Eco-innovation influence on business performance in Jordanian micro, small and medium enterprises operating in the food processing sector

Abstract

Innovative performance is a fundamental asset for building competitive advantage of micro, small and medium enterprises MSMEs. This research empirically examines the direct and indirect relationship between eco-innovation and business performance in Jordanian MSMEs enterprises working in the food processing sector. This research draws on the resource-based view theory to investigate the inter-relationships among three types of eco-innovation (process, product, organizational) and their relative impact on business performance. Furthermore, the researchers used structural equation modelling of 86 samples collected from Jordanian MSMEs operating in the food processing sector. The major contribution of this research is providing a holistic view that explains the inter-relationship among eco-process, eco-product, and eco-organizational innovation. The research reveals the impact of eco-innovation variables on business performance. The greatest is the impact of eco-process on business performance followed by eco-product and eco-organizational respectively. Regarding the effect of eco-organizational and eco-process innovation on eco-product, the findings of the study showed that the greatest is the effect of eco-organizational followed by eco-process. According to the post hoc, the mean differences show that there is statically significant difference in the responses of the respondents towards eco- process regarding different organization age.