ABSTRACT
This article is grounded in the theoretical framework of technological change or radical innovation, which is anchored in an evolutionary dynamics perspective. In this context, the study specifically tackles the strategies of eco-innovations, defined as innovations with an emphasis on sustainable development, resulting in its entire life cycle, in decreased environmental risk, pollution, and other negative impacts of resources use, when compared to the existing alternatives. The general objective was analyzing the relationships between contextual factors internal to organizations and the adoption of proactive and reactive strategies for eco-innovation, focusing on the sector of pulp, paper, and paper products. The methodological approach is quantitative, through cross-sectional survey with self-applied questionnaires answered by 117 companies. For data analysis, inferential statistics by Pearson’s correlation coefficient and determination was used. The main results show that there was a significantly positive relationship between top management support, technological competence, and environmental formalization, by defining proactive eco-innovation strategies. This corroborates, to some extent, the existing theory that these factors drive proactive strategies in an effective way. With these results, it may be claimed that this study contributes to increase knowledge in the area of eco-innovation strategies, by defining the variables of constructs and tests of hypotheses, as well as it contributes both to the existing theory and to the management of eco-innovations in the organizations, having a potential to serve as a guide in providing an innovative approach to environmental management of companies in the sector and in other sectors. Its originality lies on the fact that it is a study specifically designed and applied in an empirical way, providing information on the management of eco-innovation, on drivers and effects, enabling detailed analyses, which are regarded as gaps in the literature.
KEYWORDS
Eco-innovation strategies; Top management support; Technological competence; Environmental formalization; Pulp and paper industry
