Effects of eco-innovation on economic and environmental performance: Evidence from Turkey's manufacturing companies

The concept of eco-innovation has begun to be considered as a solution to preventing environmental damage, especially since the 1990s. Eco-innovation is expected to reduce amounts of waste, air pollution, and material resource usage. However, the effect of eco-innovation on environmental and financial performance has received limited attention. This paper seeks to fill this gap by studying the effect of eco-innovation on environmental and financial performance. In order to do so, data were obtained by collecting surveys completed by 219 manufacturing companies in Turkey. By using structural equation modeling, we found that eco-innovation has a direct effect on pollution prevention, resource saving and recycling; furthermore, it has an indirect positive effect on cost reduction and thus on economic performance. The findings suggest that decision-makers should adopt eco-innovation due to its cost advantage and pollution prevention potential.