An Italian case-study of Eco-innovations: drivers and barriers for SMEs in Calabria

We aim to investigate the drivers and barriers of eco-innovations in Calabria and the role of intermediaries to enhance in the organizations the concept of sustainable development. We analyse three case studies of environmentally sustainable companies. Our analysis shows that several critical issues need to be addressed by national and regional policies to remove relevant barriers to these investments. The interwied companies identified these difficulties mainly in the problems to access credits and get funds alongside to the excess of complicate beaurocracy. On the other side, the attention for the environmental issues and the opportunity to promote products and services with a lower environmental impact on the market, in order to obtain a competitive advantage and possibly increase the turnover and customer portfolio, represents the most pushing factor for the adoption of radical eco-innovations. Nevertheless, intermediaries play an important role as these companies have in common that they had the possibility to benefit from the expertises and competences of a provider of services