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Towards Radical Eco-Innovation

Smith, Benjamin LU (2008) IMEN41 20081
The International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics
Abstract (Swedish)
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,... (More)
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. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Smith, Benjamin LU
supervisor
organization
alternative title
Fabric Care at Electrolux
course
IMEN41 20081
year
type
H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
subject
keywords
Eco-innovations, Radical innovation
language
English
id
1480360
date added to LUP
2009-09-29 13:01:06
date last changed
2009-09-29 13:01:06
@misc{1480360,
  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.}},
  author       = {{Smith, Benjamin}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{Towards Radical Eco-Innovation}},
  year         = {{2008}},
}