The influence of the governance and innovation indexes on the environmental performance of countries

Abstract

In a period marked by ascending international independence and integration, governance and innovation are considered important tools in the sustainable growing process of countries, highlighting a constant search for positive development. The present paper intends to analyze the influence of the innovation and governance indexes on the environmental performance of nations around the globe. This is a descriptive study, we chose a quantitative approach and the data were collected on the Worldwide Governance Indicators (2018), Global Innovation Index (2018) and Environmental Performance Index (2018) websites. Subsequently, the data were organized and tabulated on the software SPSS®, version 22. Our analysis happened with the aid of descriptive statistics and linear regression. The main results indicate that countries do not show better environmental performance - where we take environmental health and the vitality of the ecosystems into consideration - due to the confidence and respect to the process in which governments are elected and observed.  In the innovation perspective and context, we could infer that it influences the environmental performance among the 108 countries that compose the sample. Therefore, the opinion regarding the importance of innovation is essential to comprehend the development of countries, and that includes the environmental field.