Forms of knowledge and eco-innovation modes: Evidence from Spanish manufacturing firms

This paper investigates the relevance of different forms of knowledge for the firm’s propensity to pursue eco-innovation (EI) strategies. The incidence of different types of internal and external knowledge is disentangled in search of specific EI-modes. We employ panel data on around 4,700 manufacturing firms from the Spanish PITEC dataset. Results show that a Science, Technology, EI-mode (STEI) prevails, though generally in an attenuated way, in the use of internal knowledge, with R&D knowledge more pivotal than some (embodied vs. disembodied) non-R&D one. On the other hand, a synthetic kind of external knowledge, typically drawn from business actors, is more important than the analytical one mainly coming from the “world of science”, suggesting a Doing, Using, Interacting EI-mode (DUIEI) in external terms. Overall, a hybrid EI-mode emerges across the internal and external realm of the firm, with interesting qualifications when specific EI strategies (e.g. cleaner production technologies vs. product eco-innovations) are considered.