There are very different outcomes in the literature regarding the influences of corruption on business innovation and also arguments for both “sanding the wheels” and “greasing the wheels” approaches. The main goal pursued in this paper is to broaden the understanding of the corruption influence on business innovation, considering seven representative dimensions of corruption at governmental structures and institutions’ level and also four relevant dimensions of business innovation, less approached so far. The originality and relevance of this paper are based on that these seven different dimensions of corruption are targeting three characteristic features of it, as bribery's prevalence, the bribery's spread and the companies’ propensity to offer gifts for overcoming the bureaucratic pressures. Moreover, the four different new dimensions of business innovation are targeting the company’s propensity for innovating and strengthening its image and the way of connecting with business partners in a changing business environment. Considering an extensive data set for 110 emergent countries from four continents for the period between 2002 and 2014 and using the generalized linear model framework, this research study is emphasizing that corruption at governmental structures and institutional level has a significant negative impact on business innovation, adversely affecting innovation perspectives.

Increasing concerns for ensuring a sustainable future generated an imperative need to shift toward a circular economy and sustainable innovations. In this framework, eco-innovation becomes essential for achieving sustainable development. The main purpose of this paper is to focus on a more in-depth, original revealing of the influence of eco-innovation on countries’ sustainable development. Thus, five eco-innovation dimensions, components of the Eco-Innovation Index, are considered for a complete approach. This paper first explores the interaction of the five dimensions within the Eco-Innovation Index. Further, the paper analyses the cumulative effects of the five Eco-Innovation Index dimensions on the 17 Sustainable Development Goals components defined by the United Nations. Considering a panel data set of 189 values for the EU27 Member States for seven years and applying the Structural Equation Model (SEM), this paper emphasizes that only three out of five dimensions perform significantly in the Eco-Innovation Index. Moreover, it proved that the Eco-Innovation Index dimensions contribute to achieving 11 of the 17 sustainable development goals (SDGs). Also, the results highlight that significant relationships were revealed only between certain Eco-Innovation Index dimensions and some SDG components. This paper’s conclusions contribute to a deeper understanding of gaining sustainable development through eco-innovation.

In periods of crisis, a good way for the companies’ survival is innovation. Within this context, most companies focus on boosting innovation activities, while neglecting the action of hampering innovation factors on companies’ innovation activities.Therefore, this paper aims to quantify the impact of hampering innovation factors, both in innovative and non-innovative companies, and ranking these factors depending on the intensity of their impact in both categories of companies. In this study, the research is based on identifying the correlations between each of the important factors of hampering innovation activities– such as the lack of information on markets, the lack of information on technology, markets dominated by established enterprises, the difficulty in finding cooperation partners for innovation and the lack of qualified personnel – and, on the other hand, the innovative performance of those European countries for which data was available. The study also points out the countries’ innovative performance perspectives, grouping the European countries surveyed in four main categories.By identifying the hampering innovation factors with the greatest impact on companies’ innovation activities, this study provides guidance in choosing of those factors on which companies should focus in order to achieve long-term competitive advantages and to improve the innovative performance of each country

A widely debated topic during the last decades focuses on the companies’ opportunities to acquire corporate competitiveness due to research, innovation and development. Thus, in the context of increased competition and current global challenges, fostering creativity and innovation is a way to boost economic growth and welfare of European countries. New and original ideas, skills, competencies and innovations they all could enable to achieve competitive advantages. Creative ideas and innovative solutions are crucial for the European countries in order to overcome the current economic crisis. This paper aims to study the impact of stimulating creativity methods used by companies on innovative performance of the country. The study is based on identifying correlations between using stimulating creativity methods – such as brainstorming sessions, financial incentives for employees to develop new ideas, job rotation of staff, multidisciplinary or cross-functional work teams, non-financial incentives for employees and training employees on how to develop new ideas or creativity – and, by the other hand, innovative performance of European countries, synthetically expressed by Summary Innovation Index. It also quantifies and scales the intensity of influence using each stimulating creativity method. The results of this study can be a real help for companies to identify the most appropriate stimulating creativity methods in order to increase the innovative performance. Thereby, the main output of the study consists in the fact that using the most effective methods of stimulating creativity the companies will be able to increase their innovative potential and they could obtain long-term competitive advantages.