Cooperation as a driver of environmental innovation in Australian businesses

Cooperation with external partners regarding the introduction of new or modified products, processes, managerial practices or marketing methods that aim to avoid harming the environment, environmental innovation, has been a subject of debate around the world, and more recently in Australia. A review of the environmental management and innovation literature has revealed gaps, especially in the empirical testing of the influence of business cooperation on environmental innovation. A survey of 2732 businesses by the Australian Bureau of Statistics was analysed employing logistic regression. A positive linear relationship between environmental innovation and business cooperation for innovation was found. While both expenditure on research and development (R&D) and business size influence the likelihood of adopting and developing green innovations to a large extent, our findings do not show significant results for other control variables: export, financial assistance (subsidies and grants), and the industry sector.