An Overview of Ecopreneurship, Eco-Innovation, and the Ecological Sector

Abstract

Given the current trend toward a more sustainable and environmentally-friendly economy, the overlap between entrepreneurship and sustainability has become a key research area. Part of this trend is the emergence of ecopreneurial businesses. These businesses are pioneers in using innovation to achieve sustainable growth by exploiting market opportunities. This article presents an overview of the concepts of ecopreneurship, eco-innovation, and the ecological sector. A rigorous review of the literature in this area is presented. The results of this review show the key values and principles that are central to this new stream of research and shed light on opportunities for further research. The primary conclusion is that there is a need for collective collaboration between ecopreneurs, consumers, and producers to achieve long-term sustainability.

Effects of Eco-Innovation on Economic and Environmental Performance: Evidence from Turkey’s Manufacturing Companies

“…The power of this effect differs in the entire supply chain depending on the type of technology used and the level of pollution. As a result of their work to explain the relationship between eco-innovation and "ecopreneurship" Garcia, Garcia and Castillo [38] determined that eco-innovation and ecopreneurship work together in the pursuit of environmental friendliness. Collaboration between ecopreneurs, consumers, and producers leads to long-term sustainability.…”

Identifying Endogenous and Exogenous Indicators to Measure Eco-Innovation within Clusters

“…When analyzing the factors that drive eco-innovation, one of the most important factors considered is environmental regulations [30][31][32][33]. In Europe, for example, it has been a determining factor for the development of industries that manage natural resources [34]; previously, they were considered an imposition for companies, but the thinking has changed and today they are considered favorable when innovating, since they help companies to identify efficiency failures in their processes and are used as a tool to reduce default and production costs, improving competitiveness [35,36]. The companies discovered that by investing financially in eco-innovation activities, their competitive advantage also increased [37,38], bringing benefits such as cost savings, improved corporate image, marketing advantages, sustainable growth in the environment, and creation of new markets [13,14].…”

“…A contrasting concept is a cluster initiative (created or planned cluster) or cluster association, which has a formalized structure and a work team tasked with supporting and promoting relationships between the actors on a greater level [34,46]. These clusters rely on effort in order to materialize their goals and are configured with a premeditation of the environment through cooperation between actors.…”

The Impact of Enviropreneurial Orientation on Small Firms’ Business Performance: The Mediation of Green Marketing Mix and Eco-Labeling Strategies

“…Enviropreneurial orientation, or 'ecopreneurship', has been acknowledged as one of the most important competencies of small firms, presenting them with a wider range of responsibility [31,40,51,52]. Enviropreneurial orientation refers to the manager/owner's inclination towards the environment and the business that leads to environmental and business goals, inspiring proactive, innovative, risk taking and the aggressive design and execution of ecological policies and plans that immediately increase the firm's competitive position and business results [31].…”