Towards Radical Eco-Innovation

Abstract: Abstract Innovations are new, exciting and important in solving environmental problems. This paper looks at such ‘eco-innovations’ with specific focus on just how ‘new’ they are to the status quo. ‘Incremental’ innovations are somewhat new, common and refine what was there originally, while ‘radical’ innovations are extremely new, rare and introduce something completely different to the situation. It is argued that the bigger the improvement one wants to make in environmental impact, the more radical the eco-innovation must be. This paper uses five diverse case studies of washing machines and dryers at Electrolux to try to identify differences in the process by which incremental and radical eco-innovations are reached. To do this, the paper first looks at why different eco-innovations are pursued. Incremental eco-innovation appears to be based more on the influence of the market and governance, while radial eco-innovation is influenced more by technology and external partnerships. Next, the paper examines how the process is managed, and finds that radical eco-innovations seem to diverge from the typical procedure more than incremental ecoinnovations. The paper then looks into who in the firm is involved in the crucial early stages in the process, finding that while Marketing is important in incremental ecoinnovations, R&D and Environmental Management appear to be more involved in radical eco-innovations. These findings are discussed in the context of Electrolux Fabric Care Europe to provide selected recommendations as to how the firm might better encourage radical eco-innovations in the future.