IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0316620.html

Sustainable development through eco-innovation: A focus on small and medium enterprises in Colombia

Author

Listed:
  • Thomas Tegethoff
  • Ricardo Santa
  • Juan Manuel Bucheli
  • Benjamin Cabrera
  • Annibal Scavarda

Abstract

This study examines the impact of eco-innovation on the economic, social, and environmental performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Colombia. SMEs are pivotal to Colombia’s economic landscape, contributing significantly to job creation, economic growth, and regional development. The research utilizes structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze data collected from 568 SMEs through an electronic survey. The findings indicate that eco-innovation positively influences both environmental and economic-social performance. Enhanced environmental performance, driven by eco-innovation, is associated with improved resource efficiency, reduced emissions, and waste management. Moreover, economic and social performance, measured through profitability, product quality, and job satisfaction, also benefits from eco-innovative practices. These results underscore the importance of eco-innovation in promoting sustainable development within the SME sector. The study advocates for further large-scale investigations to validate these findings and to explore the broader implications of eco-innovation in diverse economic contexts.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomas Tegethoff & Ricardo Santa & Juan Manuel Bucheli & Benjamin Cabrera & Annibal Scavarda, 2025. "Sustainable development through eco-innovation: A focus on small and medium enterprises in Colombia," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 20(1), pages 1-20, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0316620
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0316620
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0316620
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0316620&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0316620?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Thomas Bassetti & Silvia Blasi & Silvia Rita Sedita, 2021. "The management of sustainable development: A longitudinal analysis of the effects of environmental performance on economic performance," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 21-37, January.
    2. Sun, Yunpeng & Gao, Pengpeng & Tian, Wenjuan & Guan, Weimin, 2023. "Green innovation for resource efficiency and sustainability: Empirical analysis and policy," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    3. Jana Hojnik, 2017. "In Pursuit of Eco-innovation," UPP Monograph Series, University of Primorska Press, number 978-961-7023-53-4.
    4. Stefan Schaltegger & Marcus Wagner, 2011. "Sustainable entrepreneurship and sustainability innovation: categories and interactions," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 20(4), pages 222-237, May.
    5. Syed Abdul Rehman Khan & Yu Zhang & Anil Kumar & Edmundas Zavadskas & Dalia Streimikiene, 2020. "Measuring the impact of renewable energy, public health expenditure, logistics, and environmental performance on sustainable economic growth," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 28(4), pages 833-843, July.
    6. Mariapia Pazienza & Martin de Jong & Dirk Schoenmaker, 2022. "Clarifying the Concept of Corporate Sustainability and Providing Convergence for Its Definition," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-21, June.
    7. Guiling Yue & Haoqiang Wei & Noor Ullah Khan & Roselina Ahmad Saufi & Mohd Fathi Abu Yaziz & Hanieh Alipour Bazkiaei, 2023. "Does the Environmental Management System Predict TBL Performance of Manufacturers? The Role of Green HRM Practices and OCBE as Serial Mediators," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(3), pages 1-24, January.
    8. Magali A. Delmas & Sanja Pekovic, 2018. "Corporate Sustainable Innovation and Employee Behavior," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(4), pages 1071-1088, July.
    9. Gholam Reza Zandi & Nadeem Khalid & Dewan Md. Zahurul Islam, 2019. "Nexus of Knowledge Transfer, Green Innovation and Environmental Performance: Impact of Environmental Management Accounting," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, vol. 9(5), pages 387-393.
    10. Bahman Peyravi & Artūras Jakubavičius, 2022. "Drivers in the Eco-Innovation Road to the Circular Economy: Organiational Capabilities and Exploitative Strategies," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(17), pages 1-18, August.
    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. Pereira, Vijay & Nair, Asha KS. & Bhattacharyya, Som Sekhar, 2025. "Exploring and investigating the complementarity and multidimensionality of innovation for sustainability research: Past present and future," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    2. Xiang Zhang & Xiu-e Zhang & Liu Yang, 2024. "Does Green Entrepreneurial Orientation Improve the Sustainable Performance of Agribusiness? Evidence from China," SAGE Open, , vol. 14(3), pages 21582440241, August.
    3. Samuel Adomako & Nguyen Phong Nguyen, 2023. "Co‐innovation behavior and sustainable innovation in competitive environments," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 31(3), pages 1735-1747, June.
    4. Zhang, Yajun, 2022. "How Economic Performance of OECD economies influences through Green Finance and Renewable Energy Investment Resources?," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    5. Chin‐jung Luan & Chengli Tien & Pei‐hua Wu, 2013. "Strategizing Environmental Policy and Compliance for Firm Economic Sustainability: Evidence from Taiwanese Electronics Firms," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(8), pages 517-546, December.
    6. Muhammad Farooq Islam & Ozge Can, 2024. "Integrating digital and sustainable entrepreneurship through business models: a bibliometric analysis," Journal of Global Entrepreneurship Research, Springer;UNESCO Chair in Entrepreneurship, vol. 14(1), pages 1-18, December.
    7. Nosheena Yasir & Nasir Mahmood & Hafiz Shakir Mehmood & Osama Rashid & An Liren, 2021. "The Integrated Role of Personal Values and Theory of Planned Behavior to Form a Sustainable Entrepreneurial Intention," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(16), pages 1-21, August.
    8. Manpreet Rajpal & Bindu Singh, 2024. "How to drive sustainable entrepreneurial intentions: Unraveling the nexus of entrepreneurship education ecosystem, attitude and orientation," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 1705-1721, May.
    9. Hanna Lehtimäki & Kristina Leppälä & Nuppu Mielonen & Ville‐Veikko Piispanen & Kaisa Henttonen & Subhanjan Sengupta & Ida Parkkinen & Olena Liakh, 2026. "Sustainable Innovation Framework: A Review of Organization, Strategic Management, and Entrepreneurship Literature," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 34(S1), pages 34-64, January.
    10. Mina Nasiri & Minna Saunila & Tero Rantala & Juhani Ukko, 2022. "Sustainable innovation among small businesses: The role of digital orientation, the external environment, and company characteristics," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 30(4), pages 703-712, August.
    11. Abu Elnasr E. Sobaih & Ahmed AlSaif, 2023. "Effects of Parcel Delivery Service on Customer Satisfaction in the Saudi Arabian Logistics Industry: Does the National Culture Make a Difference?," Logistics, MDPI, vol. 7(4), pages 1-15, December.
    12. Tongyu Meng & Jamie Newth & Christine Woods, 2022. "Ethical Sensemaking in Impact Investing: Reasons and Motives in the Chinese Renewable Energy Sector," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 179(4), pages 1091-1117, September.
    13. Afolabi, Joshua Adeyemi, 2025. "Advancing the circular economy in Europe: The role of eco-innovation, economic complexity, and digitalization," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    14. David Bruce Audretsch & Maksim Belitski & Georg Maximilian Eichler & Erich Schwarz, 2024. "Entrepreneurial ecosystems, institutional quality, and the unexpected role of the sustainability orientation of entrepreneurs," Small Business Economics, Springer, vol. 62(2), pages 503-522, February.
    15. Thanh Tiep Le & Thoi Le Quan Chau & Lien Tran Thi Ngoc & Thanh Tran Tieu, 2024. "How green transformational leadership drives environmental performance and firm performance? Empirical evidence from an emerging economy," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(6), pages 5504-5523, November.
    16. Roberto Cerchione, 2025. "Leveraging on supply chain‐oriented technology engine for green initiatives adoption," Sustainable Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 33(1), pages 580-599, February.
    17. María Luisa Pajuelo Moreno & Teresa Duarte-Atoche, 2019. "Relationship between Sustainable Disclosure and Performance—An Extension of Ullmann’s Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(16), pages 1-33, August.
    18. Karoline Augenstein & Alexandra Palzkill, 2015. "The Dilemma of Incumbents in Sustainability Transitions: A Narrative Approach," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-23, December.
    19. Dai, Xiajing & Zhang, Junjie, 2024. "China's green development journey through resource rent optimization and green finance policies," Resources Policy, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    20. Claus Dierksmeier, 2020. "From Jensen to Jensen: Mechanistic Management Education or Humanistic Management Learning?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 166(1), pages 73-87, September.

    More about this item

    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:plo:pone00:0316620. 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: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    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.