Green Product and Process Innovation and Firm Performance: A Meta-Analytic Review

As organizations strive to balance environmental stewardship with economic competitiveness, understanding the performance implications of Green Innovation (GI) has become increasingly important. Although the nexus between Green Product Innovation (GPI), Green Process Innovation (GPrI), and organizational outcomes has attracted sustained scholarly attention, empirical evidence remains inconclusive. To reconcile these inconsistencies and delineate boundary conditions, this study synthesizes data from 48 empirical investigations (2012–2025) via a random-effects meta-analysis with the Hartung–Knapp adjustment and trim-and-fill procedures to strengthen statistical inference. Results reveal significant small-to-moderate positive associations between GI and environmental (r = 0.172), financial (r = 0.191), and innovation performance (r = 0.143). Notably, moderator analyses demonstrate a synergy premium, where Integrated GI measures significantly outperform isolated GPI or GPrI approaches (r = 0.353). Substantial heterogeneity exists (I² = 91.2%), which is significantly moderated by innovation type, industry pollution intensity, geographic region, and research design. Our findings reinforce the Natural-Resource-Based View (NRBV) and the Dynamic Capabilities framework, highlighting that strategic returns depend on asset orchestration and contextual factors. We conclude that firms should adopt a holistic approach, integrating both product and process innovations to enhance competitive advantage in an incremental and context-contingent manner, while interpreting innovation-performance results cautiously given the limited evidence base.