The impact of a proactive environmental strategy on environmentally sustainable practices in service firms: The moderating effect of information use value

Abstract

Demonstration of environmental sustainability is increasingly seen as important to gaining legitimacy, consumer favour and competitive advantage for service firms. To explore this prospect further, we employed resource-based theories to study the effect of a proactive environmental strategy (PES) on environmental practices. We argue that the relationship between a PES and environmental practices is positive yet contingent on the perceived importance of information. Using a sample of 2686 service firms from the third Taiwanese Technological Innovation Survey, we found that a PES was positively associated with environmental practices and that perceived external information value positively moderated the PES–environmental practices relationship while perceived internal information value had an insignificant interaction effect. Additional tests provide deeper insight into our predicted relationships. The study makes theoretical, empirical and managerial contributions.