The contribution of leading firms in environmental sustainability: dampening the detrimental effect of political capital ties

As a possible determinant of environmental sustainability, innovation management has grasped the attention of researchers. In the present research, we investigated the effect of political capital ties on firm's contribution to environmental sustainability. We also examined how observed government support, an indicator of the inherent dependencies among political capital ties, moderates the effects of changes on innovation performance which plays a mediating role in the relationship of political capital ties and firm's contribution in environmental sustainability. We got empirical data of 4807 listed firms of China (2010-2015) and diffused political capital ties to form a two-dimensional matrix on analysis of 36 interviews. Our study suggests that political capital dampens inputs for innovation resulting in a proliferation of innovation performance. This paper also guides that how moderation of enabling the effect of political capital ties is explained and measured through important dimensions of project initiation, high-tech accreditation and government subsidies in the context of government support. The present study also sheds light on new ways in which upper echelons theory, transaction cost and resource dependence theory can be integrated for more advanced research on political capital ties to evolve an optimal corporate strategy for environmental sustainability.