*2.3. The Moderating Role of Resource Slack*

Enough support from organizational resources, e.g., adequate financial, human, and material resources, is critical to environmental corporate social responsibility [31]. Resource slack is potentially available resources that a business can divert or redeploy from its operations [52]. Jiao et al. [53] empirically examined how conducting green practices to shoulder ecological responsibilities can be positively associated with financial performance and found that this relationship is moderated by resource slack. Duque-Grisales and Aguilera-Caracuel [54] also proposed that resource slack provides resources for firms to undertake environmental responsibility that enhances financial performance via strengthening visibility and reputation. Furthermore, some studies show that shouldering environmental corporate social responsibility can encourage firms to find new innovation opportunities. At this time, firms with high levels of slack resources will invest financial and human resources to take advantage of innovation opportunities, and thereby green innovation performance can be improved [31,55]. Therefore, this study explores the idea that resource slack might play a moderating role in the relationship between environmental corporate social responsibility and green innovation performance.

As stated in resource-based theory, sufficiently valuable, rare, imperfectly imitable, and non-substitutable resources can help an organization to obtain a competitive advantage and realize its vision, mission, and strategic goals [34]. Moreover, to cope with internal and external pressures, firms can use slack resources to achieve the goal of strategic adjustment in an era full of instability, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. High levels of slack resources can help firms loosen internal investment constraints, and provide finances, talent, and technology to support projects with long investment return cycles and high risk. Firms with low levels of slack resources must focus their resources on projects with high efficiency and short return cycles [56]. On the one hand, sufficient slack resources provide firms with the flexibility to allocate human, material, and financial resources to engage in green innovation in response to the strategy of environmental corporate social responsibility. Xiao et al. [57] also proposed that high levels of resource slack can decrease resource conflicts and constraints in a firm, so that an environmentally responsible firm can keep investing in environmental development activities, such as introducing and applying green and novel ideas to manufacturing processes. Therefore, green innovation performance can be improved. However, low levels of slack resources mean a firm's capability to

mobilize the necessary resources is limited [29]. Environmentally responsible firms with low levels of slack resources cannot concentrate adequate slack on the improvement of green manufacturing processes, so green innovation performance is less likely to be promoted. On the other hand, green innovation requires a variety of resource inputs, and the investment return cycle is quite long. Thus, green innovation has both risks and benefits. If firms have adequate resource slack, there will be more resources for them to bear risks and achieve green innovation performance in response to a firm's environmentally responsible strategy. Therefore, Hypothesis 3 is developed:

**Hypothesis 3.** *Resource slack moderates the environmental corporate social responsibility–green innovation performance relationship.*

Figure 1 shows an overview of the research model.

**Figure 1.** Research model.

### **3. Research Methodology**

#### *3.1. Sample and Data Collection*

The study tested the impact of environmental corporate social responsibility on green innovation performance, the mediating role of shared vision capability, and the moderating role of resource slack. Data were collected from a sample of 351 employees from manufacturing firms in China via questionnaires. The data collection period was from March 2022 to June 2022, lasting almost three months. Referring to the study of Daniel et al. [58], we used the single-sample method to explore industry-related environmental corporate social responsibility and green innovation performance. We chose 45 representative firms from the manufacturing industry in China, mainly from Fujian Province, Guangdong Province, Sichuan Province, and Henan Province. Fujian Province, which is the first pilot ecological civilization construction zone in China, is expected to achieve high-quality development by relying on green innovation. As one of the low-carbon pilot provinces, Guangdong Province has implemented a number of measures to call on firms to shoulder environmental responsibility and realize green development. Sichuan Province is a vital industrial center of Western China. Henan reflects the advancement level of the manufacturing industry in Central China to a certain extent.

Ten questionnaires were distributed to each firm. Moreover, we used a probability sampling technique to send the questionnaires to employees. A brief introduction emphasizing the research objective and ensuring the respondents of confidentiality was included

in every questionnaire. The study conducted a time-lagged survey to avoid the potential problems associated with common method variance [59]. On the basis of the hypotheses, we included the responses of employees who replied during the two stages of the survey. At Time 1, participants provided demographic information and rated their environmental corporate social responsibility, resource slack, and shared vision capability. At Time 2 (three weeks afterward), participants needed to evaluate the green innovation performance of the firms they work for. Of 450 questionnaires, we received 372 usable responses from employees, representing an 82.67% return rate. After a rigorous examination of the received instruments, 351 questionnaires were valid, representing 78.00%.

Table 1 gives the sample characteristics: 55.80% of participants were female, and 54.40% of participants were aged between 31 and 40. Over 70.00% of participants had at least a bachelor's degree; 38.70% of participants were junior managers. Moreover, the average job tenure of participants in their firms was 6.39 years. Nearly 60.00% of the firms were private firms; 45.00% of the firms had between 51 and 200 employees, and 40.70% employed over 200 employees; 66.40% of the firms had been established for over 10 years.


**Table 1.** Sample characteristics of the study (*N* = 351).

#### *3.2. Measures*

We adopted existing well-supported measurement scales to ensure their reliability and validity. Referring to the back-translation procedures recommended by Brislin [60], we translated English-based measure scales into Chinese. Moreover, in order to evaluate the usability and quality of the measure items, we conducted a pre-test. Four experts on enterprise management and 45 manufacturing employees were invited to participate in a pre-test of the questionnaire. Referring to their specialized and useful feedback, we improved the questionnaire to guarantee that the items were suitable for the working contexts in China. The results of the pre-test demonstrated that Cronbach's Alpha of the questionnaire was greater than the criterion [61], showing that all items were appropriate.

All items were measured on the basis of a seven-point Likert scale, in which 1 stood for "strongly disagree", while 7 stood for "strongly agree". All measure items are shown in Table A1.
