As part of the burgeoning research on green innovation (GI) and its influence on competitive advantage (CA), this paper examines the moderating effect of research and development (R&D) on this nexus. Our framework identifies five critical capabilities that contribute to CA, namely, firm image, labor costs, product differentiation, product quality, and market share. Using a novel bias‐correction methodology, we examined the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel (PITEC in Spanish) database from 2003 to 2016 to determine whether GI practices foster CA. Treatment‐effects analyses, including propensity score matching and fuzzy difference‐in‐differences (DiD), demonstrated that R&D expenditures have a positive moderating effect on CA when controlling for the covariates GI practices, firm age, and firm size. This research advances our understanding of the interplay between GI practices, R&D investments, and CA and, as such, has implications for decision makers aiming to create sustainable CA through GI. Our findings are also highly relevant for firms seeking to remain competitive in today's evolving business climate.

Green innovation plays a substantial role in creating new products and services, as well as in reducing environmental impacts and promoting the efficient use of resources and materials. This study investigates the linkage between green innovation and research and development (R&D) practices inside and outside firms over time; it also explores types of external partners. The results show that internal and external R&D efforts enhance the activities of green innovation. However, the external partner is an important factor, whereas cooperation with competitors could help firms in general affairs not related to competition.

We analyse the effect of innovation on technical progress in Spanish manufacturing firms by identifying and explaining how the following innovation factors affect technical progress: research and development (R&D) activities and expenditures, patents, innovations in products and in processes, internal organisation of innovation, outsourcing R&D activities, public R&D funding, external relationships of innovation and different ways of external collaboration for innovation. We focus on how firm behaviour and structure drive these innovation factors. Our results are based on multiple regression analyses using firm-level data from 2010. We show that innovations in product, processes and R&D activities (especially external R&D activities) are more likely to improve the productivity of Spanish manufacturing firms. In addition, the activities related to the internal organisation or the external collaboration for innovation generates a higher productivity level. This positive effect is bigger when a firm collaborates with universities and/or technology centres and employs recent college graduates, especially those with degrees in science, engineering or technology.

This study explores the scope of social entrepreneurship and examines how social entrepreneurship contributes to sustainable development. Using analysis and relevant comparisons, it identifies main actors in the socialenterprise ecosystem, as well as how the entrepreneurial ecosystem adapts to social enterprises. Additionally, this study reveals how social enterprise applies in the renewable energy domain and identifies its main advantages, as well as major barriers and how to overcome those barriers. Fundamentally, this study’s findings have significant implications, for academics and practitioners in the social field. It highlights the role of social entrepreneurship as a balanced approach for long-run increases in quality of life, and it follows innovative techniques and methods to meet social needs, inherently motivated by ethical factors in equality and social fairness. On the other hand, main challenges that could confront social entrepreneurship include government regulations, problems adopting advanced technology and infrastructure, external competitive threats, limited access to public funds or loans, lack of awareness and acquisition of skills and knowledge, and inadequate knowledge about social impact measurement techniques. This research also illustrates how to adapt Isenberg's model for the entrepreneurial ecosystem in the social enterprises, which shows that the evolution of social enterprises does not occur in a vacuum; rather, the growth of social enterprise ecosystems occurs through interactions and networks with various actors in different fields such as financial politics, law, and academia. Finally, we review the practical applications of social enterprises by highlighting the main benefits of RE social enterprises: energy savings, community awareness, and the creation of favorable social externalities in rural and developing areas.

En el presente artículo se lleva a cabo un modelo de análisis de la incidencia de las características inherentes al trabajo sobre la satisfacción laboral. El contraste empírico tiene su origen en la Encuesta de Calidad de Vida en el Trabajo del año 2010 (Ministerio de Trabajo e Inmigración de España), siendo la metodología aplicada una regresión stepwise. Las variables independientes que se han considerado en el modelo de la satisfacción laboral fueron, por orden de inclusión y explicación : motivación, actividad, organización del trabajo, salario, jornada, valoración de los superiores, estabilidad, desarrollo personal, vacaciones y permisos y posibilidad de promoción. Se han obtenido como resultado todos los coeficientes de regresión positivos y significativos, siendo la bondad del modelo aceptable en la medida en que las variables independientes se derivan únicamente de características de la organización.