Effects of eco-innovation typology on its performance: Empirical evidence from Chinese enterprises

The reason for the lack of consensus on correlations between environmental performance and competitiveness may lie in scholars neglecting eco-innovation typology. To fill this gap, this study conducted regression analysis on 245 Chinese enterprises. The survey indicates the organizational eco-innovation is the most common with a ratio of 38.3%, then followed by process eco-innovation with 32.7%, product eco-innovation with 16.3% and end-of-pipe eco-innovation with 12.7%. The findings demonstrate that different types of eco-innovation do have significant influences on environmental performance and competitiveness. Firm size has differing impacts on environmental performance and competitiveness, being significantly positively associated with the former and not with the latter. Environmental regulation creates a positive effect on both firms’ environmental performance and competitiveness, while the implementation of environmental regulation only significantly affects a firm's environmental performance and not its competitiveness.