Ecological innovations (EIs) are believed to play a crucial role both for the future competitiveness of companies and environmental protection. Thus, many researchers have investigated the determinants stimulating the adoption of EIs, but they usually consider determinants as a static concept. In this paper, these determinants are hypothesized to vary with companies’ propensity to adopt them, that is, the degree to which companies consider relevant the choice to invest in EIs.

In this view, the paper investigated a sample of 222 innovative SMEs following a multi-step procedure. By means of a composite indicator, firstly the SMEs’ propensity to adopt EIs was calculated. Secondly, in order to identify the determinants that stimulate SMEs to invest in eco-innovation, the procedure of Principal Component Analysis based on the ScotLass algorithm was applied. Thirdly, the determinants individuated as the principal components extracted were investigated through OLS and quantile regression.

The results suggest that among the SMEs with a higher propensity to invest in EIs, the more evident determinants are the ambition to reach better economic performance, the capacity to establish networking, and the endogenous competencies of SMEs. Also, the variable structural nature concerning the firm's size shows a high relevance.

生态创新（EI）被认为对公司未来的竞争力和环境保护都起着至关重要的作用。因此，许多研究人员调查了刺激采用 EI 的决定因素，但他们通常将决定因素视为一个静态概念。在本文中，这些决定因素被假设为随着公司采用它们的倾向而变化，即公司认为与投资 EI 的选择相关的程度。

鉴于此，本文采用多步骤程序调查了 222 家创新型中小企业的样本。通过综合指标，首先计算了中小企业采用EI的倾向。其次，为了确定刺激中小企业投资生态创新的决定因素，应用了基于 ScotLass 算法的主成分分析程序。第三，通过OLS和分位数回归研究了作为提取的主成分的行列式。

结果表明，在对 EI 投资倾向较高的中小企业中，更明显的决定因素是实现更好经济绩效的雄心、建立网络的能力以及中小企业的内生能力。此外，与公司规模相关的可变结构性质显示出高度相关性。