Eco Innovations Research Articles

Eco‐innovation for circular economy and sustainability performance: Insights and evidence from manufacturing firms

AbstractDespite progress in the literature in understanding the relationships between barriers, drivers, and features of eco‐innovations (EIs) to promote the circular economy (CE) and improve companies' sustainability results, the evidence remains limited and diffuse. To address this gap, we investigate the effect of barriers, sources of information, and features of innovations and EIs on manufacturing companies' CE and sustainability performance. This longitudinal study used official Colombian government data from 3144 manufacturing companies (2015–2020), considering partial least squares structural equation modeling. Our results reveal that developing or adopting (eco‐) innovations with incremental features could cause a blockage in implementing high‐level CE and in improving their overall sustainability performance. Similarly, radical (eco‐) innovations need more evidence to clarify their impacts on CE and sustainability. Finally, we show that the improvement in environmental and CE performance attributed to (eco‐) innovations has a significant and positive impact on the company's economics.

How does corporate environmental culture enable the eco‐innovation transition of firms towards the circular economy?

AbstractThere is a widespread agreement that the current linear economic system is unsustainable due to the physical boundaries of our planet and must be replaced by a circular one, that is, by a circular economy (CE). Previous studies have theoretically proposed that eco‐innovations (EIs), or innovations that reduce the environmental impacts of consumption and production processes, are a key element to improve the circular use of resources. However, the analysis of the drivers of such a transition to a CE through EI, particularly at the micro‐level of firms, has not received attention in the past. The aim of this paper is to cover this gap in the literature. It quantitatively analyses the role of influencing factors (drivers and barriers) in that relationship, with a focus on the company's organisational (‘soft’) factors, rooted in organisational culture and strategy. With the help of data collected through a survey of Spanish small and medium‐sized firms in the industrial sector, a regression‐based moderation analysis is carried out. Therefore, four moderation models were defined based on organisational factors derived from the previous literature (sustainability, future, stakeholder and learning/knowledge orientation in firms. The results suggest that, indeed, two of those factors (a high level of sustainability and knowledge orientation) are particularly relevant drivers in the transition to the CE through EI. Thus, if the aim of policy makers and corporate decision makers is to increase the circularity of the economy or their firms, policies and measures should be targeted at these two factors.

How Economic Growth Contributes to CO2 Emissions in the Presence of Globalization and Eco-Innovations in South Asian Countries?

Many nations made pledges at the Paris climate conference to eventually become carbon neutral. As a result, the effects of eco-innovations (ECO), globalization (GLO), and economic growth (GDP) on CO2 emissions in a panel comprising India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Bhutan are assessed in this work. This study employs a unique panel (QARDL) methodology to data from 1980Q1 to 2018Q4 for analysis. The purpose of this study is to find the relation between GDP, GLO, ECO and CO2. The results show that environmental quality is being harmed because of GLO and GDP. Climate-change-causing CO2 emissions are decreasing globally thanks to ECO. Furthermore, the Environmental Kuznets Curve (EKC) theory in developing nations has been confirmed by this work. This study implies that the selected South Asian countries should switch to renewable energy sources to improve environmental quality. In addition, governments will need to rethink their approach to global trade. Importing effective technologies for producing renewable energy should be a priority. The future looks bright for these nations, as rising environmental consciousness will likely lead to the adoption of stringent environmental rules.

The Impact of Eco-Innovation and Clean Energy on Sustainable Development: Evidence from USA

In recent times, natural resources have been receiving greater acknowledgment from economies as it greatly offers a compensation for energy requirements. Solar energy appears to be a strong indicator to improve quality of air by reducing CO2 emissions, which has been neglected by the available literature. Therefore, the study considers exploring the dynamic role of solar energy in CO2 emissions and economic growth in a sample of the US. We applied the QARDL approach and covered the period ranging from 1990 to 2019. Our findings showcased that solar energy mitigates CO2 emissions by increasing economic growth in different quantiles in the USA. Solar energy use is increasing economic growth at higher quantiles in the USA. Eco innovations are also contributing to economic growth by reducing CO2 emissions in different quantiles. Bidirectional quantile causality was found between the constructs. This study suggested the usage of solar energy and eco-innovations in the sustainable growth pattern of the country.

Evaluation of Eco-Innovation and Green Economy in EU Countries

A businesses with a green label is associated with resources that are sustainable. This business is linked to the green economy, which can be described as a form of economy that is responsible in relation to the environment and economic growth, and thus complementary. In this type of economy, viable products are created, but also solutions and practices that take the environment into account. It is well known that eco-innovation activities are closely linked to the development of an eco-business. The research sample consisted of 10 countries, namely the Slovak Republic, the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, Italy, Sweden, and Finland, which were selected by purposive sampling. In this article, we look at eco innovations in selected countries, specifically ranking them, where we have divided countries into different levels, from countries that are at the super eco-innovation level, to countries that are in the middle zone, to countries that are significantly lagging in this trend. To classify countries into each level, we looked at the following variables: eco-innovation inputs, eco-innovation activities, environmental outcomes, socio-economic outcomes, and the eco-innovation index itself. Taking these sub-results into account, we determined where countries are, in other words, which level they have reached. We found that there are significant differences between countries. As we conclude, there are several reasons for this, but one of them is the lack of communication, coordination, and synergy between institutions, government, and SMEs, which are the drivers of eco-innovation. The supporting quantitative data collection method was data collection and structured observation, which is more precise and therefore provides more detailed information about the reality under study. For the purpose of this thesis, data were obtained from the Statistical Office of the European Union, that is, Eurostat, which is responsible for publishing pan-European statistics and indicators that allowed us to compare countries. In the survey, we compared the five most recent years for which Eurostat data were available, namely 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021. The overall score of a European Union member state is calculated as the unweighted average of 16 sub-indicators. It shows how well each Member State performs in terms of eco-innovation compared to the European Union average of 100.

How stakeholders affect the pursuit of the Environmental, Social, and Governance. Evidence from innovative small and medium enterprises

AbstractESG has become particularly relevant and widespread among a growing number of firms. This dynamic is the consequence of different solicitations to which companies are subject, mainly by stakeholders. To pursue ESG usually requires the implementation of eco‐innovations (EI). Until now, literature about the effects of EI on ESG has been predominantly focused on large corporations, while little attention has been paid to SME, particularly to innovative SMEs. Within the ESG framework, this paper investigates how stakeholders influence innovative SME decisions to adopt EIs. To reach this aim, we investigate a probabilistic sample of 222 SMEs using the Partial Least Squares method. Results highlight that contractual stakeholders exert a higher influence than community stakeholders on EI. Among the single stakeholders belonging to the mentioned categories, only investors/lenders do not exert influence.

National eco-innovation analysis with big data: A common-weights model for dynamic DEA

Eco-innovations (EI) are activities that are strongly focused on innovation in products, processes, and organizational philosophies to improve environmental performance. Because eco-innovation is a multi-faceted concept comprising of inputs, outputs, operations, the efficiency of resources, and socioeconomic outcomes, big data analytics helps to better understand its dynamics. In this paper, dynamic data envelopment analysis (Dynamic DEA) is employed to analyze the eco-innovation efficiency over time. This paper proposes a novel technique based on goal programming to find a common set of weights (CSW) in relational dynamic DEA. To validate the applicability of the proposed method, eco-innovation of 27 members of the European Union (EU-27) is evaluated during the period 2011–2013 at the national level. Findings show that the discrimination power of the proposed method is higher than relational dynamic DEA and this approach can provide a full ranking of decision-making units (DMUs). Findings further highlight that Germany and Estonia are the highest and the lowest-ranked countries in terms of eco-innovation, respectively.

Eco-innovations and economic performance of regions: a systematic literature survey

ABSTRACT Regional eco-innovations (EIs) are geographically localized production systems or organizational networks that support new environmentally friendly products and processes, as well as their distribution and marketing. However, little is known about the factors and contextual settings that promote EIs and maximize their effect on regional economic performance. The study aims to fill this knowledge gap by using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA) and meta-analysis tools. According to our analysis, the most frequently mentioned factors behind regional concentrations of EIs are ‘command and control instruments’, ‘market pull’ and ‘R&D cooperation between businesses and universities’. However, the study shows no apparent agglomeration effect in the regional concentrations of EIs, which is generally present with other innovation practices, and no strong dependence of EIs on the type of economic activity, implying that the onset of EIs can occur in multiple regional settings.

Eco marketing and innovations in developing sustainable and green environmental standards

Green accounting is a new and evolving concept of accounting consisting of eco marketing with well-defined standards for production consisting of wide-ranging eco-friendly products and processes, satisfying environmental friendly standards and norms. The article focuses on the significance of green branding, green processing and environmental standards which stresses on innovations in practices with a view to develop a sound and sustainable environment. The article examines how green consumerism can be linked to green-marketing and the extent that can influence the environment within and outside the business. The scope of involving green marketing and adopting green processes can be linked with ISO standards. Most highlighted part of the article focuses on the amalgamation of profitability of the organisation with the environmental concerns of the nation suggesting typical ways through which such mammoth task can be achieved fully. Finally, the article studies, at some length, the operational aspect of implementing environmental management system in production and processing of goods and services.

The sustainable and green engine (SAGE) – Aircraft engine of the future?

The case of the European Union’s (EU) Clean Sky initiative and its sustainable and green engine programme focuses on a sector where the implications of climate change are likely to be keenly felt in the coming decades, namely air transport. It is a sector where to date there have been few green or eco innovations. The case focuses on a current EU-funded initiative designed to limit the impact of air transport on climate change. The initiative aims to foster innovation through the introduction of open rotor technology to power the next generation of short-/medium-haul airliners. This technology could potentially cut carbon dioxide emissions from commercial aircraft by 100 million tonnes per year. However, it may also prove to be a disruptive technology rendering existing aircraft and possibly some of the firms that produce them, obsolete. As well as introducing some of the features of disruptive technologies, the case highlights both the drivers for and barriers to the successful adoption of green innovations. Another important aspect of the case is that it also highlights the value of appropriate business strategies, such as the use of technology demonstrator programmes, in supporting and facilitating the adoption and diffusion of green innovations.

Forms of knowledge and eco-innovation modes: Evidence from Spanish manufacturing firms

The paper investigates the knowledge drivers of firms' eco-innovations (EI) by retaining the diverse nature of their target. Different internal and external knowledge sources are examined and the evidence of EI-modes is searched for with respect to a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms covering the 2007–2009 and 2010–2012 periods. An “attenuated” Science, Technology, EI-mode prevails internally, with R&D more pivotal than either embodied or disembodied non-R&D knowledge, depending on the EI strategy. Externally, synthetic knowledge matters more than the analytical one, suggesting instead a Doing, Using, Interacting EI-mode. Hence, a dichotomic combination of the two modes emerges across the firm's boundaries. However, remarkable differences are in place, depending on whether EIs target efficiency or non-efficiency related environmental improvements. Our evidence also shows that internal and external knowledge turn out difficult to combine, both within and across modes.

Financial Constraints and Multilevel Perspective: The Case of the Italian Manufacturing Enterprises

Following a multi-level perspective (MLP), a sustainability transition is the consequence of destabilization pressures from the landscape level that are exerted towards the current unsustainable regime contributing thus to the emergence of niche-level eco-innovations (EI). However, the existence of financial barriers to eco-innovative companies may hinder the development and diffusion of EIs at regime level, jeopardising the creation of windows of opportunity that are necessary for niche-level innovations to succeed. In this framework, the present paper investigates to what extent financial constraints are hampering the eco-innovative investments at regime level, by employing an ad hoc designed survey addressed to a sample of Italian manufacturing enterprises. Results reveal the existence of significant financial barriers to eco-innovative companies which are hindering the development and adoption of incremental technological EIs and organizational EIs at regime level, delaying the transition towards a more sustainable regime. Moreover, findings suggest that environmental reputation of companies can positively contribute to reducing asymmetric information in eco-innovative investments, relieving thus the financial constraints faced by eco-innovative enterprises.

Green growth, eco-innovation and sustainable transitions

The special issue revolves around the market, policy and territorial drivers of ecoinnovations, including environmental and technology policies. In more specific terms, it addresses the role of complementarities and interactions between different types of environmental (hereafter, eco) innovations and policy instruments (Borghesi et al. 2015; Managi et al. 2014); it broadens the scope to Regional issues in the adoption of eco-innovations (Cainelli et al. 2015; Managi et al. 2014). It enters the green growth realm by providing insights on the economic and social impacts of eco-innovations (productivity, jobs, skills, Antonioli et al. 2016; Costantini and Mazzanti 2013) and complementary on the environmental impact of eco-innovations. Eco-innovation studies have expanded and consolidated over the last 15 years, starting from seminal contributions (Rennings 2000; Managi 2015). Those studies have helped linking economics, management and environmental sciences. Over the past years, with mounting emphasis after the 2008–2009 downturn, the role of ecoinnovations (EI) has been included in policy settings that try to reconcile economic

Economic theories of eco-innovations: a comparison between the neoclassical and evolutionary approaches

The present paper contributes to the debate on eco-innovations (EIs) by comparing their role within the framework of two contrasting theoretical perspectives: the neoclassical vs. the evolutionary viewpoint. In the neoclassical approach, EIs play a crucial role in achieving the goal of environmental sustainability mainly through their contribution to the technological progress that can offset the negative effects of the exhaustion of natural resources. By contrast, evolutionists analyse EIs in their dynamic and multi-dimensional nature, recognising the important role played by organisational, social, and institutional innovations for environmental sustainability. In this framework, the deterministic neoclassical perspective seems to be particularly useful to investigate specific characteristics of EIs, such as efficiency and role of environmental regulation. By contrast, the evolutionary theories are suitable to investigate radical innovations and to avoid any technology bias, by stressing the need for consideration of social and institutional dimensions.

Carbon abatement, sector heterogeneity and policy responses: Evidence on induced eco innovations in the EU

Abstract The paper offers sector-based qualitative evidence concerning the climate and energy policy effects on eco innovations in the EU. Through interviews with industry associations of Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) sectors, it analyses the extent to which past innovation adoption dynamics were influenced by policy and regulatory levers, by looking at the single and interaction effects of policies. As could be expected from the neo-Schumpeterian theory on innovation, differences emerge across sectors. Policies appear to be relevant in some sectors, namely energy, coke and refinery, and paper, but energy costs considerations dominate over the potential effects of CO2 targeted policies. Overall, technological and organisational levels are both relevant: organisational innovations emerged as important in most sectors, often operating as a leading force in technological development. We expect this ‘complementarity’ to play a crucial role in the future path towards 2030 and 2050 aims, whose achievement is possible only by integrating technological, organisational and behavioural innovations.

Carbon dioxide reducing environmental innovations, sector upstream/downstream integration and policy: evidence from the EU

Eco innovations (EI) that address climate change mitigation require pressures and knowledge from outside the firm’s and sector’s boundaries, due to the radicalness and variety of techno-organisational knowledge the economy needs to curb emissions by 90 % in the long run and 40 % in the medium run, at least according to EU targets. The role of policy as a tool that potentially tackles two externalities—innovation and environmental market failures—has been studied over the past decade. Sector integration, which is increasingly relevant for understanding the economic, environmental and innovation performances of countries, might additionally influence innovations, and it is relatively overlooked. We integrate these two perspectives to provide evidence on the adoption of EI in EU sectors over 2006–2008. Using past CO2 emission intensity as a proxy of policy stringency we find that emission intensive sectors are more likely to adopt CO2-related eco-innovations. The aforementioned results are valid for both the economy as a whole and for industrial sectors specifically. We additionally show that inter sector integration and knowledge sources matter: we do observe that sectors with more emission intensive upstream ‘partners’ eco-innovate more to reduce their CO2 footprints. The positive and significant effect of upstream emission intensity (supplier’s emission intensity) on EI is actually stronger than the effect of ‘direct’ CO2 emission intensity (policy effect).

Making carbon-fibre composite ferries a competitive alternative: the institutional challenges

Public policies and governmental structures are expected to provide incentives for a sustainable development, but some structures are developed for different purposes and instead create barriers to new innovations. In the case of small displacement island ferries in European waters, the institutional settings favour less sustainable solutions, namely steel designs, although lighter alternatives in carbon–fibre composites are available. Network collaboration can be seen as a method for actors to overcome barriers to the development of a new technology. This paper shows how a number of small actors in a network develop capabilities to overcome institutional barriers in the ferry sector in order to get the eco–innovations on the market. The analysis shows that the network changes the institutional setting for the new technology in a manner in which the individual actors would not be able to change it themselves.

Innovation Complementarity and Environmental Productivity Effects: Reality or Delusion? Evidence from the EU

Innovation is a key element behind the achievement of desired environmental and economic performances. Regarding CO2, mitigation strategies would require cuts in emissions of around 80-90% with respect to 1990. We investigate whether complementarity, namely integration, between the adoption of environmental innovation measures and other technological and organizational innovations is a factor that has supported reduction in CO2 emissions per value added, that is environmental productivity. We merge new EU CIS and WIOD meso level data to assess the innovation effects on sector CO2 performances at a wide EU level. We find that jointly adopting different innovations is not a significant factor to increase environmental productivity, neither for the entire economy nor for manufacturing or narrower ETS sectors. The only case where a complementarity arises is for Northern EU manufacturing sectors that integrate eco innovations with product and process innovations to support environmental productivity. We believe that the lack of integrated innovation adoption behind environmental productivity performance is a signal of the current weaknesses economies face in tackling climate change and green economy challenges. Incremental rather than more radical strategies have predominated so far; this is probably insufficient when we look at long-term economic and environmental goals.

Complementarities, firm strategies and environmental innovations: empirical evidence for a district based manufacturing system

Innovation is a key factor in firms achieving better environmental performance, to the extent that it helps to increase the materials/energy efficiency of production processes and reduces the emissions/effluents associated with outputs. The study has two main aims. First, by testing a set of hypotheses, to provide new evidence on the influence of a wide array of innovation drivers. Second, to examine the hypothesis of a complementary relationship regarding the adoption of different environmental innovations and a set of associated innovation drivers. The investigation shows that the more general structural characteristics of the firm appear to matter less than eco auditing, R&D and policy related costs. As far as adoption of different eco innovations is concerned, the analysis shows that firms that innovate tend to pursue different environmental innovations simultaneously. At the level of innovation drivers, it appears that the complementarity, though predominant across the various pairings of drivers, presents an evidence, which is dependent on the typology of innovation and the specific analysed innovation drivers Thus, though relevant for explaining innovation dynamics, and crucial in terms of informing management and policy efforts, complementarity is not the complete panacea to the complexity of the environmental innovation system, from either the management or the policy action point of view.