Commitment to Human Resource Management of the Top Management Team for Green Creativity
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
This is a timely and important study, especially in its focus on the relationships between environmental regulation, TMT, green HRM and innovation, and its focus on the much-criticised coal industry, across the world. The context of the study is especially relevant, given the industry's history in China, and it is encouraging to see that local scholars are concerned with these issues.
The research questions, hypotheses (if somewhat complex), literature review and methodology sections are adequate, and the research sample is impressive. The results, discussion and conclusion sections, whilst relevant, need more input, especially in relation to the discussion and justification of the findings, as well as their limitations. Readers who are not quantitatively focused will find the statistics, without further elaboration, problematic, and this aspect also detracts from the readability of the paper.
I also think that the paper lacks adequate consideration of several important issues, in particular:
. Green HRM is still a contentious issue - is it really the role of HRM to be responsible for 'green' systems and policies?
. Is innovation so inherently linked to green systems and policies - some innovations, for example, may have the opposite outcomes?
. Who is/should be responsible for determining environmental regulation - in concert, or separately? This may be an easier question in China than in other countries, however.
. Finally, the title is way too long - can it be condensed in order to focus more precisely on the paper's thrust, and to attract readers to the paper?
Author Response
TO:Reviewer 1
FM:Manuscript ID sustainability-692520
Thank you very much.Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
Reviewer 2 Report
A brief summary
The purpose of reviewed paper is to examines the impact of commitment to human resource management on green creativity, and to discusses the mediating mechanism of green human resource management (GHRM) between them (line numbers: 13-15). The research was conducted on employees of Chinese coal manufacturing enterprises and heavy polluting enterprises in seven provinces. There were distributed 630 surveys, from March to August 2019. The research is current and it is an important asset of the text. The paper provides an advance towards the current knowledge and Authors have addressed an important long-standing question with smart experiment. More detailed description of research will allow other scientists to reproduce the results.
Originality/Novelty
The results provide an advance in current knowledge. The issue of sustainable enterprise development and creating an organizational culture supporting environmental protection is timely and socially relevant. The authors explained this convincingly in the paper.
Significance
The value and significance of the knowledge presented in the text is rather large. There were describe issues regarding the research tool and research, in the following part of the review.
Quality of Presentation
The paper title: “Commitment to Human Resource Management of Top Management Team, GHRM and Green creativity: The Moderating Effect of Environmental Regulation” is too extensive. Moreover, the average Journal reader may not know the abbreviation (GHRM) of “green human resource management”, which was used in the title. Maybe “Commitment to Human Resource Management of Top Management Team for green creativity” it’s enough?
The structure of the literature review is smart, correct and complete. It justifies the choice of hypotheses and is the strength of the paper.
Scientific Soundness
Authors wrote in the paper: “this research examines the impact of commitment to human resource management on green creativity” (line numbers: 12-13, 95). Wordings such as: “the relationship between” (line number: 38, 116, 222) or “the interactions” (line number: 442) – seems more appropriate than: “the impact of”. The Authors are unable to determine the impact of ..., this is a scientifically (mathematically) too ambitious task.
In line number 123, should be written: “bounded rational decisions” instead of “limited rational decisions” – see source: Simon, Herbert (1991). “Bounded Rationality and Organizational Learning”. Organization Science. 2 (1): 125-134. doi:10.1287/orsc.2.1.125.
“Double blind” methods were used in the research. The research selected 7 senior managers and were consulted the survey with them, then were corrected the form in line with the comments of these experts. The second correction of surveys was based on 73 research results, which were conducted in the academic conference organized by Anhui University of Science & Technology. Finally, 630 surveys were distributed in Chinese coal manufacturing enterprises and heavy polluting enterprises in seven provinces including Jilin, Liaoning, Anhui, Shandong, Henan, Hebei and Shanxi. The research was conducted out from March to August 2019. The research is current and it’s an important asset of the paper. The research was conducted on employees of enterprises who were employed in departments such as: production R&D, engineering, technology, operation and others.
The research tool has been divided into the following five thematic areas:
Commitment to human resource management (line numbers: 332 and next), GHRM (line numbers: 337 and next), Green creativity (line numbers: 342 and next), Environmental regulation (line numbers: 348 and next), Control variables (line numbers: 356 and next).Only a few descriptions of representative survey questions for each of the above-mentioned thematic areas were presented in text. This description doesn’t seem sufficient, because it is difficult to imagine how was the work goal achieved? And how the “The combination of specific measures of human resource management and organization environmental development strategy” (line numbers: 50-51) were identified? It is also difficult to understand the research results obtained. These are the weaknesses of the text and the reasons for lowering its evaluation. There are nearly no details, that would allow other research to reproduce the results. Therefore, according to the reviewer, it would be a great value to gain agreement between the Authors of the text and its Publisher (MDPI) in order to increase the volume of the text and add a broader description of the research tool (survey).
The Authors identified the following practical implications (line numbers: 489-522): organization “can”, “could”, “should”, “is also of necessity”, is “obliged to”, “it is advisable...” to do something. But, are really surveyed Chinese coal enterprises do this? Nothing is known about this. This is the most interesting part of the work for many readers – especially for practitioners from top management and their teams.
Interest to the Readers
Probably, literature review and conclusions are interesting for the readership of the Journal. But the Authors identified the following practical implications (line numbers: 489-522): organization “can”, “could”, “should”, “is also of necessity”, is “obliged to”, “is advisable...” to do something. But, are really researched Chinese coal enterprises do this? Nothing is known about this. This is the most interesting part of the work for many readers – especially for top management. The purpose of reviewed paper was to examines the impact of commitment to human resource management on green creativity, and to discusses the mediating mechanism of green human resource management (GHRM) between them (line numbers: 13-15). Does this mechanism work? So Authors can make the paper more interesting to the recipients.
Overall Merit
The paper provides an advance towards the current knowledge and Authors have addressed an important long-standing question with smart experiment. But this experiment was described too little.
English Level
The English language is appropriate and understandable, however, there are no spaces in the text – some words and numbers are connected together.
Author Response
TO:Reviewer 2
FM:Manuscript ID sustainability-692520
Thank you very much.Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
The authors have addressed most, if not all, of my concerns. The quantum of additional material is impressive, and I thank the authors for their efforts. A careful proofreading of the manuscript is needed.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 1：
Thank you for the letter of “Manuscript ID sustainability-692520” on January 20th 2020. We have revised the manuscript based on your comments.
In addition, we have our manuscript professionally edited for proofreading in English. Below, we have listed point-to-point responses to the revision comments.
Point: The authors have addressed most, if not all, of my concerns. The quantum of additional material is impressive, and I thank the authors for their efforts. A careful proofreading of the manuscript is needed.
Response: Thank you very much. We really appreciate your positive comments and suggestions. We have already fixed the corresponding minor mistakes and had the article proof read.
Reviewer 2 Report
A brief summary
The purpose of reviewed paper is to examines the impact of commitment to human resource management on green creativity, and to discusses the mediating mechanism of green human resource management (GHRM) between them (line numbers: 13-15). The research was conducted on employees of Chinese coal manufacturing enterprises and heavy polluting enterprises in seven provinces. There were distributed 630 surveys, from March to August 2019. The research is current and it is an important asset of the text. The paper provides an advance towards the current knowledge and Authors have addressed an important long-standing question with smart experiment.
Originality/Novelty
The results provide an advance in current knowledge. The issue of sustainable enterprise development and creating an organizational culture supporting environmental protection is timely and socially relevant. The authors explained this convincingly in the paper.
Significance
The value and significance of the knowledge presented in the text is rather large. There were describe issues regarding the research tool and research, in the following part of the review.
Quality of Presentation
The structure of the literature review is smart, correct and complete. It justifies the choice of hypotheses and is the strength of the paper.
Scientific Soundness
“Double blind” methods were used in the research. The research selected 7 senior managers and were consulted the survey with them, then were corrected the form in line with the comments of these experts. The second correction of surveys was based on 73 research results, which were conducted in the academic conference organized by Anhui University of Science & Technology. Finally, 630 surveys were distributed in Chinese coal manufacturing enterprises and heavy polluting enterprises in seven provinces including Jilin, Liaoning, Anhui, Shandong, Henan, Hebei and Shanxi. The research was conducted out from March to August 2019. The research is current and it’s an important asset of the paper. The research was conducted on employees of enterprises who were employed in departments such as: production R&D, engineering, technology, operation and others.
The research tool has been divided into the following five thematic areas:
Commitment to human resource management (line numbers: 351 and next), GHRM (line numbers: 337 and next), Green creativity (line numbers: 362 and next), Environmental regulation (line numbers: 367 and next), Control variables (line numbers: 375 and next).Some descriptions of representative survey questions for each of the above-mentioned thematic areas were presented in the manuscript. Other questions are developed in the literature cited by the authors. That details rather would allow other research to reproduce the results.
Interest to the Readers
Probably, literature review and conclusions are interesting for the readership of the Journal. But the Authors identified the practical implications that organization “should...” to do something and it is known from the manuscript, what should to do. But, are really researched Chinese coal enterprises do this? This is interesting part of the work for many readers – especially for top management.
Overall Merit
The paper provides an advance towards the current knowledge and Authors have addressed an important long-standing question with smart experiment.
English Level
The English language is appropriate and understandable, however, there are no spaces in the text – some words and numbers are connected together.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer 2：
Thank you for the letter of “Manuscript ID sustainability-692520” on January 24th 2020. We have revised the manuscript based on your comments.
In addition, we have our manuscript professionally edited for proofreading in English. Below, we have listed point-to-point responses to the revision comments.
Please see the attachment.
Author Response File: Author Response.pdf
