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1. Introduction
As a result of growing environmental awareness, corporate sustainability has been changing within the realm of international regulations. This so-called "green" issue has become a global vision. To mitigate environmental degradation, countries around the world have begun pushing for environmental protection and sustainable development. In 2005, the European Union introduced three environmental directives: WEEE, RoHS, and EuP, stipulating environmental policies in countries around the world[1] . Since that time, the directives have served as non-tariff trade barriers with a considerable impact on the development of the Taiwanese export industry ([75] Yang, 2004; [15] Chien and Shih, 2007). Moreover, manufacturing industries that create environmental pressures tend to attract a great deal of attention from regulatory bodies ([64] Sarkis, 1995). It is likely that firms in more regulated industries face tremendous green pressure because noncompliance has severe negative consequences ([34] Henriques and Sadorsky, 1999; [68] Sharma and Henriques, 2005). Thus, it can be expected that these firms are more likely to be proactive about environmental issues and increasingly committed to sustainability strategies ([5] Banerjee, 2001; [11] Buysse and Verbeke, 2003; [37] Huang and Kung, 2010).
However, sustainability should never be perceived simply as complying with regulations; it is related to many other organizational attributes. The way that firms perceive environmental issues depends on their knowledge and understanding of the issues. Although scholars have been paying increased attention (both empirical and theoretical) to achieving environmental goals ([24] Florida, 1996; [26] Fullerton and Wu, 1998; [14] Chen et al. , 2006; [59] Rivera-Camino, 2007), most of these studies have focused mainly on supply chain management. Thus, they have provided little insight on the issue of green intellectual capital. Intellectual capital represents the intangible assets of a firm, including its knowledge, the capabilities of employees, technology, experience, and the ability to implement innovation to reach goals ([71] Stewart, 1997; [20] Dzinkowski, 2000; [13] Chen, 2008). As the era of the knowledge-based economy unfolds, firms are placing more emphasis on intellectual capital, for the competitive advantage it provides, which is the key to profitability ([32] Hart, 1995; [63] Russo and Fouts, 1997; [39] Hussain, 1999; [43] Kaplan and Norton, 2004).
Intellectual capital helps to direct a firm and mobilize employees in the attainment of goals ([61] Rothenberg, 2003; [8]...