Green innovation in events: the role of institutional pressures, future orientation, and past experience

Abstract

Green innovation is pivotal to events. However, little is known about how exhibitors manage the challenge of adopting green innovation in the fast-paced and short-oriented events. Drawing upon institutional theory and organisational learning perspective, this study investigates how institutional pressures are linked to exhibitors’ willingness to adopt (WTA) eco-exhibiting via two temporal variables: future orientation (mediator) and past experience (moderator). PLS-SEM is applied to analyse a survey from 685 event exhibitors. Results show that coercive and normative pressures are significantly associated with exhibitors’ future orientation, which then predicts WTA. Besides, past experience moderates the relationship between institutional pressures and WTA. Specifically, experienced exhibitors learn by doing and their WTA is more associated with normative pressure, while novice exhibitors learn vicariously and their WTA links stronger to mimetic pressures. This paper integrates macro-level institutional pressures and organisational-level learning heterogeneity, offering a multi-level explanation of green innovation adoption. This research also contributes to the green events and sustainable tourism literature with novel insights from the time perspective, verifying events as pro-environmental learning spaces for exhibitors. We highlight time perspective and environmental education for future research.

Keywords:

• Green innovation
• green events
• organisational learning
• exhibitors
• time perspective
• environmental education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant number: 41971176]

Notes on contributors

Xiangru Qin

Xiangru Qin, is a Ph.D. candidate in the Research School of Management, the Australian National University. She gained her master degree in the School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen University. Her research interests include green innovation, sustainable tourism and green events. E-mail: [email protected].

Qiuju Luo

Qiuju Luo, the corresponding author, PhD, Professor and deputy dean of the School of Tourism Management, Sun Yat-sen Univeristy. Prof. Luo, researching in the area of exhibition, convention, mega-event and event tourism, has published more than 80 academic articles in major journals home and abroad. With a series of influential researches, she has earned a good reputation in event industry and tourism industry in China. Prof. Luo devotes herself to conducting innovative research on sustainable development and its influence in event domain. E-mail: [email protected]

Xiongzhi Wang

Xiongzhi Wang, a PhD candidate at School of Communication and Arts, the University of Queensland, Australia. He is interested in environmental psychology, sustainable tourism, and environmental communication research. Email: [email protected].

Birgit Muskat

Birgit Muskat is an Associate Professor at the Research School of Management, Australian National University. Her main interests are entrepreneurship, knowledge transfer, and innovation behaviour in the context of tourism, hospitality and events. Email: [email protected].