The Sustainability Transition of Innovation Ecosystems: the case of the champagne industry

Challenged by environmental transition and climate change, the wine industry needs transformation, to which eco-innovations can contribute. Innovation studies investigated the factors that promote eco-innovation development, including the role of consumers, public policies, intra-family succession, and policies for disseminating these innovations. To this end, studies discuss drivers of and barriers to eco-innovation in the broader circular economy objectives, and the capabilities needed for circularity. New studies are emerging, defining eco-innovations as a capability similar to innovation capability. Hence, firms must develop sustainability-oriented capabilities to respond to changes in legislation, technologies and demand. The literature remains silent on the articulation between the diversity of eco-innovations and the dynamic capabilities needed to foster such innovations, echoing the debates on the micro-foundations of dynamic capabilities. The hypothesis of this article is that it is necessary to take into account the directionality of eco-innovations in order to be able to explain the technological and organisational innovation choices made by organisations in the face of the sustainability transition. To test this hypothesis, this study is based on the cross-comparison of two wine regions, New-Zealand and Champagne, both involved since the 90’s in the development of eco-innovations.