Abstract
Innovation-based economic growth is considered to be a vital strategic aim for all economies, but environmentally friendly concepts and sustainable development (SD) must also be considered. The literature on the Global Innovation Index (GII) shows various investigations relevant to innovation, yet the lack of comprehensive consideration within the GII of environmental concerns represents a critical challenge. This paper aims to provide a holistic-perspective evaluation model for the top 15 manufacturing countries worldwide in order to resolve this. The efficiency-based Global Green Manufacturing Innovation Index (GGMII) was developed by formulating an input-oriented data envelopment analysis model. Criteria such as the value added to the gross domestic product (GDP), corresponding CO2 emissions, and unemployment rates were examined in order to represent the economic, environmental, and social dimensions of SD, respectively. Other scientific and technological dimensions were also considered. The data corresponding to all ten of the criteria were collected from World Bank Open Data. The results show a mismatch between the original GII and the proposed GGMII for the top eight manufacturing countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Korea, France, China, Japan, and Canada), while the remaining countries (Italy, Spain, Russia, India, Mexico, Brazil, and Indonesia) occupied the same rank in both indices, but showed a sizable diminution in their original GII scores. The proposed GGMII might be utilized as a benchmarking instrument for all countries worldwide in the future.