TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE COMPETITIVENESS: COMPARISON OF THE SUCCESSFUL AND UNSUCCESSFUL ECO-INNOVATORS

This paper examines the links between eco-innovations and competitiveness. It explores how superior competitiveness is created and how existing competitiveness is lost. The study utilises multiple case studies following the replication approach. The empirical evidence is based on five case firms that have created superior competitiveness and five case firms that have lost their competitiveness. Competitiveness is monitored having emphasis on market-related, efficiency-related, risk-related and image-related issues. The longitudinal data covers ten years from 2002 to 2011. This study provides two contributions to academic literature. First, it deepens the existing knowledge of how firms have created competitiveness through the development of eco-innovations or how the firms have lost their competitiveness. Second, it illustrates a journey of ten years during which the successful eco-innovators created their superior competitiveness. Also, the journey of the unsuccessful eco-innovators is described.