Eco-Innovation as a Factor in Enhancing Firm Performance: Empirical Evidence from Tunisia

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the impact of eco-innovation on environmental performance, economic performance, as well as the reputation of firms. Based on the theoretical and empirical literature on eco-innovation, we develop our research hypotheses and our conceptual model and then we test them in the Tunisian context. To do this, we conducted a survey of 159 industrial firms in Tunisia, divided into three groups as follows: a first group formed by 25 non-innovative firms, the second group includes 73 technologically innovative firms and a third group with 61 eco-innovative firms. We applied a principal component analysis and a multiple regression to the 61 companies having already achieved eco-innovations. The results show that eco-innovation has a significant impact on the environmental performance and reputation of companies. However, it does not directly improve economic performance.