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Sustainable Innovation Measurement: Approaches and Challenges

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Innovation for Sustainability

Abstract

Concrete evidence-based impacts of sustainable innovation can spur investment, policy-level support and stakeholder commitment. However, measuring sustainable innovation remains at a rudimentary stage. In this chapter, Gunarathne discusses the approaches, challenges and possible means of measuring sustainable innovations and innovation performance. The challenges and issues rooted in the measurement of sustainability, innovations and traditional performance pose a number of challenges to sustainable innovation performance measurement. The discussion provided in this chapter has several implications for practitioners and researchers. It is pertinent for practitioners to understand that sustainable innovation measurement is a dynamic learning process that informs decision-making rather than an end in itself. For researchers, sustainable innovation measurement offers wide opportunities for developing and testing theory.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Accounting, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka

    Nuwan Gunarathne

  2. Department of Business Strategy and Innovation, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Nuwan Gunarathne

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  1. Nuwan Gunarathne
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Correspondence to Nuwan Gunarathne .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lund University, Lund, Sweden

    Nancy Bocken

  2. Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Paavo Ritala

  3. Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Laura Albareda

  4. Delft University of Technology, Delft, The Netherlands

    Robert Verburg

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Gunarathne, N. (2019). Sustainable Innovation Measurement: Approaches and Challenges. In: Bocken, N., Ritala, P., Albareda, L., Verburg, R. (eds) Innovation for Sustainability. Palgrave Studies in Sustainable Business In Association with Future Earth. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97385-2_13

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