Purpose Although sustainability is a popular topic in the past decade, there is a lack of research to identify the driving factors for developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the driving factors for achieving eco-innovation. Design/methodology/approach An in-depth case study is employed to address the objective outlined above. A Chinese company with more than 1,200 employees was selected to address the research question. Findings By fuzzy decision-making trial and evaluation laboratory and interpretive structural modelling analysis, the driving factors for eco-innovation are identified, and the priority of different factors has also been extracted. Originality/value This is among the first studies to carry similar analysis regarding eco-innovation. More specifically, this is perhaps the first study to take this approach and to analyse this topic in a developing country.