Eco-Innovation for Sustainability: Evidence from 49 Countries in Asia and Europe

Jang-Hwan Jo, Tae Woo Roh, Seonghoon Kim, Yeo-Chang Youn, Mi Sun Park, Ki Joo Han and Eun Kyung Jang
Additional contact information
Jang-Hwan Jo: Department of Forest Sciences, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea
Tae Woo Roh: Department of International Trade and Commerce, Soonchunhyang University, 22 Soonchunhyangro, Shinchang-myeon, Asan-si, Chungcheongnam-do 336-745, Korea
Seonghoon Kim: Graduate School of Business, Seoul National University, Gwanakro 1, Gwanakgu, Seoul 08826, Korea
Yeo-Chang Youn: Department of Forest Sciences & Research Institute for Agriculture and Life Science, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea
Mi Sun Park: Interdisciplinary Program in Global Environmental Management, Seoul National University, 1 Gwanak-ro, Gwanak-gu, Seoul 08826, Korea
Ki Joo Han: EcoServices Consulting Co., Ltd., 3rd FL, 125 Ogeum-ro, Songpa-gu, Seoul 138-050, Korea
Eun Kyung Jang: EcoServices Consulting Co., Ltd., 3rd FL, 125 Ogeum-ro, Songpa-gu, Seoul 138-050, Korea

Sustainability, 2015, vol. 7, issue 12, 1-16

Abstract: Following the trend on focusing on a nation’s economic-growth, side effects such as resource exhaustion, environmental pollution, and social injustice have begun to appear. As a solution, eco-innovation has received a great amount of attention from European countries and as a result, many efforts to analyze the development of eco-innovation quantitatively have been made. This study aims to evaluate the validity of an eco-innovation index developed to support the sustainable development goal. For this purpose, four factors of eco-innovation—capacity, supportive environment, activity, and performance—were applied to three categories of the Triple-Bottom-Line (TBL) concept in sustainability to compare the eco-innovation development level of 49 Asia-Europe Meeting countries. Factors for eco-innovation and TBL at the country level were organized in quartile and compared to see strength and weaknesses for each nation. In order to test if eco-innovation factors of a nation adequately reflect its sustainability, we used various comparisons of ANOVA. The results of this study are as follows: First, the one-way ANOVA tests present the scores for capacity, supportive environment, and performance as grouped into four quartiles in the same pattern as their economic, social, and environmental scores. The three-way ANOVA tests showed significance for the economic category. Scores for capacity, supportive environment, activity and performance were significant at a nation’s economic level. Lastly, the MANOVA test revealed that TBL significantly explains four eco-innovation factors. In addition, the eco-innovation performance level of European nations and Asian nations were compared. The possibility that many nations still have room to be competitive in their eco-innovation efforts was identified. Nations with unbalanced eco-innovation growth are urged to implement new strategies to balance their growth. Therefore, this research contributes to extending research on eco-innovation.

Keywords: eco-innovation; sustainability; Triple-Bottom-Line; factors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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