SMEs and barriers to Eco-innovation in the EU: exploring different firm profiles

Abstract

Eco-innovation is an explicit aim of major EU policy strategies. Many environmental policies de facto require firms to eco-innovate to comply with policy requirements, while the overlap between policy-driven and market-driven eco-innovation strategies is increasingly important for many firms. Barriers to eco-innovation can then emerge as a critical factor in either preventing or stimulating EU strategies, policy implementation, and the green strategies of firms. In this paper we focus on EU-27 SMEs. We single out and explore different firm profiles, considering eco-innovation barriers and engagement. Our analysis is based on a particularly suitable dataset: the Eurobarometer survey on “Attitudes of European entrepreneurs towards eco-innovation”. We identify six clusters of SMEs. These clusters include firms facing either ‘Revealed barriers’ or ‘Deterring barriers’, ‘Cost deterred’ firms, ‘Market deterred’ firms, ‘Non eco-innovators’, and ‘Green champions’. The clusters display substantial differences in terms of eco-innovation adoption. We show that our taxonomy has little overlap with sector classifications. This diversity should be taken into account for successful environmental and innovation policies

Sustainable Entrepreneurship: The Role of Perceived Barriers and Risk

“…As argued earlier, sustainable entrepreneurs are assumed to cope with more varied and more complex stakeholder relations working simultaneously with private, public, and civil society parties. Hence, as also elaborated in our subsection ''Challenges to sustainable entrepreneurs'', sustainable entrepreneurs require more advanced networking skills and heavier reliance on social capital compared with regular entrepreneurs (Haugh 2007;Marin et al 2015;Nicholls 2006;Sharir and Lerner 2006). Additionally, sustainable entrepreneurs are likely to use their social ties in a complex and demanding way by sharing their relational resources with other organizations, such as NGOs and lobby parties, to achieve their goals of overcoming and changing institutional barriers (Dacin et al 2010;Groot and Pinkse 2015).…”

“…Finally, a broad knowledge base is needed among sustainable entrepreneurs because they work under circumstances of market imperfections (see our first point) in an unfavourable institutional context (see our second point) (De Marchi 2012;Marin et al 2015). Sustainable entrepreneurs must invest their resources in the acquisition of external knowledge, cooperation, and the creation of internal knowledge.…”

“…Sustainable entrepreneurs must invest their resources in the acquisition of external knowledge, cooperation, and the creation of internal knowledge. Consequently, sustainable entrepreneurs must cope with more varied and more complex stakeholder relations when working with private, public, and civil society sectors (Marin et al 2015;Nicholls 2006). These findings stress the importance of strong networking skills for sustainable entrepreneurs.…”

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Differences of Corporate Environmental Responsibility in Small and Medium Enterprises: Spain and Norway

“…Marin et al [17] analyze the engagement on eco-innovation investment through different firm profiles taking into account the investment effort of each firm in eco-innovative activities, plus their perception of barriers to engage in eco-innovation. The authors show that there are significant differences between firm-specific attitudes towards eco-innovation investment and how barriers to eco-innovation are faced.…”