectual capital (GIC) affects economic and green performance through green innovation. We show ways in which a firm's performance is influenced by three dimensions of GIC, that is, green human capital (GHC), green relational capital (GRC), and green structural capital (GSC), and use the mediating role of green innovation to explain the relationships. The results of a survey conducted on 138 high‐tech firms indicate that the three GIC constructs positively affect economic performance, green performance, and green innovation, respectively. Further analysis finds that green innovation fully mediates the linkage of GHC–economic performance and GSC–green performance and partially mediates the linkage of GRC–economic performance and GRC–green performance. We find that green innovation does not mediate the linkage of GSC–economic performance and GHC–green performance, and this contributes towards business strategy and implementation of green innovation practices.