Abstract
The term “eco-innovation” is of interest to policymakers and industrial practitioners that seek to marry environmental protection with economic development. Sweden has made some headway in that it has an international reputation for leadership on environmental issues and for creating policies that seek to boost eco-innovation in key industries. However, examining industrial efforts to eco-innovate is complicated by the fact that eco-innovation is poorly defined. The varying definitions and typologies currently in circulation pose risks to the field of eco-innovation research. In this chapter, we aim to consolidate existing conceptualizations by adapting an existing typology of eco-innovation. We then apply this typology to examine eco-innovation in large Swedish companies. The study finds that large Swedish companies focus the majority of their eco-innovative efforts on internal measures related to product and process changes. However, the companies in our sample are less adept at collaborating with suppliers, users, and other external partners that can boost eco-innovation. The study concludes by discussing the utility of our typology and by deriving recommendations for policymakers based on our findings.
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Acknowledgments
This chapter is based on a wider study (Brunklaus et al. 2013) funded by the Swedish Governmental Agency for Innovation Systems (VINNOVA). We would like to thank Anna Sandström, Göran Andersson, and Jonas Brändström from Vinnova for their useful inputs. We would also like to thank Anika Regett and Gibran Vita for their assistance in collecting and analyzing data.
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Sarasini, S., Hildenbrand, J., Brunklaus, B. (2014). Conceptualizing Industry Efforts to Eco-innovate Among Large Swedish Companies. In: Azevedo, S., Brandenburg, M., Carvalho, H., Cruz-Machado, V. (eds) Eco-Innovation and the Development of Business Models. Greening of Industry Networks Studies, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05077-5_9
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