The Influence of Green Product Development Performance to Enhance Enterprise Effectiveness and Innovation

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

This is an interesting paper that discovers that the five factors have a positive influence on green product development performance. The results of this paper can provide some marginal contributions, so that this paper can publish. However, there are several issues in this study that need to be addressed before it is ready to be published for a publication in a journal.

 

• Please explain explicitly the novelty of this paper compared to previous studies.
• Please provide brief summary of empirical results in introduction
• Please insert more explain about 5 factors in details, in particular, between green creativity and green dynamic capabilities. I am very confusing.
• Please add some implication behind empirical findings.
• The authors should provide robustness check of empirical results.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 Comments

 

Point 1: Please explain explicitly the novelty of this paper compared to previous studies.

Response 1: 

We have acknowledged your contributions and clearly explained the novelty of this paper compared to previous studies in section 6.2. Theoretical Contribution as follows:

This study found that reactive green innovation factor also had an effect on green product development performance compared with previous studies, although the level of influence from reactive green innovation factor from the research results shows that there is not really a strong impact. In addition, this study discovers that green transformational leadership has a strongest direct influence on green product development performance in enterprises, while previous studies have mainly focused on employees' technical capabilities (Jabbour et al. 2015) and green development strategies (Norton et al. 2017). This study expands the research on the leader as an influencer on product development outcomes in the company and a pioneer in the organizational management system with the responsibility of stimulating employee motivation (Sethibe, 2017; Robertson, 2017). In the current research field, scholars have not paid much attention to the leader factor in the development of green products. Thus, the results of this study may fill the gap of previous studies with the contribution found. In the current context, most Vietnamese enterprises have paid great attention to the production and improvement of green products for the purpose of being both environmentally friendly and for the health of consumers in recent years, emphasising the importance of sustainable economics in green product development performance of enterprises. The study adds important new data to the theoretical model, which serves as a foundation for contributions to future research.

 

Point 2: Please provide brief summary of empirical results in introduction

Response 2: 

We have taken note of your comments and we have added brief summary of empirical results in the introduction as follows:

Therefore, according to the experimental results, this study tries to fill the gaps of previous studies by analyzing and identifying the factors green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation, all of the hypothesis was accepted and they all have a positive impact on the performance of green product development, providing strategies that companies need to improve, the most powerful of which is green transformation leadership. Furthermore, this study is a useful document for Vietnamese firms who want to elevate the value of green products to an international level in order to make tangible contributions to the global community, decrease negative impacts from exploitation and manufacturing activities, and supply the current and future demand for green products.

Point 3: Please insert more explain about 5 factors in details, in particular, between green creativity and green dynamic capabilities. I am very confusing.

Response 3: 

We considered your proposal and some information to the 5 theoretical frameworks to enhance the literature review and support the proposed hypotheses:

2.1. Green Creativity

Green Creativity is defined as the development of new ideas with new useful characteristics for green products, services and practices (Song & Yu, 2018). Organizational creativity is accomplished by the creation of an idea, product, or service of useful value by individuals working together within an organizational system (Woodman et al. 1993). To improve the development efficiency of enterprises, promoting solutions to develop organizational creativity is the main way to bring about innovation (Halbesleben et al., 2003). Organizations that accumulate innovative ideas can develop better and superior product performance (Hunt & Morgan, 1995). The success of new product development will be significantly influenced by innovative ideas (Cooper, 1979). The creativity of the team can create the conditions for the development of new products with new characteristics because usefulness is decisive for the success of the new product (Chang et al. 2010). Previous literature suggested that group creativity can be defined as the creativity developed by group members (Pirola-Merlo and Mann, 2004). From the customer's point of view, an innovative idea is considered by its originality and measured by how useful it is to the customer (Ford, 1996). In addition, consumer needs can be effectively met by the unique, outstanding innovation of the product development and improvement team (Cooper, 1979; Deshpande´ et al., 1993). For organizations and enterprises, group creativity is considered as the main factor of innovation (Yoon et al., 2010). Therefore, research done by (Cooper, 1979; Smith & Reinertsen, 1992; Amabile et al, 1996; Griffin, 1997) has shown that product development performance is positively influenced by creativity product development teams. According to the above discussion, this study hypothesized the following:

Hypothesis 1 (H1): Green creativity is positively related to green product development performance.

2.2. Green Dynamic Capabilities

Dynamic capability is defined as the process of using an organization's resources, focusing on the process of setting up or rearranging internal and external processes and resources to accommodate changes in the organization environment (Teece et al. 1997). In addition, green dynamic capability is shown to be the ability of organizations and companies to integrate resources for the purpose of achieving sustainability and improving the green environment in their business activities (Rodrigo-Alarcón et al. 2018). According to the Wohlgemuth and Wenzel (2016) for a competitive, complex and unstable business environment, dynamic capability will be a useful solution in improving the company's competitiveness. To develop green product performance, businesses need to apply their dynamic capabilities through combining existing knowledge elements and acquiring new knowledge (Andriopoulos, 2001). An organization with stronger dynamic capabilities will be able to improve and develop better product performance (Arora, 2002). Therefore, dynamic capabilities have a significant positive effect on product development performance (Hsu & Fang 2009). Innovation requires finding new sources of information different from the existing knowledge base in order to innovate, supplement and grow it, so organizations that embrace innovation will have to deal with face a high degree of uncertainty, where dynamic capabilities are an important driver of innovation (March, 1991; Lee & Kelley, 2008). Organizational product development teams can rapidly develop new products that match and meet customer needs by applying dynamic capabilities to integrate resources and easily align operations development (Pavlou & El Sawy, 2011). Thus, firms' competitive advantages can affect innovation performance by dynamic capabilities (Galunic & Eisenhardt 2001). Therefore, dynamic capability will positively affect new product development performance (Clark & Fujimoto 1991; Iansiti & Clark 1994). Based on previous studies, hypothesis 2 was established:

Hypothesis 2 (H2): Green dynamic capabilities is positively related to green product development performance.

2.3. Green Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is a multidimensional concept that has meanings in terms of goals, culture, vision, structure, personal support, and performance expectations (Luyten & Bazo, 2019). Previous literature has also widely demonstrated that transformational leadership has a direct influence in creating an innovative climate in the organization to create incentives for members to improve operational efficiency of business (Boehm et al. 2015; Pasha et al. 2017; Thomas, 2017; Sethibe, 2018). Robertson (2018) defined green transformational leadership as the behavior of leaders who motivate employees to achieve corporate environmental goals and inspire to exceed environmental performance expectations. Besides, the meaning of green transformational leadership is to provide clarity, motivation to employees, and support for employees' development needs towards their environmental goals to the organization (Mittal and Dhar, 2016; Chen and Chang, 2013). Studies have determined that the performance of companies is due to the interaction between leaders and their employees (Caplan, 1987). Green transformational leadership motivates employees to acquire new knowledge (Le and Lei, 2018; Han et al. 2016) and engages them interactively in activities related to green process, product innovation, or introduce green products or services into the market (Andriopoulos and Lewis, 2010). In addition, Bass (1985) suggested that transformational leaders should include four aspects: intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, charisma, and inspirational motivation. Intellectual stimulation helps employees build cognitive processes appropriate to the creativity of problem formulation, information seeking, solution creation, and problem solving (Reiter-Palmon & Illies, 2004). Research (Gong et al., 2009) suggests that transformational leaders can foster collective creativity through identifying individuals' needs, and providing coaching and mentoring. For charismatic transformational leaders, they create a clear vision for the team, energize, and drive creative generation (Avolio et al., 1999). Finally, transformational leaders with a high level of motivation inspire their followers to think creatively by encouraging them to voice their ideas (Gong et al., 2009). Therefore, green transformational leadership can enhance new product development performance by setting expectations, stating a vision for high performance, motivating and inspiring team members with clear goals and support individuals in green product development activities (Podsakoff et al. 1990; Sarros et al. 2008). Based on the above statement, we propose the following hypothesis 3:

Hypothesis 3 (H3): Green transformational leadership is positively related to green product development performance.

2.4. Reactive Green Innovation

For the organization's green product development activities, this is considered an important way for the company to connect with the market. The business is enhanced, developed and successful, so the development and product improvement strategies should be invested by enterprises in order to gain a competitive advantage in the business market (Ayag, 2005). In addition, for green product development strategies, create a product that can be produced at the lowest cost or innovate the product to make the product differentiated to meet the needs of consumer consumption, these are all methods that help businesses gain a significant competitive advantage (Orsato, 2006). An organization or enterprise will face many disadvantages in competition and future business risks if it cannot effectively control the product development department (Fitzsimmons, Kouvelis, & Mallick, 1991). From the above discussion, it can be considered in the field of environmental protection, to implement enterprise-wide environmental management in a proactive manner. Competitors will adjust and innovate so as not to be negatively affected by the adverse competitive environment. We argue that reactive green innovation is linked to green product development performance, and hypothesis 4 was established:

Hypothesis 4 (H4): Reactive green innovation is positively related to green product development performance.

2.5. Proactive Green Innovation

For businesses, product development is a potential way, it supports the image of businesses that are firmly established in the market to create a competitive advantage compared to other competitors in a continuously changing market (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1995). According to the Benn et al. (2014) proves that, product development is the main source of competitive advantage of enterprises in the context of market diversity, so businesses must emphasize their brands in designing an outstanding organizational image in the market. Customer needs are met by seizing market opportunities in product development (Stark, 2015). Enterprises develop green products to innovate and redesign products with the aim to minimize environmental pollution problems, contributing to jointly dealing with environmental issues (Chen, 2001). Besides, research (Cronin Jr et al., 2011) has demonstrated that the development of environmentally friendly products and services is necessary, this is considered the key to helping businesses succeed in fulfilling the growing demand of customers for environmental protection products. Meanwhile, companies are striving to meet the needs of customers regarding the development of environmentally friendly products and services. As a result, we believe that proactive green innovation is connected to green product development performance and propose the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 5 (H5): Proactive green innovation is positively related to green product development performance.

 

Point 4: Please add some implication behind empirical findings.

Response 4: 

We have acknowledged your contributions and have considered adding some implications behind the empirical findings in section 6.2. Theoretical Contribution and 6.3. Practical Implications, specifically as follows:

6.2. Theoretical Contribution

The findings in this study contribute to the literature in several respects. In terms of theoretical implications, this study has several contributions. Firstly, the study uses theories and definitions of green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green trans-formational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation to define the theoretical framework and research model with the goal of developing and enhancing the importance of green product development performance for businesses. Secondly, research results have demonstrated that both green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation have a positive impact on green product development performance. Finally, this study found that reactive green innovation factor also had an effect on green product development performance compared with previous studies, although the level of influence from reactive green innovation factor from the research results shows that there is not really a strong impact. In addition, this study discovers that green transformational leadership has a strongest direct influence on green product development performance in enterprises, while previous studies have mainly focused on employees' technical capabilities (Jabbour et al. 2015) and green development strategies (Norton et al. 2017). This study expands the research on the leader as an influencer on product development outcomes in the company and a pioneer in the organizational management system with the responsibility of stimulating employee motivation (Sethibe, 2018; Robertson, 2018). In the current research field, scholars have not paid much attention to the leader factor in the development of green products. Thus, the results of this study may fill the gap of previous studies with the contribution found.

In the current context, most Vietnamese enterprises have paid great attention to the production and improvement of green products for the purpose of being both environmentally friendly and for the health of consumers in recent years, emphasising the importance of sustainable economics in green product development performance of enterprises. The study adds important new data to the theoretical model, which serves as a foundation for contributions to future research.

6.3. Practical Implications

For practical purposes, after performing the analysis, we propose some ideas to promote the green product development performance of enterprises that are focusing on a sustainable economy and solve some limited issues to promote customers to use green products of the enterprise. First, green transformational leadership is a leading predictor of improving product development performance in sustainable development-oriented businesses. The role of leaders in enterprises is always highly appreciated, so it is necessary to build green cultures in the organization, which creates a premise for the development of individuals in the enterprise, contributing to the implementation of the green culture with the aim of successful development of green products. Simultaneously, leaders must actively seek out more green knowledge and keep up to date on the current state of the environment as well as consumer demand for green products, which in turn, has an impact on a business's performance. The information gap was narrowed and contextualised on green transformation leadership by collecting a survey from companies in Vietnam, which discovered high reliability as the majority of them agreed that green transformation leadership is a decisive factor for the development orientations of enterprises. Moreover, the organization can enact various management measures, motivating leaders to make statements of commitment to a green environment for the development of the organization, plans to develop products and services for organizations. A green transformation leader needs to clearly understand the corporate green attributes and by all means communicate those green cultures to their customers, employees, and partners, contributing to building and maintaining a competitive position in the market. Second, this study verifies that enhancing green creativity, and green dynamic capabilities has a positive effect on green product development performance. There is an intermediate relationship between green creativity with green product development performance and between green product development performance with green dynamic capabilities. While green creativity emphasizes innovation from great green ideas for products, green dynamic capabilities emphasize the application of green knowledge and new green technology in the production process to create core values ​​of the enterprise, improving the quality of green products. Therefore, businesses need to encourage creative ideas into green products, promote the quality of green products, and motivate unique ideas with rewards. Creating goals and strategies to help the company get a solid foundation, combining fully equipped with green dynamic capabilities through green technology production processes, creating practical values ​​for the process integration with a sustainable economy in Viet Nam. Third, the results show that both reactive green innovation and proactive green innovation also support the performance of green products of enterprises. To maintain and develop their business, businesses should invest in innovation, applying both reactive green innovation and proactive green innovation, which enables businesses to be proactive in finding new opportunities. Innovative solutions, practical innovation in every part of the company, active in creating and participating in seminars on green innovation ideas. Furthermore, it helps businesses adapt to the needs of interested parties to changing environments, while also helping to respond to competitor challenges. To deal with barriers to innovation, managers need to be fully equipped with basic knowledge and skills in using new production methods as well as modern innovations in green technology. Innovative solutions can be seen as a substantial asset to an organization, be it process-based solutions or both product and service innovations, which both provide platforms to improve the performance of the company's products. Fourth, when businesses balance all five factors of green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation into the operation process in each department, it will contribute to helping businesses improve the quality of green products, promote the purchase of green products by customers, significantly increase revenue, position the brand associated with sustainable development. However, businesses that want to achieve success need to be ready to have support packages, invest in human resources, equipment, and new technologies, focus on quality and improve productivity, ensure optimized costs, create opportunities for innovation and business expansion of the enterprise, improve the reputation of the company.

 

Point 5: The authors should provide robustness check of empirical results.

Response 5: 

We appreciate your comments and we will explain the problem as follows:

We used many methods such as Cronbach's Alpha Reliability, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test the certainty of 5 independent variables including green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, proactive green innovation for the dependent variable green product development performance. The experimental results of all the methods we apply show that they are completely consistent and the hypotheses are accepted. In addition, we have also added details of the experimental results for the SEM method in section 4.5. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) is as follows:

The hypothesis analysis results are displayed in details in Table 6. The model shows good fitness and all scales are accepted (Hu & Bentler, 1999). The analysis results on structural equation modeling (SEM) show that Sig of (GC), (GDC), (GTL), (RGI) and (PGI) is *** on AMOS (AMOS symbol *** is sig equivalent to 0.000), hypotheses H1, H2, H3, H4, and H5 are accepted because they have positive path coefficients and a p-value of less than 5%. The results show that 5 independent variables (GC), (GDC), (GTL), (RGI) and (PGI) all have a positive impact on the dependent variable (GPDP), so all hypotheses are accepted. The standardized regression weights with an Estimate of the variables green creativity (H1) and green dynamic capabilities (H2) are (β = 0.437, p < 0.001) and (β = 0.211, p < 0.001), respectively, which means that these variables have a significant positive effect to 0.437 and 0.211 units on green product development performance (GPDP). Green transformational leadership (H3), had the strongest impact on green product development performance (GPDP) with (β = 0.874, p < 0.001). It can be seen that the higher the green transformational leadership, the more outstanding the green product development performance will be. Reactive green innovation (RGI), has a positive effect of (β = 0.260, p < 0.001) on green product development performance (GPDP). Besides, the study also shows that proactive green innovation (PGI) also has an important impact on green product development performance (GPDP) with (β = 0.455, p < 0.001). In general, we verify that there is a positive relationship between H1, H2, H3, H4 and H5 for green product development performance (GPDP). We have found that increasing green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation and proactive green innovation can improve green product development performance.

 

References:

We added some recent references to clarify the hypotheses and increase the reliability of the paper, so we edited the reference. You can see more at the “References” page 19.

 

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors created a framework to investigate the effect of five determinants on companies' green product development performance. However, the paper needs some revisions before publication:

1. Please revise the introduction section to better highlight the paper's novelty and contribution. In its current form, it is hard to identify the novelty and contribution.
2. The authors need to add more recent references to the paper.
3. The literature review section and hypothesis development should be more comprehensive. That is, I suggest the authors to use more recently published papers to advance the literature review section and support the proposed hypotheses. For example, it would be helpful to add and discuss recently published papers regarding the effect of green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation on green product development performance. 
4. I suggest the authors to discuss the managerial implications of the paper.
5. In the method section, I suggest the author to clarify the reasons for using the SEM method.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2 Comments

 

Point 1: Please revise the introduction section to better highlight the paper's novelty and contribution. In its current form, it is hard to identify the novelty and contribution.

Response 1: 

We appreciate your comments and revised the introduction to better highlight the novelty and contribution of the paper as follows:

 Introduction

In recent years, adverse consequences from negative impacts on the environment have become a major global concern as a result of industrial development and evolution. In Vietnam, human-caused activities including the emission and discharge of untreated waste from industrial parks, mines, and traditional craft villages cause heavy environmental pollution (Chu, 2018). In addition, traffic, agriculture, and deforestation also contribute to pollution in urban, rural, and forest areas. These issues have ramifications not only for the environment's sustainability but also endanger human health (Raza et al., 2022). Therefore, environmental degradation is always a difficult topic and attracts people's attention (Choi, 2020; Oh & Park, 2020; Nguyen et al., 2021). As environmental issues are being clearly perceived by the public, green products are also gaining attention and acceptance (Chen, 2010). According to Chen and Chang (2012), many consumers pay more attention to green products. Many companies are willing to develop more green products (Chen, 2011) because it can help companies and economies thrive in the international market, bring value and drive towards sustainable development about the environment. Moreover, the creation of green products is very important for businesses to respond appropriately to the environmental crisis (Albino et al., 2009), which is also the social responsibility of businesses, consumers are smart enough to recognize and resist companies whose actions destroy their environment.

In this study, the authors will develop a research framework that can help companies improve their green product development performance through five related determinants namely green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation. Success in green product development depends on creating products with core attributes that can satisfy the needs of customers and other internal and external stakeholders. Green product development performance is necessary for companies integrating environmental management philosophy with new product development, product development companies will contribute very little to the sustainability mission unless they can provide offer consumers a realistic "green" product choice (Pujari et al., 2003). Green product development also plays an important role in determining the sales of green products of a business and this development process not only changes the company management model but also reshapes the global market principles for business (Lymperopoulos, Chaniotakis & Soureli, 2012). Furthermore, because the goal of sustainability is eliminating hunger, reducing poverty, and improving people's spiritual and material life, this will be difficult if the country does not generate income that contributes to the economy (Costa, Cancela & Reis, 2021). It is an obvious fact that the majority of consumers of green products are the driving force for enterprises to research and develop green products. In addition, this study was conducted in Vietnam, where the economy is in a developing stage, with the aim of providing clear directions for countries in the development stage toward economic integration, society, the environment and fulfilling social responsibilities. Business sustainability can be defined as attaining environmental goals while maintaining long-term company growth. Innovative practices in business operation and development are essential for economic sustainability, new improvements in the production process and efficient development of green products will bring a number of benefits, including promoting the nation's ecosystem (Costa, Cancela & Reis, 2021). According to the results of previous studies, businesses in the next stage of sustainable management should focus on green transformation, minimising harmful emissions for the environment and human health, and actively find measures for green space development and sustainability (Hoffman, 2018).

Therefore, according to the experimental results, this study tries to fill the gaps of previous studies by analyzing and identifying the factors green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation, all hypotheses are accepted and they all have a positive impact on the performance of green product development, providing strategies that companies need to improve, the most powerful of which is green transformation leadership. Furthermore, this study is a useful document for Vietnamese firms who want to elevate the value of green products to an international level in order to make tangible contributions to the global community, decrease negative impacts from exploitation and manufacturing activities, and supply the current and future demand for green products.

 

Point 2: The authors need to add more recent references to the paper.

Response 2: 

We have acknowledged your contributions and have added recent references to the article in several sections such as the introduction, literature review and theoretical background, discussion, and implication sections of the paper.

 

Point 3: The literature review section and hypothesis development should be more comprehensive. That is, I suggest the authors to use more recently published papers to advance the literature review section and support the proposed hypotheses. For example, it would be helpful to add and discuss recently published papers regarding the effect of green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation on green product development performance.

Response 3: 

We considered your suggestions and decided to add some information to the 5 theoretical frameworks to enhance the literature review and support the proposed hypotheses. 

2.1. Green Creativity

Green Creativity is defined as the development of new ideas with new useful characteristics for green products, services and practices (Song & Yu, 2018). Organizational creativity is accomplished by the creation of an idea, product, or service of useful value by individuals working together within an organizational system (Woodman et al. 1993). To improve the development efficiency of enterprises, promoting solutions to develop organizational creativity is the main way to bring about innovation (Halbesleben et al., 2003). Organizations that accumulate innovative ideas can develop better and superior product performance (Hunt & Morgan, 1995). The success of new product development will be significantly influenced by innovative ideas (Cooper, 1979). The creativity of the team can create the conditions for the development of new products with new characteristics because usefulness is decisive for the success of the new product (Chang et al. 2010). Previous literature suggested that group creativity can be defined as the creativity developed by group members (Pirola-Merlo and Mann, 2004). From the customer's point of view, an innovative idea is considered by its originality and measured by how useful it is to the customer (Ford, 1996). In addition, consumer needs can be effectively met by the unique, outstanding innovation of the product development and improvement team (Cooper, 1979; Deshpande´ et al., 1993). For organizations and enterprises, group creativity is considered as the main factor of innovation (Yoon et al., 2010). Therefore, research done by (Cooper, 1979; Smith & Reinertsen, 1992; Amabile et al, 1996; Griffin, 1997) has shown that product development performance is positively influenced by creativity product development teams. According to the above discussion, this study hypothesized the following:

Hypothesis 1 (H1): Green creativity is positively related to green product development performance.

2.2. Green Dynamic Capabilities

Dynamic capability is defined as the process of using an organization's resources, focusing on the process of setting up or rearranging internal and external processes and resources to accommodate changes in the organization environment (Teece et al. 1997). In addition, green dynamic capability is shown to be the ability of organizations and companies to integrate resources for the purpose of achieving sustainability and improving the green environment in their business activities (Rodrigo-Alarcón et al. 2018). According to the Wohlgemuth and Wenzel (2016) for a competitive, complex and unstable business environment, dynamic capability will be a useful solution in improving the company's competitiveness. To develop green product performance, businesses need to apply their dynamic capabilities through combining existing knowledge elements and acquiring new knowledge (Andriopoulos, 2001). An organization with stronger dynamic capabilities will be able to improve and develop better product performance (Arora, 2002). Therefore, dynamic capabilities have a significant positive effect on product development performance (Hsu & Fang 2009). Innovation requires finding new sources of information different from the existing knowledge base in order to innovate, supplement and grow it, so organizations that embrace innovation will have to deal with face a high degree of uncertainty, where dynamic capabilities are an important driver of innovation (March, 1991; Lee & Kelley, 2008). Organizational product development teams can rapidly develop new products that match and meet customer needs by applying dynamic capabilities to integrate resources and easily align operations development (Pavlou & El Sawy, 2011). Thus, firms' competitive advantages can affect innovation performance by dynamic capabilities (Galunic & Eisenhardt 2001). Therefore, dynamic capability will positively affect new product development performance (Clark & Fujimoto 1991; Iansiti & Clark 1994). Based on previous studies, hypothesis 2 was established:

Hypothesis 2 (H2): Green dynamic capabilities is positively related to green product development performance.

2.3. Green Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership is a multidimensional concept that has meanings in terms of goals, culture, vision, structure, personal support, and performance expectations (Luyten & Bazo, 2019). Previous literature has also widely demonstrated that transformational leadership has a direct influence in creating an innovative climate in the organization to create incentives for members to improve operational efficiency of business (Boehm et al. 2015; Pasha et al. 2017; Thomas, 2017; Sethibe, 2018). Robertson (2018) defined green transformational leadership as the behavior of leaders who motivate employees to achieve corporate environmental goals and inspire to exceed environmental performance expectations. Besides, the meaning of green transformational leadership is to provide clarity, motivation to employees, and support for employees' development needs towards their environmental goals to the organization (Mittal and Dhar, 2016; Chen and Chang, 2013). Studies have determined that the performance of companies is due to the interaction between leaders and their employees (Caplan, 1987). Green transformational leadership motivates employees to acquire new knowledge (Le and Lei, 2018; Han et al. 2016) and engages them interactively in activities related to green process, product innovation, or introduce green products or services into the market (Andriopoulos and Lewis, 2010). In addition, Bass (1985) suggested that transformational leaders should include four aspects: intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, charisma, and inspirational motivation. Intellectual stimulation helps employees build cognitive processes appropriate to the creativity of problem formulation, information seeking, solution creation, and problem solving (Reiter-Palmon & Illies, 2004). Research (Gong et al., 2009) suggests that transformational leaders can foster collective creativity through identifying individuals' needs, and providing coaching and mentoring. For charismatic transformational leaders, they create a clear vision for the team, energize, and drive creative generation (Avolio et al., 1999). Finally, transformational leaders with a high level of motivation inspire their followers to think creatively by encouraging them to voice their ideas (Gong et al., 2009). Therefore, green transformational leadership can enhance new product development performance by setting expectations, stating a vision for high performance, motivating and inspiring team members with clear goals and support individuals in green product development activities (Podsakoff et al. 1990; Sarros et al. 2008). Based on the above statement, we propose the following hypothesis 3:

Hypothesis 3 (H3): Green transformational leadership is positively related to green product development performance.

2.4. Reactive Green Innovation

For the organization's green product development activities, this is considered an important way for the company to connect with the market. The business is enhanced, developed and successful, so the development and product improvement strategies should be invested by enterprises in order to gain a competitive advantage in the business market (Ayag, 2005). In addition, for green product development strategies, create a product that can be produced at the lowest cost or innovate the product to make the product differentiated to meet the needs of consumer consumption, these are all methods that help businesses gain a significant competitive advantage (Orsato, 2006). An organization or enterprise will face many disadvantages in competition and future business risks if it cannot effectively control the product development department (Fitzsimmons, Kouvelis, & Mallick, 1991). From the above discussion, it can be considered in the field of environmental protection, to implement enterprise-wide environmental management in a proactive manner. Competitors will adjust and innovate so as not to be negatively affected by the adverse competitive environment. We argue that reactive green innovation is linked to green product development performance, and hypothesis 4 was established:

Hypothesis 4 (H4): Reactive green innovation is positively related to green product development performance.

2.5. Proactive Green Innovation

For businesses, product development is a potential way, it supports the image of businesses that are firmly established in the market to create a competitive advantage compared to other competitors in a continuously changing market (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1995). According to the Benn et al. (2014) proves that, product development is the main source of competitive advantage of enterprises in the context of market diversity, so businesses must emphasize their brands in designing an outstanding organizational image in the market. Customer needs are met by seizing market opportunities in product development (Stark, 2015). Enterprises develop green products to innovate and redesign products with the aim to minimize environmental pollution problems, contributing to jointly dealing with environmental issues (Chen, 2001). Besides, research (Cronin Jr et al., 2011) has demonstrated that the development of environmentally friendly products and services is necessary, this is considered the key to helping businesses succeed in fulfilling the growing demand of customers for environmental protection products. Meanwhile, companies are striving to meet the needs of customers regarding the development of environmentally friendly products and services. As a result, we believe that proactive green innovation is connected to green product development performance and propose the following hypothesis:

Hypothesis 5 (H5): Proactive green innovation is positively related to green product development performance.

 

Point 4: I suggest the authors to discuss the managerial implications of the paper.

Response 4: 

We have acknowledged your contributions and have added the managerial implications as follow:

6.2. Theoretical Contribution

The findings in this study contribute to the literature in several respects. In terms of theoretical implications, this study has several contributions. Firstly, the study uses theories and definitions of green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green trans-formational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation to define the theoretical framework and research model with the goal of developing and enhancing the importance of green product development performance for businesses. Secondly, research results have demonstrated that both green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation have a positive impact on green product development performance. Finally, this study found that reactive green innovation factor also had an effect on green product development performance compared with previous studies, although the level of influence from reactive green innovation factor from the research results shows that there is not really a strong impact. In addition, this study discovers that green transformational leadership has a strongest direct influence on green product development performance in enterprises, while previous studies have mainly focused on employees' technical capabilities (Jabbour et al. 2015) and green development strategies (Norton et al. 2017). This study expands the research on the leader as an influencer on product development outcomes in the company and a pioneer in the organizational management system with the responsibility of stimulating employee motivation (Sethibe, 2018; Robertson, 2018). In the current research field, scholars have not paid much attention to the leader factor in the development of green products. Thus, the results of this study may fill the gap of previous studies with the contribution found.

In the current context, most Vietnamese enterprises have paid great attention to the production and improvement of green products for the purpose of being both environmentally friendly and for the health of consumers in recent years, emphasising the importance of sustainable economics in green product development performance of enterprises. The study adds important new data to the theoretical model, which serves as a foundation for contributions to future research.

6.3. Practical Implications

For practical purposes, after performing the analysis, we propose some ideas to promote the green product development performance of enterprises that are focusing on a sustainable economy and solve some limited issues to promote customers to use green products of the enterprise. First, green transformational leadership is a leading predictor of improving product development performance in sustainable development-oriented businesses. The role of leaders in enterprises is always highly appreciated, so it is necessary to build green cultures in the organization, which creates a premise for the development of individuals in the enterprise, contributing to the implementation of the green culture with the aim of successful development of green products. Simultaneously, leaders must actively seek out more green knowledge and keep up to date on the current state of the environment as well as consumer demand for green products, which in turn, has an impact on a business's performance. The information gap was narrowed and contextualised on green transformation leadership by collecting a survey from companies in Vietnam, which discovered high reliability as the majority of them agreed that green transformation leadership is a decisive factor for the development orientations of enterprises. Moreover, the organization can enact various management measures, motivating leaders to make statements of commitment to a green environment for the development of the organization, plans to develop products and services for organizations. A green transformation leader needs to clearly understand the corporate green attributes and by all means communicate those green cultures to their customers, employees, and partners, contributing to building and maintaining a competitive position in the market. Second, this study verifies that enhancing green creativity, and green dynamic capabilities has a positive effect on green product development performance. There is an intermediate relationship between green creativity with green product development performance and between green product development performance with green dynamic capabilities. While green creativity emphasizes innovation from great green ideas for products, green dynamic capabilities emphasize the application of green knowledge and new green technology in the production process to create core values ​​of the enterprise, improving the quality of green products. Therefore, businesses need to encourage creative ideas into green products, promote the quality of green products, and motivate unique ideas with rewards. Creating goals and strategies to help the company get a solid foundation, combining fully equipped with green dynamic capabilities through green technology production processes, creating practical values ​​for the process integration with a sustainable economy in Viet Nam. Third, the results show that both reactive green innovation and proactive green innovation also support the performance of green products of enterprises. To maintain and develop their business, businesses should invest in innovation, applying both reactive green innovation and proactive green innovation, which enables businesses to be proactive in finding new opportunities. Innovative solutions, practical innovation in every part of the company, active in creating and participating in seminars on green innovation ideas. Furthermore, it helps businesses adapt to the needs of interested parties to changing environments, while also helping to respond to competitor challenges. To deal with barriers to innovation, managers need to be fully equipped with basic knowledge and skills in using new production methods as well as modern innovations in green technology. Innovative solutions can be seen as a substantial asset to an organization, be it process-based solutions or both product and service innovations, which both provide platforms to improve the performance of the company's products. Fourth, when businesses balance all five factors of green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation into the operation process in each department, it will contribute to helping businesses improve the quality of green products, promote the purchase of green products by customers, significantly increase revenue, position the brand associated with sustainable development. However, businesses that want to achieve success need to be ready to have support packages, invest in human resources, equipment, and new technologies, focus on quality and improve productivity, ensure optimized costs, create opportunities for innovation and business expansion of the enterprise, improve the reputation of the company.

 

Point 5: In the method section, I suggest the author to clarify the reasons for using the SEM method.

Response 5: 

We take note of your suggestions and have explained the reasons for using SEM in this paper in section 3.3. Data Analysis Method:

Structural equation analysis (SEM) was used to confirm the fit, evaluate the hypothesis, and the degree of impact of the independent variable on the dependent variable of the proposed structural model (Kline, 2005; Byrne, 2010; Hair et al., 2014). In this study, because our structural model is complex with multi layers, so study chooses the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) method as suitable for analyzing aggregated data (Hair et al. 2014). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) in AMOS is used to test the direct and indirect effects of variables in the research model. Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used through two phases (Hair et al. 2014). First, we use the Structural Model to measure the overall fit of the research model. Second, we use the Measurement Model to determine how measured variables represent the domain constructs. As for the determination of the appropriate sample size, there is currently no universally agreed upon method for determining the appropriate sample size. Therefore, the suitable sample size for the analysis is determined through a number of criteria. First, the minimum size that can perform Structural Equation Modeling analysis is 100 samples (Hair et al. 2014; Kline, 2016; Wang, 2012). Second, the minimum sample size should be at least five times larger than the number of measured items (Pallant, 2005), with the current research model of 24 measured items, a minimum 120 sample size is required. Finally, the sample size must be 10 times larger than the latent variables in the research model (Hair et al. 2011), with our research model having six latent variables, so only 60 sample sizes from participants are eligible. Therefore, the sample size of this study including 1009 appropriate responses of the participants is completely satisfying all the above conditions.

 

References:

We added some recent references to clarify the hypotheses and increase the reliability of the paper, so we edited the reference. You can see more at the “References” page 19.

 

 

Reviewer 3 Report

Many thanks to the authors for raising an interesting question. The present article has some interesting points, but, there is a need to improve the present version. 

The title is too long and somehow misleading, I suggest that it becomes shorter and more assertive.

The document needs to be revised in terms of language as well as scientific soundness. Many sentences are very hard to follow. Also, there is a need to improve the scientific content and remove some normative statements.

The referencing is somehow dated. It needs to be complemented with more recent references. But the topic has been appraised with more actual perspectives. Also, there is a need to connect the green dimension with sustainability. In this vein, I suggest that the authors consider: Costa J, Cancela D, Reis J. Neverland or Tomorrowland? Addressing (In)compatibility among the SDG Pillars in Europe. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Nov 12;18(22):11858. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182211858. PMID: 34831614; PMCID: PMC8622479.

The hypotheses also need reformulation - there is a need to contextualize and clarify the effect. The impacts must be either positive or negative. The terms "association" or "significant" must not be used. 

In the methodological section, there are important aspects to be raised: the representativeness of the sample. The validation in terms of the respondents; also, the adhesion of the responses to the reality. 

Relating to the profile of the respondents I would prefer to see some "descriptive statistics". 

In table 1, it can be observed that the 22 to 30 cohort is over-represented, as a consequence, the authors have two alternatives: randomize the cohort and remove the excess responses or carefully comment on the entire sample as is. The same with the education level. 

Table 6 will also need reformulation based on the hypotheses proposed. There is a need to discuss the implication of this hypothesis validation as well as the contextualization in the literature. 

The conclusions section is to some extent unfinished. The debate is shallow, and, needs to be discussed deeply, providing some insights and recommendations. The results here presented there are not rooted in previous literature which needs to be done. 

Finally, there is a need to clarify the research question and how far the results meet the expectations, and what are the contributions to the theory and the practice. 

Best of luck with your research!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 3 Comments

 

 

Point 1: The title is too long and somehow misleading, I suggest that it becomes shorter and more assertive.

Response 1: 

We take note of your suggestion and revised the title as follows:

The influence of green product development performance to enhance enterprise performance and innovation.

 

Point 2: The document needs to be revised in terms of language as well as scientific soundness. Many sentences are very hard to follow. Also, there is a need to improve the scientific content and remove some normative statements.

Response 2: 

We appreciate your input on the matter of the document needing linguistic and scientific corrections. We've tried to fix that and have improved the science content through some theory that complements the hypotheses.

 

Point 3: The referencing is somehow dated. It needs to be complemented with more recent references. But the topic has been appraised with more actual perspectives. Also, there is a need to connect the green dimension with sustainability. In this vein, I suggest that the authors consider: Costa J, Cancela D, Reis J. Neverland or Tomorrowland? Addressing (In)compatibility among the SDG Pillars in Europe. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Nov 12;18(22):11858. doi: 10.3390/ijerph182211858. PMID: 34831614; PMCID: PMC8622479.

Response 3: 

We take note of your suggestions and have added more recent references in several sections such as the introduction, literature review and theoretical background, discussion, and implication sections of the paper. Furthermore, we have provided some references between green space connection and sustainability with more practical perspectives in the introduction section:

Introduction

In recent years, adverse consequences from negative impacts on the environment have become a major global concern as a result of industrial development and evolution. In Vietnam, human-caused activities including the emission and discharge of untreated waste from industrial parks, mines, and traditional craft villages cause heavy environmental pollution (Chu, 2018). In addition, traffic, agriculture, and deforestation also contribute to pollution in urban, rural, and forest areas. These issues have ramifications not only for the environment's sustainability but also endanger human health (Raza et al., 2022). Therefore, environmental degradation is always a difficult topic and attracts people's attention (Choi, 2020; Oh & Park, 2020; Nguyen et al., 2021). As environmental issues are being clearly perceived by the public, green products are also gaining attention and acceptance (Chen, 2010). According to Chen and Chang (2012), many consumers pay more attention to green products. Many companies are willing to develop more green products (Chen, 2011) because it can help companies and economies thrive in the international market, bring value and drive towards sustainable development about the environment. Moreover, the creation of green products is very important for businesses to respond appropriately to the environmental crisis (Albino et al., 2009), which is also the social responsibility of businesses, consumers are smart enough to recognize and resist companies whose actions destroy their environment.

In this study, the authors will develop a research framework that can help companies improve their green product development performance through five related determinants namely green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation. Success in green product development depends on creating products with core attributes that can satisfy the needs of customers and other internal and external stakeholders. Green product development performance is necessary for companies integrating environmental management philosophy with new product development, product development companies will contribute very little to the sustainability mission unless they can provide offer consumers a realistic "green" product choice (Pujari et al., 2003). Green product development also plays an important role in determining the sales of green products of a business and this development process not only changes the company management model but also reshapes the global market principles for business (Lymperopoulos, Chaniotakis & Soureli, 2012). Furthermore, because the goal of sustainability is eliminating hunger, reducing poverty, and improving people's spiritual and material life, this will be difficult if the country does not generate income that contributes to the economy (Costa, Cancela & Reis, 2021). It is an obvious fact that the majority of consumers of green products are the driving force for enterprises to research and develop green products. In addition, this study was conducted in Vietnam, where the economy is in a developing stage, with the aim of providing clear directions for countries in the development stage toward economic integration, society, the environment and fulfilling social responsibilities. Business sustainability can be defined as attaining environmental goals while maintaining long-term company growth. Innovative practices in business operation and development are essential for economic sustainability, new improvements in the production process and efficient development of green products will bring a number of benefits, including promoting the nation's ecosystem (Costa, Cancela & Reis, 2021). According to the results of previous studies, businesses in the next stage of sustainable management should focus on green transformation, minimising harmful emissions for the environment and human health, and actively find measures for green space development and sustainability (Hoffman, 2018).

Therefore, according to the experimental results, this study tries to fill the gaps of previous studies by analyzing and identifying the factors green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation, all hypotheses are accepted and they all have a positive impact on the performance of green product development, providing strategies that companies need to improve, the most powerful of which is green transformation leadership. Furthermore, this study is a useful document for Vietnamese firms who want to elevate the value of green products to an international level in order to make tangible contributions to the global community, decrease negative impacts from exploitation and manufacturing activities, and supply the current and future demand for green products.

 

Point 4: The hypotheses also need reformulation - there is a need to contextualize and clarify the effect. The impacts must be either positive or negative. The terms "association" or "significant" must not be used.

Response 4: 

We appreciate your feedback on the hypotheses, and we have edited the 5 proposed hypotheses in the literature review and theoretical background as follows:

Hypothesis 1 (H1): Green creativity is positively related to green product development performance.

Hypothesis 2 (H2): Green dynamic capabilities is positively related to green product development performance.

Hypothesis 3 (H3): Green transformational leadership is positively related to green product development performance.

Hypothesis 4 (H4): Reactive green innovation is positively related to green product development performance.

Hypothesis 5 (H5): Proactive green innovation is positively related to green product development performance.

 

Point 5: In the methodological section, there are important aspects to be raised: the representativeness of the sample. The validation in terms of the respondents; also, the adhesion of the responses to the reality.

Response 5:

We take note of your comments on the methodology section and add important aspects such as the representativeness of the sample, the validation in terms of the response; also, and the adhesion of the responses to the reality to section 3.2. Data Collection Method as follows:

Research subjects are individuals who have experience working in companies in cities and students who have graduated from university and are starting to work in enterprises. They are highly educated individuals with knowledge on environmental issues and green products to ensure that the information they provide is of high quality and reliability. The survey questionnaire in this study asked respondents to identify their experience and knowledge about developing green products that can benefit companies and consumers. After that, participants will be assessed on factors such as “green creativity”, “green dynamic capabilities”, “green transformational leadership”, “reactive green innovation” and “proactive green innovation” to consider the degree of influence on “green product development performance” in enterprises. The survey was conducted from December 2021 to February 2022. A total of 1042 questionnaires were distributed, after screening for incorrect and inappropriate responses. Finally, 1009 valid questionnaires were suitable for statistical analysis.

 

Point 6: Relating to the profile of the respondents I would prefer to see some "descriptive statistics".

In table 1, it can be observed that the 22 to 30 cohort is over-represented, as a consequence, the authors have two alternatives: randomize the cohort and remove the excess responses or carefully comment on the entire sample as is. The same with the education level.

Response 6:

Thanks for your comments on the "descriptive statistics" section, which we have edited by carefully commenting on the entire sample in Table 1 as follows:

During the entire survey after completion, the team obtained 1042 forms with 1009 valid forms to carry out the study. The results are described in detail below. Information about individuals participating in the survey is collected by qualitative method through observing variables such as gender, age, education level, occupation and average income per month presented in Table 1. Regarding gender, male accounts for 48.5%, female 51.5%. The sample survey after completing the design was sent to all proposed age groups and collected the opinions of survey respondents, in which the age group received the highest response rate from 22-30 years old with 82.6%, 9.4% over 30, 6.2% between the ages of 18 to 22 and 1.8% under the age of 18. Similarly, for education level shows the results with majority of respondents had university degrees with the highest reaching rate of 81.3%, with college accounting for 6.7%, intermediate accounting for 4.9%, postgraduate accounting for 4.2%, and high school accounting for 3%. In terms of occupations, 68.7% of the participants are workers and employees, 7.2 % are freelance, 6.7% are civil servant, and the industry groups of student, housewife, business, and college student has the proportions 5.1%, 4.5%, 4.2%, 3.7% respectively. Furthermore, the largest group had a monthly income of 3-5 million VND (42.7%), followed by 5-10 million VND (36.6%), under 3 million VND (12.5%), and over 10 million VND just contribute 8.2%. Through the results from the survey, the data is completely relevant to the research issue and completely reliable for the study.

 

Point 7: Table 6 will also need reformulation based on the hypotheses proposed. There is a need to discuss the implication of this hypothesis validation as well as the contextualization in the literature.

Response 7:

Table 6. Results of Testing Hypotheses (Estimate.S.E.C.R.P-value. Result from Regression Weights).

We have reviewed your comments and edited table 6 based on the proposed hypotheses. And add the implication of confirming these hypotheses in section 4.5. The Structural Equation Model (SEM) is as follows:

Hypotheses		Path	Explanatory variables	Estimate	Standardized Regression Weights	S.E.	C.R.	P-Value	Results
H1		GC → GPDP	Green creativity significantly affects green product development performance.	0.544	0.437	0.084	6.865	0.000	Accepted H1
H2		GDC → GPDP	There is a significant relationship between green dynamic capabilities and green product development performance.	0.366	0.211	0.068	5.724	0.000	Accepted H2
H3		GTL → GPDP	Green transformational leadership has a positive association with green product development performance.	0.615	0.874	0.079	8.631	0.000	Accepted H3
H4		RGI → GPDP	Reactive green innovation has a positive and significant influence on green product development performance.	0.270	0.260	0.073	4.167	0.000	Accepted H4
H5		PGI → GPDP	There is a positive association between proactive green innovation and green product development performance.	0.523	0.455	0.081	5.375	0.000	Accepted H5
	Note: ***, p-value < 0.001. Significant at the 0.05 level

 

The hypothesis analysis results are displayed in details in Table 6. The model shows good fitness and all scales are accepted (Hu & Bentler, 1999). The analysis results on structural equation modeling (SEM) show that Sig of (GC), (GDC), (GTL), (RGI) and (PGI) is *** on AMOS (AMOS symbol *** is sig equivalent to 0.000), hypotheses H1, H2, H3, H4, and H5 are accepted because they have positive path coefficients and a p-value of less than 5%. The results show that 5 independent variables (GC), (GDC), (GTL), (RGI) and (PGI) all have a positive impact on the dependent variable (GPDP), so all hypotheses are accepted. The standardized regression weights with an Estimate of the variables green creativity (H1) and green dynamic capabilities (H2) are (β = 0.437, p < 0.001) and (β = 0.211, p < 0.001), respectively, which means that these variables have a significant positive effect to 0.437 and 0.211 units on green product development performance (GPDP). Green transformational leadership (H3), had the strongest impact on green product development performance (GPDP) with (β = 0.874, p < 0.001). It can be seen that the higher the green transformational leadership, the more outstanding the green product development performance will be. Reactive green innovation (RGI), has a positive effect of (β = 0.260, p < 0.001) on green product development performance (GPDP). Besides, the study also shows that proactive green innovation (PGI) also has an important impact on green product development performance (GPDP) with (β = 0.455, p < 0.001). In general, we verify that there is a positive relationship between H1, H2, H3, H4 and H5 for green product development performance (GPDP). We have found that increasing green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation and proactive green innovation can improve green product development performance.

Point 8: The conclusions section is to some extent unfinished. The debate is shallow, and, needs to be discussed deeply, providing some insights and recommendations. The results here presented there are not rooted in previous literature which needs to be done.

Response 8:

We take note of your comments on the conclusion and have revised it as follows:

The circular economy over time is increasingly considered as a way to increase sustainable economic development, with increasing concern for the environment, companies are increasingly participating more in the race for environmental economic development. The objective of this study is to examine which factors from the conceptual framework applied from the theory can affect the green product development performance of enterprises. Research results show that in terms of new findings, the factors green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, proactive green innovation all significantly positively affect green product development performance. Survey data is collected from people who are of working age or intending to work, they have completed their education at these colleges and universities to ensure their opinions are valid reliability and highest quality. The study was conducted on a scale of more than 1000 participants. The results of the study were tested and analyzed through many methods such as Cronbach's Alpha Reliability, Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA), Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA), and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to verify the influence of the variables measure and draw conclusions from this study. The findings of this research show that green transformational leadership is the factor that most strongly increases green product development performance. The findings and recommendations of this study are incredibly valuable for businesses and business organizations to develop, design solutions and strategies to increase green product development performance in the future, and meet the 17 criteria of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals on global environmental problems. To achieve the research goals of identifying factors that help improve the performance of green products, making recommendations to businesses, and helping businesses fulfill their mission of sustainable development, this requires businesses to take root in the practice of innovation, change the organizational structure of their operations, improve in production, responsibly exploit resources, focus on creativity, sharing new ideas and co-develop. In addition, Vietnam is a country in the stage of economic development, so it is necessary to be a part of building and contributing to, and implementing social responsibility for the sustainable development of the world, less-developed countries should also be promoted to get to the innovation path through knowledge framework, and shared recommendations. When businesses in each country perform well in producing high-quality green products, that business has contributed to promoting a solid globalized ecosystem. Furthermore, this research will be potential documents for further research newly expanded in Vietnam or other countries around the world. 

 

Point 9: Finally, there is a need to clarify the research question and how far the results meet the expectations, and what are the contributions to the theory and the practice. 

Response 9:

We have reviewed your suggestion and have added some implications behind the empirical findings in section 6.2. Theoretical Contribution and 6.3. Practical Implications.

6.2. Theoretical Contribution

The findings in this study contribute to the literature in several respects. In terms of theoretical implications, this study has several contributions. Firstly, the study uses theories and definitions of green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green trans-formational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation to define the theoretical framework and research model with the goal of developing and enhancing the importance of green product development performance for businesses. Secondly, research results have demonstrated that both green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation have a positive impact on green product development performance. Finally, this study found that reactive green innovation factor also had an effect on green product development performance compared with previous studies, although the level of influence from reactive green innovation factor from the research results shows that there is not really a strong impact. In addition, this study discovers that green transformational leadership has a strongest direct influence on green product development performance in enterprises, while previous studies have mainly focused on employees' technical capabilities (Jabbour et al. 2015) and green development strategies (Norton et al. 2017). This study expands the research on the leader as an influencer on product development outcomes in the company and a pioneer in the organizational management system with the responsibility of stimulating employee motivation (Sethibe, 2018; Robertson, 2018). In the current research field, scholars have not paid much attention to the leader factor in the development of green products. Thus, the results of this study may fill the gap of previous studies with the contribution found.

In the current context, most Vietnamese enterprises have paid great attention to the production and improvement of green products for the purpose of being both environmentally friendly and for the health of consumers in recent years, emphasising the importance of sustainable economics in green product development performance of enterprises. The study adds important new data to the theoretical model, which serves as a foundation for contributions to future research.

6.3. Practical Implications

For practical purposes, after performing the analysis, we propose some ideas to promote the green product development performance of enterprises that are focusing on a sustainable economy and solve some limited issues to promote customers to use green products of the enterprise. First, green transformational leadership is a leading predictor of improving product development performance in sustainable development-oriented businesses. The role of leaders in enterprises is always highly appreciated, so it is necessary to build green cultures in the organization, which creates a premise for the development of individuals in the enterprise, contributing to the implementation of the green culture with the aim of successful development of green products. Simultaneously, leaders must actively seek out more green knowledge and keep up to date on the current state of the environment as well as consumer demand for green products, which in turn, has an impact on a business's performance. The information gap was narrowed and contextualised on green transformation leadership by collecting a survey from companies in Vietnam, which discovered high reliability as the majority of them agreed that green transformation leadership is a decisive factor for the development orientations of enterprises. Moreover, the organization can enact various management measures, motivating leaders to make statements of commitment to a green environment for the development of the organization, plans to develop products and services for organizations. A green transformation leader needs to clearly understand the corporate green attributes and by all means communicate those green cultures to their customers, employees, and partners, contributing to building and maintaining a competitive position in the market. Second, this study verifies that enhancing green creativity, and green dynamic capabilities has a positive effect on green product development performance. There is an intermediate relationship between green creativity with green product development performance and between green product development performance with green dynamic capabilities. While green creativity emphasizes innovation from great green ideas for products, green dynamic capabilities emphasize the application of green knowledge and new green technology in the production process to create core values ​​of the enterprise, improving the quality of green products. Therefore, businesses need to encourage creative ideas into green products, promote the quality of green products, and motivate unique ideas with rewards. Creating goals and strategies to help the company get a solid foundation, combining fully equipped with green dynamic capabilities through green technology production processes, creating practical values ​​for the process integration with a sustainable economy in Viet Nam. Third, the results show that both reactive green innovation and proactive green innovation also support the performance of green products of enterprises. To maintain and develop their business, businesses should invest in innovation, applying both reactive green innovation and proactive green innovation, which enables businesses to be proactive in finding new opportunities. Innovative solutions, practical innovation in every part of the company, active in creating and participating in seminars on green innovation ideas. Furthermore, it helps businesses adapt to the needs of interested parties to changing environments, while also helping to respond to competitor challenges. To deal with barriers to innovation, managers need to be fully equipped with basic knowledge and skills in using new production methods as well as modern innovations in green technology. Innovative solutions can be seen as a substantial asset to an organization, be it process-based solutions or both product and service innovations, which both provide platforms to improve the performance of the company's products. Fourth, when businesses balance all five factors of green creativity, green dynamic capabilities, green transformational leadership, reactive green innovation, and proactive green innovation into the operation process in each department, it will contribute to helping businesses improve the quality of green products, promote the purchase of green products by customers, significantly increase revenue, position the brand associated with sustainable development. However, businesses that want to achieve success need to be ready to have support packages, invest in human resources, equipment, and new technologies, focus on quality and improve productivity, ensure optimized costs, create opportunities for innovation and business expansion of the enterprise, improve the reputation of the company.

 

References:

We added some recent references to clarify the hypotheses and increase the reliability of the paper, so we edited the reference. You can see more at the “References” page 19.

 

 

 

 

 

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

Happy with the response by the authors and the changes made.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 1 

 

Response: 

We have read your feedback and are delighted that our changes made you happy. We sincerely thank you for your comments to help us improve the paper.

Reviewer 2 Report

The paper can be accepted

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 2

 

Response: 

We have read your feedback and are delighted that our changes made you happy. We sincerely thank you for your comments to help us improve the paper.  

Reviewer 3 Report

Many thanks to the authors for considering the suggestions provided in the previous review. The present version has improved its quality compared to the former.

My major concern is still the language and style. Please consider professional proofreading. In some paragraphs, your ideas are misleading.

As minor concerns: a) The title looks better, but consider removing performance once, as it looks repetitive. b) Table 5 needs to be rearranged  - it is hard to understand. c) Try to provide some recommendations (in regards to policy) to leverage the generation and adoption of greener practices related to your results.

Author Response

Response to Reviewer 3 Comments

We appreciate your contributions on the issue of english language and style of this article. We have revised the english language and style throughout all sections of this research paper to be more accurate and relevant.  Please re-read the manuscript for more details. Thank you for taking the time to review

Point 1: The title looks better, but consider removing performance once, as it looks repetitive.

Response 1: Thanks for the suggestion, and we've edited the title as follows:

The influence of green product development performance to enhance enterprise effectiveness and innovation

 

Point 2: Table 5 needs to be rearranged - it is hard to understand.

Response 2: We have reviewed your feedback and have made the following adjustments to Table 5:

Table 5. Goodness of Fit.

Goodness-of-Fit Indices	Criterion	Results of this Study
Chi-Square (CMIN)	< 3.00 (Hair et al. 2006)	2.230
Goodness-of-Fit Index (GFI)	> 0.90 (Shevlin & Miles, 1998)	0.961
Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index (AGFI)	> 0.90 (Hooper et al. 2008)	0.945
Normed Fit Index (NFI)	> 0.90 (Bentler & Bonett, 1980)	0.956
Comparative Fit Index (CFI)	> 0.90 (Bentler, 1990)	0.993
Turker Lewis Index (TLI)	> 0.90 (Bentler & Bonett, 1980)	0.982
Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA)	< 0.08 (MacCallum et al. 1996)	0.061
Root Mean Square Residual (RMR)	< 0.05 (Hair et al. 2006)	0.029

 

 

Point 3: Try to provide some recommendations (in regards to policy) to leverage the generation and adoption of greener practices related to your results.

Response 3: We appreciate your feedback and we've made new additions to section 6.3. Practical Implications is as follows:

Moreover, the government needs to have policies to promote the formation and appli-cation of green practices for businesses. The Government of Vietnam has also issued Decision No. 1393 on "Green Growth Strategy 2011-2020 and Vision 2050" to affirm two important tasks of greening production and greening consumption (VAOSS, 2016). The improvement of the legal system is a prerequisite to issuing synchronous policies oriented towards green development. Specifically, government agencies need to come up with policies to encourage the production of green products and services, creat op-portunities to develop industries and fields that apply clean technology, prioritize pol-icies and plans to develop renewable energy and measures to save and efficiently use resources, encourage businesses to voluntarily abide by the Law on Environmental Protection, improve the quality of people's living environment, and ensure sustainable development goals. In addition, the government can offer support in the land, capital, and tax exemption for businesses to label eco-labels on their products to promote the direction of businesses towards the same goal of sustainable development. When busi-nesses succeed in attaching their products and services with a green image, they can ensure a balance between market share and profit because today's consumers are not only interested in the quality, design, and price of products but also in high require-ments on the level of safety when using products and services for human health and the environment. These policies are also an important legal basis for building a green growth strategy in Vietnam in the future, creating competitive advantages, and help-ing businesses achieve their goals of reaching out to foreign markets.

 

References:

We added several recent references to clarify (policy-related) recommendations to promote the formation and adoption of greener practices in the paper, so we edited references. You can see more at “References” page 19.