Evaluating Eco-Innovation Performance: Evidence from BRICS Countries

Increase in pollution and the fast depletion of resources are a cause of great concern for governments across the globe. A significant shift of focus towards achieving sustainable growth can be seen. Hence, firms are eco-innovate to promote sustainability and improve their eco-efficiency. Adoption of eco-innovation in any service, process, or organization involves various factors like research and development (R&D) expenditure, knowledge workers, and efficient energy use, which act as its enablers. And the successful implementation of eco-innovation is measured by outcomes like patents, clean energy usage, Global Innovation Index (GII), among many others. In this study, we have considered these factors to find the eco-innovation performance of Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) countries by using the output-oriented Charnes, Cooper, Rhodes (CCR-O) model of data envelopment analysis (DEA). Through this we can estimate which economies are efficiently transforming their eco-innovation inputs into outputs. By conducting this study across different countries, we can benchmark performance, foster policy learning and devise strategies to achieve the desired performance.