Integrating Eco-Innovations and Stakeholder Engagement for Sustainable Development and a Social License to Operate

Eco-innovations of corporations are seen to contribute to the mitigation of negative impacts on the natural environment. However, despite environmental gains, some eco-innovations fail in the marketplace while others succeed. We propose a framework that reflects the connection between eco-innovations and their social license to operate. Corporations can increase the market success of eco-innovations if they can gain a social license to operate based on fair and trustworthy stakeholder engagement shaped by the context of their societal environment. Eco-innovations can be transformed following management steps of an internal and external evaluation, the analysis of companies' interactional status, and conformation activities for the introduction of sustainability-oriented innovations. We conclude that the successful transformation of eco-innovations requires the inclusion of social factors, such as stakeholders' multiple claims, to secure a social license to operate and thereby even reduce costs by avoiding sketchy corporate social responsibility measures. Copyright (c) 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment