The Combinative Effect of Organizational and Technological Eco-innovations in R&D-intensive Companies

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the influence of organizational and process eco-innovations on the introduction of product eco-innovations in R&D-intensive companies. We covered theory gaps by empirically demonstrating to what extent non-technological and technological eco-innovations are related. We used the Survey method to investigate a sample of Brazilian manufacturers from the electrical and electronics sectors, and we processed the data through Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The findings of this study evidenced that non-technological eco-innovations are able to influence technological eco-innovations, both process and product, suggesting that the organizational eco-innovation strategy leads to sustainable technological path dependence in R&D-intensive companies. Additionally, findings demonstrated that the association between organizational and product eco-innovation is stronger whether mediated by process eco-innovation, so the result confirms an evolutionary perspective regarding the differentiated types of eco-innovation. We conclude that by investing in eco-innovative R&D projects, new environmental systems, teams' formation, information flow, and trends monitoring, the company creates a path dependence for technological eco-innovation of process and products.