The Effect of Eco-innovation on Environmental Performance in Manufacturing Industries

Abstract

This article assesses the effect of eco-innovative activities in manufacturing industries. Its study employed a mixed-methods approach by gathering, analysing, and mixing quantitative and qualitative methods. Thirty-nine (39) manufacturing industries participated in the study. These were identified using a non-probability sampling method, specifically a purposive sampling technique. The convergent parallel design was employed to collect, analyse, and integrate qualitative and quantitative data and results simultaneously. Minitab® version 21, Microsoft® Excel 2016, and SPSS® software collaboratively analysed all the gathered data. Both inferential and descriptive analyses were conducted to achieve the results for the main research question. The findings reveal that the technological factor that ranked the highest (62%) was the unavailability of technology for specific applications. This shows a need to invest in eco- innovation throughout the manufacturing industries. The findings also indicate crucial environmental performance indicators: developing products with the least waste, performing environmental improvement programmes, reducing solid and liquid waste, and tracking products that reduce waste. Furthermore, the findings show that approximately 53.8% of industries should replace materials with less polluting/harmful alternatives. The study is vital to government policy-makers in understanding the impact of environmental regulation on eco-innovation and environmental performance. It also provides information to the assessed manufacturing industries to adjust to the standards required for eco-innovation in facilitating positive environmental performance.