Information Technology, Environmental Innovations and Complementarity Strategies

The paper investigates the extent to which the adoption of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by firms affects the likelihood of adopting environmental innovations (EI). We also test empirically whether various types of ICT adoption and other innovation practices (R&D, techno-organizational change) are complementary inputs with respect to the introduction of specific environmental innovations. The analysis is based on two different data sources, which offer various views on ICT and EI relationships. The first draws upon the ICT and environmental innovations information contained in the EU Community Innovation Survey (CIS), the other on an original CIS like survey focusing on a large Italian industrial region, Emilia-Romagna. This survey contains information on the adoption of environmental innovations and some detailed information on ICT issues and other technological-organizational processes. We find that ICT adoption is robustly and positively correlated to EI in the EU. In addition, complementarity is characterizing the relationship between ICT and other innovation processes as a force behind EI, but it is not to be taken for granted. In fact, it appears a robust empirical fact with regard to general innovation capacity (R&D and ICT), though when we narrow down the focus to specific techno-organizational innovations, complementarity with ICT is rarely a pillar firm’s green strategies. Further research might focus on the complementarity between ICT and EI as an ‘asset’ promoting higher economic performances.