The integration of a stakeholder perspective into the front end of eco-innovation: a practical approach

Many tools have been developed to support the Front End of Eco-Innovation (FEEI) to design more radical product/service concepts. Although it is widely recognised that designers need to extend the consideration of key stakeholders in the value chain, few studies analyse the impact of the integration of the 'stakeholder' notion into eco-innovation practices. This paper aims at understanding how the 'stakeholder' perspective can usefully be integrated into eco-innovation sessions. In addition to an extended literature review of existing eco-innovation tools with a stakeholder perspective, this paper adopts an original research scenario perspective through a collection of case studies, with various participants, cultural backgrounds, and industrial or academic contexts. Through a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) framework, the paper analyses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the integration of the stakeholder notion into eco-innovation tasks. This research highlights the different ways to consider stakeholders at the FEEI stage, from stakeholder identification to the analysis of the different types of stakeholder value. Moreover, the need to adapt the stakeholder approach according to the type of FEEI tool user is emphasised. Stakeholder typologies can be reduced to a few key unfamiliar stakeholders during the ideation process with industrialists, while the number of stakeholders can be more exhaustive in an educational approach. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.