Attitudes towards eco-innovation in the chemical industry: performance implications

Abstract

Despite a growing literature on the importance of environmental activities for firms strategies, there are still few studies aimed at analysing whether an environmental orientation has any impact on innovation performance. Firms within the chemical industry have a great concern for this subject, due to the larger impact that their decisions could have on the environment. This study focuses on the chemical industry and contributes important findings regarding the relationship between a firm s environmental orientation and its innovation performance. Through a logistic regression model our paper demonstrates the existence of this relationship and its relative importance in comparison with other strategic orientations of the firms (market and costs). The main contribution of this paper is that chemical industry firms with an environmental orientation improve their innovation performance, specifically regarding logistic systems and manufacturing processes.