Success Factors for Environmentally Sustainable Product Innovation: A Meta-analysis

Growing environmental challenges and sustainability imperatives have intensified firms’ need to pursue environmentally sustainable product innovation (ESPI), leading to a surge of research examining the factors that determine its success. This study presents a meta-analysis of 182 independent samples and contributes to our understanding of ESPI in three major ways. First, by adopting the open systems theory, this meta-analysis presents a holistic, integrated examination of the driving factors of ESPI and assesses their relative importance, marking a significant leap in environmental sustainability and innovation management research. Second, by comparing these findings with established meta-analyses of product innovation, it reveals whether ESPI necessitates a novel theoretical paradigm or can be contextualized within established innovation-management frameworks. Although some of ESPI’s success factors are common to conventional product innovation, this study highlights factors that are specific to ESPI, which suggests that the development of ESPI should be treated differently from that of conventional product innovation. Third, the analysis shows that ESPI’s drivers are contingent upon the institutional context, national culture and level of economic development significantly moderate their effects. Collectively, these findings advance theory integration in sustainability and innovation management and offer actionable insights for managers and policymakers seeking to foster effective, context-sensitive ESPI strategies.