Breaking barriers, cultivating sustainability: Discovering the trifecta influence of digitalization, natural resources, and globalization on eco-innovations across 27 European nations

Abstract

In recent years, the convergence of digitalization, natural resources, and globalization has profoundly influenced eco-innovations in European economies, emphasizing their significance in achieving sustainable development goals (SDGs). Additionally, digitalization enables smart infrastructure and facilitates a circular economy. Furthermore, natural resources provide prospects for transitioning to renewable energy and improving resource efficiency, while globalization connects European economies to global networks, endorsing the exchange of information and best practices. This study examines the influence of digitalization, natural resources, and globalization on eco-innovations for the 27 European Union (EU-27) nations from 1990 to 2021. The estimated outcomes reveal that digitalization substantially encourages eco-innovations. After confirming the issues of cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity, this study adopts the second-generation process to estimate consistent and robust outcomes. The findings from the method of moment quantile regression (MMQR) show that digitalization significantly increases eco-innovations across all quantiles. Regarding natural resources, the findings explore the asymmetric relationship, indicating that an increase in natural resources raises the level of eco-innovations in the lower and lower-middle quantiles but decreases it in the upper quantiles. This signifies the inefficient use of natural resources in EU-27 nations. Additionally, the findings report that the globalization process significantly reduces the pace of eco-innovations. The interaction between natural resources and digitalization reveals that it increases eco-innovations at lower quantiles but reduces them at higher quantiles. As for the interaction between natural resources and globalization, the findings indicate a positive association with eco-innovations in the lower and lower-middle quantiles but a negative association in higher quantiles. Based on the estimated evidences, this study suggests some feasible policy inferences to drive eco-innovations, mitigate ecological impacts, and pave the way for a greener and more resilient future in EU-27 nations.