Eco-innovation and International Competitiveness of Enterprises Results for European Union Member States

• Main Author: Małgorzata Stefania Lewandowska
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Lodz University Press 2020-03-01
• Series: Comparative Economic Research
• Subjects: eco-innovation; international competitiveness; innovation union scoreboard; eco-innovation scoreboard; community innovation survey (cis)
• Online Access: https://czasopisma.uni.lodz.pl/CER/article/view/6530

Intensive global warming, declining natural resources, and pollution are the factors influencing the wider debate about what creates a “green economy.” Taking the above into account, the purpose of this paper is to present an overview of the eco-innovation performance of European Union members and, at the same time, their overall level of innovativeness. The paper also provides insights into the role of eco-innovation as the driving force for the international competitiveness of enterprises from European Union countries. The results at the macro level show that there is a strong interdependence between the level of innovativeness and the level of eco-innovation implementation in the EU Member States. In turn, the micro-analysis conducted for EU enterprises shows that there is an interdependence between the introduction of eco-innovation with benefits for the end-user and the level of international competitiveness measured by the intensity of exports. Enterprises from countries with a higher overall Innovation Union Scoreboard (IUS) and Eco-Innovation Scoreboard (Eco-IS) are simultaneously characterized by a higher intensity of eco-innovation, introducing benefits for the end-user, and an intensive presence with sales on foreign markets. Enterprises from countries with low IUS and Eco-IS rankings, including the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, are characterized by a relatively low intensity of introducing eco-innovation accompanied by a relatively low export intensity.