IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bas/econst/y2023i2p59-77.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Factors for Boosting the Green Transition of the European Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises

Author

Listed:
  • Milena Angelova

Abstract

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, be they traditional enterprises, family businesses, traders, social economy enterprises, crafts or liberal professions (referred to hereafter as MSMEs), are an essential part of the solution towards a competitive, climate-neutral, circular and inclusive European economy, provided that the right conditions are created and prevail. The positive impact is generated by MSMEs through improving their own environmental performance and through providing expertise and solutions to other enterprises, citizens and the public sector. While acknowledging and highlighting the diversity and different needs of the European MSMEs, the current paper focuses on identifying factors for boosting their green transition and mapping out the effects of the recent multiple crises on this process.

Suggested Citation

  • Milena Angelova, 2023. "Factors for Boosting the Green Transition of the European Micro, Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises," Economic Studies journal, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences - Economic Research Institute, issue 2, pages 59-77.
  • Handle: RePEc:bas:econst:y:2023:i:2:p:59-77
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.iki.bas.bg/Journals/EconomicStudies/2023/2023-2/04_Milena-Angelova.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vasileios Rizos & Arno Behrens & Wytze Van der Gaast & Erwin Hofman & Anastasia Ioannou & Terri Kafyeke & Alexandros Flamos & Roberto Rinaldi & Sotiris Papadelis & Martin Hirschnitz-Garbers & Corrado , 2016. "Implementation of Circular Economy Business Models by Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs): Barriers and Enablers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(11), pages 1-18, November.
    2. John Stanley Metcalfe & Ronnie Ramlogan, 2007. "Competition and the Regulation of Economic Development," Chapters, in: Paul Cook & Raul Fabella & Cassey Lee (ed.), Competitive Advantage and Competition Policy in Developing Countries, chapter 2, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    3. Claudia Ghisetti & Sandro Montresor, 2020. "On the adoption of circular economy practices by small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs): does “financing-as-usual” still matter?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(2), pages 559-586, April.
    4. Philippe Aghion & Reinhilde Veugelers & David Hemous, 2009. "No Green Growth Without Innovation," Policy Briefs 353, Bruegel.
    5. Bronwyn H. Hall & Pietro Moncada-Paternò-Castello & Sandro Montresor & Antonio Vezzani, 2016. "Financing constraints, R&D investments and innovative performances: new empirical evidence at the firm level for Europe," Economics of Innovation and New Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(3), pages 183-196, April.
    6. Andrea Mina & Henry Lahr & Alan Hughes, 2013. "The demand and supply of external finance for innovative firms," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 22(4), pages 869-901, August.
    7. de Jesus, Ana & Mendonça, Sandro, 2018. "Lost in Transition? Drivers and Barriers in the Eco-innovation Road to the Circular Economy," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 145(C), pages 75-89.
    8. Triguero, Angela & Moreno-Mondéjar, Lourdes & Davia, María A., 2013. "Drivers of different types of eco-innovation in European SMEs," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 25-33.
    9. Michael E. Porter & Claas van der Linde, 1995. "Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 9(4), pages 97-118, Fall.
    10. Grazia Cecere & Nicoletta Corrocher & Maria Luisa Mancusi, 2020. "Financial constraints and public funding of eco-innovation: empirical evidence from European SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 285-302, January.
    11. Shashwat Koirala, 2019. "SMEs: Key drivers of green and inclusive growth," OECD Green Growth Papers 2019/03, OECD Publishing.
    12. Popp, David & Newell, Richard G. & Jaffe, Adam B., 2010. "Energy, the Environment, and Technological Change," Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, in: Bronwyn H. Hall & Nathan Rosenberg (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Innovation, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 0, pages 873-937, Elsevier.
    13. David Gadenne & Jessica Kennedy & Catherine McKeiver, 2009. "An Empirical Study of Environmental Awareness and Practices in SMEs," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 84(1), pages 45-63, January.
    14. Damien Dussaux, 2020. "The joint effects of energy prices and carbon taxes on environmental and economic performance: Evidence from the French manufacturing sector," OECD Environment Working Papers 154, OECD Publishing.
    15. Horbach, Jens, 2008. "Determinants of environmental innovation--New evidence from German panel data sources," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(1), pages 163-173, February.
    16. Andrea Revell & David Stokes & Hsin Chen, 2010. "Small businesses and the environment: turning over a new leaf?," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(5), pages 273-288, July.
    17. Veugelers, Reinhilde, 2012. "Which policy instruments to induce clean innovating?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(10), pages 1770-1778.
    18. Bodas-Freitas, Isabel-Maria & Corrocher, Nicoletta, 2019. "The use of external support and the benefits of the adoption of resource efficiency practices: An empirical analysis of european SMEs," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 75-82.
    19. Olmos, Luis & Ruester, Sophia & Liong, Siok-Jen, 2012. "On the selection of financing instruments to push the development of new technologies: Application to clean energy technologies," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 252-266.
    20. Pelin Demirel & Gamze Ozturk Danisman, 2019. "Eco‐innovation and firm growth in the circular economy: Evidence from European small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(8), pages 1608-1618, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Grazia Cecere & Nicoletta Corrocher & Maria Luisa Mancusi, 2020. "Financial constraints and public funding of eco-innovation: empirical evidence from European SMEs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 54(1), pages 285-302, January.
    2. Garrido-Prada, Pablo & Lenihan, Helena & Doran, Justin & Rammer, Christian & Perez-Alaniz, Mauricio, 2021. "Driving the circular economy through public environmental and energy R&D: Evidence from SMEs in the European Union," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 182(C).
    3. Ren, Qiuzhen & Albrecht, Johan, 2023. "Toward circular economy: The impact of policy instruments on circular economy innovation for European small medium enterprises," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 207(C).
    4. Chatzistamoulou, Nikos, 2023. "Is digital transformation the Deus ex Machina towards sustainability transition of the European SMEs?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 206(C).
    5. Quatraro, Francesco & Scandura, Alessandra, 2019. "Academic Inventors and the Antecedents of Green Technologies. A Regional Analysis of Italian Patent Data," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 247-263.
    6. Rodríguez-Espíndola, Oscar & Cuevas-Romo, Ana & Chowdhury, Soumyadeb & Díaz-Acevedo, Natalie & Albores, Pavel & Despoudi, Stella & Malesios, Chrisovalantis & Dey, Prasanta, 2022. "The role of circular economy principles and sustainable-oriented innovation to enhance social, economic and environmental performance: Evidence from Mexican SMEs," International Journal of Production Economics, Elsevier, vol. 248(C).
    7. Borghesi, Simone & Cainelli, Giulio & Mazzanti, Massimiliano, 2015. "Linking emission trading to environmental innovation: Evidence from the Italian manufacturing industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 669-683.
    8. Febi Jensen & Dorothea Schäfer & Andreas Stephan, 2019. "Financial Constraints of Firms with Environmental Innovation," Vierteljahrshefte zur Wirtschaftsforschung / Quarterly Journal of Economic Research, DIW Berlin, German Institute for Economic Research, vol. 88(3), pages 43-65.
    9. Aldieri, Luigi & Kotsemir, Maxim & Vinci, Concetto Paolo, 2017. "Jacobian spillovers in environmental technological proximity: the role of Mahalanobis index on European patents within the Triad," MPRA Paper 77274, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    10. Nathalia Suchek & João J. Ferreira & Paula O. Fernandes, 2022. "A review of entrepreneurship and circular economy research: State of the art and future directions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(5), pages 2256-2283, July.
    11. Jana Hojnik, 2017. "In Pursuit of Eco-innovation," UPP Monograph Series, University of Primorska Press, number 978-961-7023-53-4.
    12. Rosalia Castellano & Gennaro Punzo & Giuseppe Scandurra & Antonio Thomas, 2022. "Exploring antecedents of innovations for small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises' environmental sustainability: An interpretative framework," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 31(4), pages 1730-1748, May.
    13. Peiró-Signes, Ángel & Segarra-Oña, Marival & Trull-Domínguez, Óscar & Sánchez-Planelles, Joaquín, 2022. "Exposing the ideal combination of endogenous–exogenous drivers for companies’ ecoinnovative orientation: Results from machine-learning methods," Socio-Economic Planning Sciences, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    14. Hottenrott, Hanna & Rexhäuser, Sascha & Veugelers, Reinhilde, 2016. "Organisational change and the productivity effects of green technology adoption," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 172-194.
    15. Pinget, Amandine, 2016. "Spécificités des déterminants des innovations environnementales : une approche appliquée aux PME [Specificities of determinants for environmental innovation : an approach applied to SMEs]," MPRA Paper 80108, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    16. Cainelli, Giulio & D’Amato, Alessio & Mazzanti, Massimiliano, 2020. "Resource efficient eco-innovations for a circular economy: Evidence from EU firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(1).
    17. Costantini, Valeria & Crespi, Francesco & Martini, Chiara & Pennacchio, Luca, 2015. "Demand-pull and technology-push public support for eco-innovation: The case of the biofuels sector," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(3), pages 577-595.
    18. Ghisetti, Claudia & Pontoni, Federico, 2015. "Investigating policy and R&D effects on environmental innovation: A meta-analysis," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 57-66.
    19. Fabrizi, Andrea & Guarini, Giulio & Meliciani, Valentina, 2018. "Green patents, regulatory policies and research network policies," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(6), pages 1018-1031.
    20. Stucki, Tobias & Woerter, Martin & Arvanitis, Spyros & Peneder, Michael & Rammer, Christian, 2018. "How different policy instruments affect green product innovation: A differentiated perspective," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 114(C), pages 245-261.

    More about this item

    JEL classification:

    • D83 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Search; Learning; Information and Knowledge; Communication; Belief; Unawareness
    • H12 - Public Economics - - Structure and Scope of Government - - - Crisis Management
    • L25 - Industrial Organization - - Firm Objectives, Organization, and Behavior - - - Firm Performance
    • M38 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Marketing and Advertising - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • P18 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Energy; Environment
    • Q56 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environment and Development; Environment and Trade; Sustainability; Environmental Accounts and Accounting; Environmental Equity; Population Growth

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bas:econst:y:2023:i:2:p:59-77. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Diana Dimitrova (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ikbasbg.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.