An integrated view of eco-innovation in the service sector: Dynamic capability, cooperation and corporate environmentalism

Abstract

This study integrates the insights of the dynamic capabilities theory with the perspective of strategic orientations to provide an integrated view of eco-innovation in service organizations. We empirically test this integrated view of eco-innovation in the case of Spain with a sample of 3192 service firms from the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel from 2012 and 2015. Our results allow the verification of the properties of persistence, complementarity and dependence on resources for eco-innovation, thus being able to conceptualize it as an innovation capability. Moreover, we support that both eco-innovation and cooperation, once set in motion, could reinforce each other, suggesting that the relationship between cooperation and eco-innovation is complementary and sequential. We also argue that the strength of strategic orientations, particularly corporate environmentalism, will spur service firms to integrate and adapt capabilities to undertake more cooperative innovation in order to deliver outcomes in tandem with their strategic objectives.