Eco-Innovation as Modern Era Strategy of Companies in Developing Countries: Comparison Between Turkey and European Union

AbstractEco-innovation is developing new ideas, promoting new operations, products and processes to protect the environment, so obtaining environmental sustainability. Eco-innovation supports the survival of the companies as proposing an acceptable image for these companies to stakeholders. The innovation which decreases the environmental damages and hereby develops the sustainability of the firms, including eco-products, eco-processes and eco-organizational factors is called eco-innovation. Eco-innovation is one of the aims of European Union (EU), and establishes a part of the development and economic policies. Technological progress makes the companies benefit from eco-innovation. Besides the environmental benefits; there are also cost related gains for the companies which apply eco-innovation. Organizations take eco-innovative actions because of the governmental pressures, consumers’ pleasures and the great risk of changing climate in all over the world. Climate change, ozone layer deplation, acidification, eutrophication, decreasing biodiversity and land degradation are some of the environmental threats that face the humanity and also the companies’ survival. Hence multiple stakeholders of the societies expect the companies to be sensitive about eco-innovation to protect the environment in order to save the nature and human lives. Eco-innovation is one of the leading strategies to promote resource and energy efficiency and create a low a carbon society in EU; because this strategy has other advantages like decreasing the costs of material purchasing. So it leads EU to be more competitive in global world. Eco-innovation is simply contributing to the sustainable company survival by challenging the environmental issues in the eyes of multiple stakeholders in the society. In this study we have comparisons between Turkey and EU in the framework of eco-innovative behaviours of the firms