The topic of eco-innovation has started to play an increasingly central role in policy makers’ agenda. To date, eco-innovation policies have achieved tangible results. Yet, despite important results have been reached, there is room to make eco-innovation policies’ impact more profound and incisive on companies and society as a whole. Using a multi-level approach, the researcher aimed to provide a granular representation of the process with which firms adopting voluntary eco-innovation policies can turn a stimulus to create ‘green’ offerings into positive economic impacts for the organisation. Ultimately, the contribution is to explore the micro-level mechanisms that can foster the adoption of eco-innovation by individual firms, and, in doing so, promoting the diffusion of sustainable practices at the population level.
The project aimed to get a closer understanding of the process with which firms adopt and operate voluntary eco-innovation policies by assigning a specific role to the concept of business model, defined as the configuration of customer sensing, customer engagement, value delivery and monetization components that captures causal links between value creation and value capture at the business level (Baden-Fuller; Mangematin, 2013). More specifically, by integrating the literature on eco-innovation and the literature on business model, the researcher addressed two major themes in the context of eco-innovation adoption/diffusion:
First, embracing a cognitive angle, she has explored whether and to what extent the concept of business model affects the way top management team members (as key decision makers within firms) appreciate both the opportunities and the challenges of adopting eco-innovations that are not only new to the firm, but they are also new to the market.
Second, by adopting a processual approach to strategy the researcher has investigated the phases and sub-phases through which eco-innovationn are adopted and operated by firms. In this context, particular attention will be paid to how and why changing the business model can help firms to accommodate the challenges of eco-innovation adoption and, in turn, to improve firm economic performance.
