Creating competitive advantage through eco-innovation: a study on the Italian agri-food industry

The aim of this paper is to provide an overall understanding of eco-innovation in the post-COVID world. In order to give a concrete example, findings will be shown as applied to the Italian agri-food industry through a case study. One of the ways in which the pandemic crisis brought about change is the shifting attention from environmental sustainability to personal health and economic performance. Before the outbreak of the pandemic, the prevailing view on ecology was that of a collective battle that companies embraced especially as it was a strong determinant of consumers’ choices. After the lockdown, however, it became clear that the priority was recovering business pace and adapting to the new situation. It remains to be understood whether innovation will still be directed towards environmental sustainability and – if yes – how companies will continue to allocate resources on green innovation. The literature on eco-innovation is clear: besides ethical concerns, green innovation should still be pursued as a source of competitive advantage even though the market push has stalled. The first part of the research will focus on the relation between sustainability and innovation and how these themes are applied to the macro and corporate level. This will be achieved first by giving an overview of the literature on the topic so far and by the exploration of the main drivers of eco-innovation. Understanding how innovation and sustainability have coexisted until the COVID-19 outbreak allow us to build a solid background against which the current trend can be observed, focusing on similarities and differences. The second part of my research will focus on the overview of the Italian agri-food industry with an eye open to the current situation. In this section, I will illustrate the role of external and internal players in the sector and the main innovations discovered throughout the years. Finally, I will examine in depth how the Italian agri-food industry has so far behaved and what are the most important innovations introduced during the past year.