Turnover growth and eco-innovation: A European overview

Abstract

This study investigates the relationship between eco-innovation actions and firm performance, considering the turnover growth, on a sample of 63303 European enterprises (13 different countries; 10 new EU members and 3 old ones). For this we use the Community Innovation Survey from 2012-2014 performing a statistical and cross-section analysis of the eco-innovation measures adopted, comparing the countries within the sample. Results indicate that in new EU members there is a U-shaped relationship between the number of eco-innovation benefits and turnover growth. Moreover, size is an important variable to explain the relationship between eco-innovations and turnover growth as well as employment growth. Policy makers should be aware of the additional costs incurred by firms in adopting eco-innovation strategies and differentiate among different size enterprises.