Exploring green innovation: organisational resources and product and market reconception

Abstract

This study investigates how organisations develop organisational resources (OR) to reconceive products and markets for green innovation (GI) in South‑African organisations, addressing a gap between sustainability rhetoric and practical integration. Using an interpretivist, qualitative design, semi‑structured interviews were conducted with 14 mid-to senior level leaders across various sectors (construction, consumer goods, FMCG, retail, pharmaceuticals, papermaking and recycling) and analysed through thematic analysis. Findings identify stakeholder pressure, including regulatory, customer, investor and competitor demands, as the primary external driver of GI, while leadership commitment, expressed through governance, personal conviction and resource allocation, functions as an important internal catalyst. Resource and integration constraints emerge as barriers. Core organisational resources enabling GI comprise employee green skills and empowerment, technology adoption coupled with knowledge‑management systems, and embedded research‑and‑development practices. Additionally, external partnership collaborations and brand positioning can help to build market legitimacy and are essential for product and market reconception. The results underpin an updated conceptual framework linking drivers, barriers, organisational resources, offering managerial guidance for building dynamic capabilities and orchestrating stakeholder alignment to sustain GI. The study contributes to the sustainability literature by empirically mapping the resource‑building processes of organisations operating under emerging‑market constraints and by highlighting the nuanced interplay between internal capabilities and external pressures in achieving green product and market reconception.