Environmental and social responsibility of companies cross EU countries – Panel data analysis Dejan Lončar a, ⁎, Jane Paunković b , Violeta Jovanović b , Vesna Krstić c,d, ⁎⁎ a Institute of Global Health - University of Geneva, 9 Chemin des Mines, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland b Faculty for Management Zajecar, Megatrend University, Park šuma Kraljevica bb, 19000 Zaječar, Serbia c University of Belgrade, Technical Faculty Bor, VJ 12, 19210 Bor, Serbia d Mining and Metallurgy Institute Bor, Zeleni Bulevar 35, 19210 Bor, Serbia HIGHLIGHTS • Environmental and social responsibility of companies • The panel data regression model and panel data analysis • Motives for implementing an environ- mental friendly strategy within the firm • Business-innovative strategies to ad- dress social and environmental respon- sibility •“Going green” policy of the firms GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT abstract article info Article history: Received 19 December 2017 Received in revised form 30 November 2018 Accepted 30 November 2018 Available online 05 December 2018 Editor: Damia Barcelo In recent years, the socio-environmental dimension has become a structural and strategic element of successful companies, where it is usually addressed through the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility. The challenge for business is to draft new paradigms for operational procedures and improve the business conditions towards social and environmental responsibilities. Companies focus on eco-innovations and the production of “green products”. Green innovations or technologies can be used by firms of all sizes and organizations have various motives for implementing an environmental friendly strategy or processes. Conversely, consumers tend to move more towards green products, which provide them with a sense that they are protecting the environment. According to the data from the group of International Standards Organization ISO 14000 more organizations from the EU have registered their systems as “eco-friendly” over the last few years. Data in this study was obtained from company-level surveys across EU member states conducted by the World Economic Forum following the thematic research on Global Competitiveness Index. The static panel data regression model was employed to show that there is a strong relationship between innovation and “going green”. The results from several models reveal that innovation is significant Keywords: Corporate social responsibility Green innovation Green products EU countries “Going green” Panel data analysis Science of the Total Environment 657 (2019) 287–296 ⁎ Corresponding author. ⁎⁎ Correspondence to: V. Krstić, Mining and Metallurgy Institute Bor, Zleleni Bulevar 35, 19210 Bor Serbia. E-mail addresses: Dejan.Loncar@unige.ch (D. Lončar), vesna.krstic@irmbor.co.rs (V. Krstić). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.11.482 0048-9697/© 2018 Published by Elsevier B.V. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Science of the Total Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/scitotenv