Eco-Innovation Influencers: Unveiling the Role of Lean Management Principles Adoption

This study analyzes the determinant factors of eco-innovation, considering business units with different levels of technological intensity (high technology versus low technology). It aims, in the first instance, to complement the approach on the determinants of eco-innovation in the existent literature by incorporating the novelty related to the analysis of the effects arising from the adoption of the lean management principles. Specifically, it aims to analyze the effects of the previously referred to determinant factors both on the economic performance and on the innovative performance of Portuguese industrial and service companies with different levels of technological intensity (high-tech versus low-tech). The conceptual model presented is of an innovative nature, since it includes four groups of determinant factors present in the literature, namely technology, market, public policies, and cooperation relationships, and adds a fifth group of determinant factors still to be explored empirically concerning the adoption of lean management principles. In the empirical approach, five research hypotheses arising from the literature review are tested, using secondary data collected from the Community Innovation Survey (CIS)CIS 2010 for a total sample of 334 companies, made up of 95 high-tech companies and 239 low-tech companies. The conceptual model is tested using a logistic regression method, which indicated a suitable accuracy and reliability for the purposes of empirical tests. The empirical evidence confirms that most of the groups of determinants previously identified in the literature have a significant influence on eco-innovation. In addition, the empirical evidence obtained here indicates a positive and significant effect of lean management principles on eco-innovation.