Key drivers and skills need for innovative companies focused on sustainability

Adriana Grigorescu (), Maer Matei Monica Mihaela (), Mocanu Cristina () and Zamfir Ana-Maria ()
Additional contact information
Maer Matei Monica Mihaela: The Bucharest University of Economic Studies, National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection
Mocanu Cristina: National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection
Zamfir Ana-Maria: National Scientific Research Institute for Labour and Social Protection

Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence, 2019, vol. 13, issue 1, 717-727

Abstract: Innovation is essential for European competitiveness and provides key inputs for developing business models that are conducive for a more sustainable economy. Recent evidences show that businesses have increased the management attention and investments they’re dedicating to sustainability. This paper aims to identify the most important drivers supporting companies to develop innovation activities oriented towards making the business models more sustainable. We explore microdata from the 2016 Innobarometer “EU Business Innovation Trends” (Flash Eurobarometer 433), covering 14,112 companies from 30 countries. Using statistical classification methods, we identify the most important factors that are related to innovation activities that have potential to shape the efficiency of raw materials usage and the environmental protection. Special focus is given to companies’ investments in training, software development, research and development, company branding, design of products and services, organization or business process improvements and acquisition of machines, equipment, software or licenses. Also, our analysis highlights the skills that are needed the most by companies in order to support their innovation activities targeting sustainability. Our results are useful for better understanding the attention that is given to sustainability by innovative companies and which are the main factors that boost innovation dedicated to sustainability.

Keywords: sustainable development; innovation; skills; resources efficiency; classification methods (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.2478/picbe-2019-0064 (text/html)

Related works:
Journal Article: Key Drivers and Skills Needed for Innovative Companies Focused on Sustainability (2019)
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:poicbe:v:13:y:2019:i:1:p:717-727:n:64

DOI: 10.2478/picbe-2019-0064

Access Statistics for this article

Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence is currently edited by Alina Mihaela Dima

More articles in Proceedings of the International Conference on Business Excellence from Sciendo
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peter Golla ().