The “economic–finance interface” for eco-innovation projects

Abstract It is widely accepted that eco-innovation is a feasible direction if we want to progress towards sustainable development. However, in many European countries, eco-innovation projects are currently not common because of the significant barriers to and the negligible culture of including eco-innovation in an organisation's strategy. In this scenario, the analysis of eco-innovation project determinants offers a new strategic approach for industries to manage sustainable innovation initiatives. A specific methodology has been developed for this purpose to analyse the main characteristics of 44 applied eco-innovation projects. The purpose of the methodology described in this paper is to define the “economic–finance interface” between these projects and the main characteristics of firms in which such eco-innovation has been applied and to provide guidance in the implementation of eco-innovation to align project management with business strategy.

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