The role of eco-innovation drivers in promoting additive manufacturing in supply chains

Eco-innovation strategies are effective mechanisms for improving the sustainability of products, processes, and systems. Managers, however, often lack a full understanding of what drives and facilitates eco-innovations and, to some extent, underappreciate their benefits. This study discusses the importance of eco-innovation drivers in adopting new methods and technologies in a supply chain. It explores additive manufacturing (AM) as a best practice of eco-innovation through the development of an original mathematical model and provides recommendations to put AM into operation at minimal costs. The results provide recommendations to managers on how to best operate eco-innovative solutions in supply chains. Besides the study of eco-innovation drivers using AM, the contribution of this paper is in providing the infrastructure to investigate how eco-innovation drivers would influence green practices in supply chains.