Sustainability in the automotive sector: An analysis of structured content

Abstract

This study aimed to carry out an analysis of the scientific production on the sustainable innovation theme in the automotive sector in the last 10 years. The research was classified as literature, descriptive and exploratory. The process presented 31 articles aligned with the research topic in the Scopus database. The bibliometric analysis identified the most relevant articles, authors, keywords, countries, research center and periodicals that published about the subject from 2004 to 2016 in the Production Engineering domain. We concluded, through the systemic analysis, that the automotive sector is well structured on the issue of sustainability and process innovation. The innovations that this sector performs in its processes are incremental, because they are less risky, lower cost and less complex operations. However, some authors explain that radical innovations are needed in order to fit the prevailing environmental standards. The selected studies show that environmental practices employed in the automotive sector are: the minimization of greenhouse gas emissions, life-cycle assessment, cleaner production, reverse logistics and eco-innovation. Thus, it displays the need for practical research studies in automotive companies about the environmental practices employed and how these practices impact innovation.