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Implementation of eco-innovations play a crucial role in achieving sustainable development. This is particularly important in the industries characterized by the high level of energy and pollution intensity. Therefore, the studies of eco-innovation determinants are very important for the efficient stimulation of such activities. The main purpose of this paper was to identify the drivers and barriers to eco-innovations on the basis of the empirical analysis of steel and metal manufacturers in Poland. The research has shown that the most important motives to introduce eco-innovations were: the opportunity of cost savings, existing environmental regulations, improving of corporate image and securing or increasing existing market share. The main obstacles to adaptation of eco-innovations were: the lack of external financing, uncertain return on investment for eco-innovation, lack of funds within enterprises and lack or uncertain market demand for green products. The results of conducted research underline differences between the drivers of product and process eco-innovations. The intensity of product eco-innovation’s adoption is mostly related to demand side factors such as perceived opportunity of securing or increasing existing market share, new market entry and increasing market demand for green products. On the other hand, the intensity of process eco-innovation’s implementation is correlated with regulatory factors (i.e. perceived importance of existing environmental regulations and expected environmental regulations), voluntary environmental agreements introduction which represents supply side factor as well as demand side factors (i.e. opportunity of the new market entry and increasing market demand for green products). Due to diversity of identified drivers, the selected instruments to support eco-innovation activities in the Steel and Metal Industry were also presented.
Keywords: eco-innovation, eco-innovation determinants, steel and metal industry© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.