The drivers of eco-innovations in small and medium-sized enterprises: A systematic literature review and research directions

The debate on innovations that contributes to the decoupling of economic growth and environmental degradation or fosters the transition from the brown to the green economy is becoming increasingly relevant in the academic and business worlds, fuelling a research stream that is proving very interesting for its economic, environmental and social implications. Although the debate on the adoption of environmental innovations is well underway, the discussion on eco-innovation in the context of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is at a less developed stage and deserves more attention, especially given the relevance of these companies in the economic system of several countries. Thus, this study proposes a systematic literature review of the determinants of eco-innovation in SMEs and explores the relationships among them by starting from the criticalities highlighted in the five literature reviews of determinants of eco-innovations in SMEs that have been recently published. The first step of the research concerns a detailed description of the selection process of the articles under consideration and of their characteristics. In the second step, 14 main categories of determinants are identified. Additionally, in the third step, as result of this investigation, three basilar research directions and 13 related research questions emerged.

Automated summary

This study conducts a systematic literature review on the determinants of eco-innovation in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and explores the relationships among them based on recent literature reviews. The study identifies 14 main categories of determinants and proposes three basic research directions and 13 related research questions.