Environmental Innovation and Green Growth in the Repair and Maintenance of Cars—Case Study

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

I have closely read your paper and I want to congratualte you on the topic you've picked and the way you've developed it.

Still, I would have expected econometric modelling to somehow be involved. I have no particular idea to give you over here, in order to help you improve the current version of your manuscript. 

Furthermore, I think you should extrapolate your findings to an international context and draw some policy implications in a more elaborate manner, by developing your Conclusions.

Good luck!

Author Response

The solved issue is still only little used in practice, respectively is unused. In present time, countries start to use in development strategies.

Greening tools are currently being developed at the theoretical and methodological level, but it lacks their usage in practice, which makes it very difficult to use the developed methodology, as well as its further development.

There are still no available adequate amount of literary sources on the issue of greening, as would be desirable, as not enough precise research has been done in the past. Today, however, the issue of greening is becoming actual, especially in connection with current global challenges such as climate change, circular economy, sustainable production and consumption.

We did not include econometric modelling in the theoretical, respectively the practical part in the paper, but we used it in the application of less formalized greening tools according to the international standards ISO 14001 and EMAS III and we are also co-authors of Slovak technical norms (STN) to European norms (EN). These are, in particular, the following norms:

1. STN EN ISO 14051: 2012 (83 9051), Environmental management. Cost accounting of material flow. General framework (ISO 14051: 2011),
2. STN EN ISO 14045: 2013 (83 9045), Environmental management. Environmental performance assessment of product systems. Principles, requirements and guidelines (ISO 14045: 2012).

In the next phases of our research, we plan to use econometric modelling more often, both in the theoretical and in the practical part.

We also made corrections of English language according to the reviewer's recommendations.

Reviewer 2 Report

Thanks you for the interesting article.

The issues of the formation and development of a green economy are very relevant. However, there are several guidelines.

The scientific relevance of the study needs to be more accurately described. It is also recommended to clarify which areas of science develop and complement the research results. It is necessary to write conclusions.

The article is unfinished by its structure. There are no conclusions, and in its current form the article does not reflect the contribution of the research to the development of science.

We need to seriously change the annotation. The abstract must clearly reflect the purpose of the article and hypotheses, research methods, research results and conclusions.

It is necessary to significantly expand the theoretical background. For example, on the use of indicators for assessing the green economy (lines 121-126), it is recommended to further study the following sources:

1. Lyytimäki, J., Antikainen, R., Hokkanen, J., Koskela, S., Kurppa, S., Känkänen, R., Seppälä, J. (2018). Developing Key Indicators of Green Growth. Sustainable Development, 26 (1), pp. 51-64. doi: 10.1002/sd.1690
2. Vukovic, N., Pobedinsky, V., Mityagin, S., Drozhzhin, A., Mingaleva, Z. (2019). A study on green economy indicators and modeling: Russian context. Sustainability (Switzerland), 11(17), 4629. doi:10.3390/su11174629
3. Pociovălişteanu, D.M., Novo-Corti, I., Aceleanu, M.I., Şerban, A.C., Grecu, E. (2015) Employment policies for a green economy at the European Union level. Sustainability (Switzerland), 7 (7), pp. 9231-9250. doi: 10.3390/su7079231
4. Dulal, H.B., Dulal, R., Yadav, P.K. (2015) Delivering green economy in Asia: The role of fiscal instruments. Futures, 73, pp. 61-77. doi: 10.1016/j.futures.2015.08.002

The manuscript is good, but it requires serious clarifications in the formulation of the research goal, conclusions, and substantiation of scientific significance.

Author Response

We appreciate the reviewer's proposal to incorporate other related research into literary sources, but it should be noted that an adequate amount of literary sources are still not available on the issue of greening, as would be desirable, as more exact research has not been done in the past. In addition, our research focuses on greening in the context of the input-output system, which greatly narrows the appropriate resources that could be used as a basis for our research. Most of the relevant research in this area focuses on a broader economic perspective, but we have applied this perspective on a specific small car repair company, i.e. at the company level. For this reason, after a thorough study of the four literary sources recommended by the reviewer, we decided to use the first two literary sources that are more closely related to our research.

The main principles of our previous research can be found in our articles:

http://meu.usue.ru/images/%D0%A1%D0%B1%D0%BE%D1%80%D0%BD%D0%B8%D0%BA%20%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%BE%D0%B1%D0%B0%D0%BB%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%B0%D1%86%D0%B8%D1%8F%20%202018.pdf

http://publikacie.uke.sav.sk/sites/default/files/2008_3_115_124_majernik_0.pdf

All new parts, which we tried to respond to your comments, are marked in green in the revised article. 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 2 Report

Thanks to the authors for the comments taken into account. The main disadvantages have been eliminated. The article can be published.