36340535
What are the determinants of investment in environmental R&D?
To face the challenges posed by climate change, environmental RD yet, investment in environmental R&D remains below the social optimum. The aim of this paper is to analyse the determinants of investment in environmental innovation and to detect the differences, if any, with the determinants of investment in general innovation. In addition, this paper examines the relationship between environmental innovation R&D expenditure and a range of policy instruments, including environmental regulation and other policy measures including R&D subsidies and environmental taxes. The empirical analysis is carried out for 22 manufacturing sectors in Spain for the period 2008–2013. To overcome problems of data availability, we construct a comprehensive database from different surveys. The main implications from our results are (1). Managerial strategy appears as a relevant driver of environmental R&D investments. (2) The establishment of a policy mix between environmental, energy and technological regulatory measures is recommended. (3) The promotion of self-regulation through actions that encourage companies to follow a policy that affects their energy efficiency and is environmentally friendly.
158611139
UNITED NATIONS FRAMEWORK CONVENTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE
within the context of an international framework that shapes related actions and decisions at all levels.1 This framework is defined here as the spectrum of agreements, mechanisms, instruments and actors governing and driving climate change action globally. The overall structure of this framework is complex and multidimensional in that it is comprised of elements that are quite different and distinct in many of their functions and approaches, constituencies, scope and focus.2 While international agreements negotiated by national governments such as the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol remain crucial aspects of the framework, they are not the only mechanisms governing climate change action. Other layers of intervention have become equally important in implementing innovative climate change responses and policies, including those at the regional, subnational and local levels. Cities have a vital role to play in the implementation and achievement of commitments within the international climate change framework. They also stand to benefit from the opportunities created by this framework for local responses to climate change. Yet, local-level actors and authorities often lack an understanding of the nature and functioning of the various components of the international climate change framework and how they could utilize these to enhance their mitigation and adaptation strategies. For instance, many decision-makers operating at the city level lack a working knowledge of the opportunities and constraints associated with international financing options, including those established as part of the UNFCCC.3 In view of this, the aim of this chapter is to highlight the key elements of the international climate change framework and its effects on interventions at the local level. It is also intended to frame discussions of climate change conditions, trends and policies in the rest of this Global Report. The chapter starts by briefly describing the process by which climate change emerged as an issue of international concern culminating in the establishment of the UNFCCC as the key element of the international regime governing climate change issues. The core mechanisms, instruments and financing strategies of this Convention are then outlined. The Kyoto Protocol is also reviewed as the main international treaty with legally binding emission reduction commitments. Subsequently, the key actors, components and actions of climate governance at the international, regional, national and sub-national levels are considered. Finally, the implications of the international climate change framework for local action at the city level are outlined.
2955757
The Harm of Symbolic Actions and Green-Washing: Corporate Actions and Communications on Environmental Performance and Their Financial Implications
We examine over 100 top performing Canadian firms in visibly polluting industries as we seek to answer four research questions: What specific environmental issues are firms addressing? How do these issues differ between industries? Are both symbolic and substantive actions financially beneficial? Does green-washing, measured as the difference between symbolic and substantive action, and/or green-highlighting, measured as the combined effect of symbolic and substantive actions, pay? We find that substantive actions of environmental issues (green walk) neither harm nor benefit firms financially, but symbolic actions (green talk) are negatively related to financial performance. We also find that green-washing (discrepancy between green talk and green walk) has a negative effect on financial performance and green-highlighting (concentrated efforts of the talk and walk) has no effect on financial performance. In this article, we provide explanations of our findings and put forth future research directions.
5665220
Redefining innovation -- eco-innovation research and the contribution from ecological economics
While innovation processes toward sustainable development (eco-innovations) have received increasing attention during the past years, theoretical and methodological approaches to analyze these processes are poorly developed. Against this background, the term eco-innovation is introduced in this paper addressing explicitly three kinds of changes towards sustainable development: technological, social and institutional innovation. Secondly, the potential contribution of neoclassical and (co-)evolutionary approaches from environmental and innovation economics to eco-innovation research is discussed. Three peculiarities of eco-innovation are identified: the double externality problem, the regulatory push:pull effect and the increasing importance of social and institutional innovation. While the first two are widely ignored in innovation economics, the third is at the least not elaborated appropriately. The consideration of these peculiarities may help to overcome market failure by establishing a specific eco-innovation policy and to avoid a ‘technology bias’ through a broader understanding of innovation. Finally, perspectives for a specific contribution of ecological economics to eco-innovation research are drawn. It is argued that methodological pluralism as established in ecological economics would be very beneficial for eco-innovation research. A theoretical framework integrating elements from both neoclassical and evolutionary approaches should be pursued in order to consider the complexity of factors influencing innovation decisions as well as the specific role of regulatory instruments. And the experience gathered in ecological economics integrating ecological, social and economic aspects of sustainable development is highly useful for opening up innovation research to social and institutional changes. © 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
154224444
What drives eco-innovators? A critical review of the empirical literature based on econometric methods
Abstract The aim of this paper is to provide a critical review of the literature on the econometric analyses of firm-level determinants to eco-innovation. The review reveals some gaps in knowledge. First, an integrated theoretical framework which merges the insights from different approaches is missing. Second, the influence of some variables is still unsettled (demand-pull and cost-savings), whereas others have hardly been included in previous analyses (internal and international factors). Third, studies on the drivers to eco-innovation versus general innovation are relatively scarce with respect to those on the drivers to eco-innovation in general. Fourth, analyses of the relevance of different determinants to eco-innovation for distinct eco-innovator and eco-innovation types have largely been missing. Fifth, studies on middle-income and developing countries are still scarce. Sixth, the econometric analyses have relied on microeconometric methods based on cross-section data (mostly logit and probit models), whereas the use of panel data is virtually absent. Seventh, detailed econometric analyses on the distinct drivers and barriers to eco-innovation in different sectors and regions have not been performed so far. Finally, whether the position of the firm in the value chain and the market structure influence the propensity to eco-innovate are largely unexplored topics.
153340676
The empirical analysis of the determinants for environmental technological change: A research agenda
Abstract Technological change is usually considered a necessary albeit not sufficient condition for a transition to sustainability. However, the empirical analysis of the determinants to environmental technological change has not received too much attention in the environmental/ecological economics literature and many open questions remain in this context. Based on a careful review of the literature, this paper argues that further analysis should address several issues at different levels: i.e., regarding the conceptual framework, the thematic scope of the studies, some methodological issues and other aspects related to the environmental policy variable. First, an integrated conceptual framework which takes into account the interplay between relevant variables influencing environmental technological change (i.e., factors internal and external to the firm and characteristics of the environmental technologies) and all the stages of this process, with a greater emphasis on the invention stage, should be developed. Other aspects should then be tackled, including a focus on several themes (i.e., a greater attention to cross-sectoral technologies, the barriers to different types of environmental technologies, the international dimension of environmental technological change and environmental technological change in small and medium size enterprises), methodological issues (combination of case studies and econometric modelling) and several issues related to the environmental policy variable.
153898236
Distinctive Features of Environmental Innovators: An Econometric Analysis
This paper analyzes the main determinants influencing environmental innovators (i.e. firms developing or adopting environmental innovations) in Spain with respect to non-environmental innovators. Similarly to other contributions in the literature, our results show that Spanish environmental innovators respond to regulatory stimulus in the form of demand-pull and technology-push instruments. They have a high internal technological capability and combine internal and external information sources, mostly in cooperation with knowledge institutions. Environmental innovators are more concentrated in mature, traditionally highly polluting sectors, but new firms are not more environmentally innovative than incumbents. Most importantly, in contrast to other environmental innovation studies, mostly carried out in a German context, we have not found evidence of a market pull from either the domestic or international markets. Furthermore, cost savings are not found to be a distinctive driver for environmental innovators. These differential results are possibly related to the special features of Spain regarding its national innovation system and the degree of stringency of environmental regulation and environmental consciousness of its consumers. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
154788352
Empirical influence of environmental management on innovation: Evidence from Europe
This paper analyses the hypothesis that environmental management systems (EMS) and managerial activities to reduce negative environmental impacts which are not part of EMS have a positive influence on the probability of firms to carry out environmental innovations. Based on binary and multinomial discrete choice models, the relationship of a number of determinants on the occurrence of environmental innovations is studied using data collected during the "European Business Environment Barometer 2001/2002" survey in 9 European states. The study finds that environmental management systems are associated with process innovations. However, the study does not find that environmental management systems are associated with product innovations. For product innovations, mainly information of consumers and eco-labelling activities show a positive association. Market research on the potential of environmental innovations positively relates to both process and product innovations. Importantly, firm size is not found to have any effect on the probability of a firm carrying out environmental product or process innovations.
154955149
On the Drivers of Eco-Innovations: Empirical Evidence from the UK
The environmental economics literature emphasises the key role that environmental regulations play in stimulating eco-innovations. Innovation literature, on the other hand, underlines other important determinants of eco-innovations, mainly the supply-side factors such as firms’ organisational capabilities and demand-side mechanisms, such as customer requirements and societal requirements on corporate social responsibility (CSR). This paper brings together the views of these different disciplines and provides empirical insights on the drivers of eco-innovations based on a novel dataset of 1566 UK firms that responded to the Government Survey of Environmental Protection Expenditure by Industry in 2006. By applying the Heckman selection model, our findings indicate that demand factors affect the decision of the firm to undertake eco-innovations whilst these factors exhibit no impact upon the level of investments in eco-innovations. Hence, we suggest that firms initiate eco-innovations in order to satisfy the minimum customer and societal requirements, yet, increased investments in eco-innovations are stimulated by other factors such as cost savings, firms’ organisational capabilities, and stricter regulations. Based on a quantile regression analysis, the paper offers interesting insights for policy makers, by showing that the stringency of environmental regulations affects eco-innovations of the less innovative firms differently from those of the more innovative firms.
11659451
Determinants of Eco-innovations by Type of Environmental Impact: The Role of Regulatory Push/Pull, Technology Push and Market Pull
Empirical analyses of the determinants of environmental innovations were rarely able to distinguish between different areas of environmental impacts. The paper tries to close this gap by employing a new and unique dataset based on the German Community Innovation Survey conducted in 2009. The main purpose of the paper is to test whether different types of eco-innovations (according to their environmental impacts) are driven by different factors. Besides a complex set of different supply, firm specific and demand factors, the literature on the determinants of environmental innovations accentuates the important role of regulation, cost savings and customer benefits. We find that current and expected government regulation is particularly important for pushing firms to reduce air (e.g. CO2, SO2 or NOx) as well as water or noise emissions, avoid hazardous substances and increase recyclability of products. Cost savings are an important motivation for reducing energy and material use, pointing to the role of energy and raw materials prices as well as taxation as drivers for eco-innovation. Customer requirements are another important source for eco-innovations, particularly with regard to products with improved environmental performance and process innovations that increase material efficiency, reduce energy consumption and waste and the use of dangerous substances. Firms confirm a high importance of expected future regulations for all environmental product innovations.
204400758
Which Policy Instruments to Induce Clean Innovating?
In view of the sizeable climate change challenge, we need a clean innovation machine operating at full speed. Beyond the supply of public clean R&D infrastructure and clean public purchases, the development and adoption of new clean technologies by the private sector needs to be assured to reduce Green House Gas (GHG) emissions. The private clean innovation machine, left on its own, is not up to this challenge. It needs government intervention to address the combination of environmental and knowledge externalities and overcome path dependencies. A technology policy for climate change requires a combination of technology supply side instruments next to demand-inducing instruments. The firm level evidence presented in this contribution on the motives of private sector firms for introducing clean innovations from the latest Flemish CIS eco-innovation survey confirms that firms are responsive to eco-policy demand interventions. The high importance of demand pull from customers and voluntary codes of conduct or voluntary sector agreements as drivers for introducing clean innovations, is a reminder of the internal strength of the private innovation machine, which governments need to leverage. Policy interventions are more powerful to induce the adoption and development of new clean technologies when designed in policy mix and time consistently, affecting future expectations.
14929013
Do eco-innovations harm productivity growth through crowding out? Results of an extended CDM model for Italy
This paper investigates the patterns of emission efficiency (value added per emission) growth of 23 manufacturing sectors in 12 European countries with a focus on five emissions (CO2, NOx, NMVOC, SOx and CO). Emission efficiency growth is expected to be triggered by improvements in the efficiency of frontier countries through the diffusion of better technologies to laggard countries. This effect is likely to differ according to the distance from the frontier country. Finally, the role of productivity patterns (Total Factor Productivity) and energy prices dynamics is assessed. Results based on the European NAMEA (National Accounting Matrix including Environmental Accounts) further merged with sector accounts highlight significant spillovers from leaders in emission efficiency and a general tendency to converge for laggard countries and sectors (except for NMVOC emission efficiency). Energy prices weakly induce improvements in emission efficiency, with the effect being generally stronger for sectors and countries farther away from the emission efficiency frontier. Finally, total factor productivity (TFP) is strongly correlated with emission efficiency while the distance from TFP frontier significantly harms emission efficiency growth.
154512904
ENVIRONMENTAL INNOVATION AND R&D COOPERATION: EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE FROM SPANISH MANUFACTURING FIRMS
This paper explores the relationship between firms’ R&D cooperation strategies and their propensity to introduce environmental innovations.
110868913
What is Green Innovation? – A Quantitative Literature Review
The importance of green innovation management is growing in practice and academia likewise. To our knowledge, a recent and comprehensive literature review is lacking. In this paper we contribute to a clarification of the concept green innovation and provide an overview of the existing body of literature in the field of green innovations identifying the most active scholars, institutions and relevant publications. We find that the three different notions of green, eco/ecological and environmental innovation are used largely synonymously while the notion of sustainable innovation broadens the concept and includes a social dimension. We find further that the most active scholars are situated in Europe (i.e. Netherlands, Italy and Germany) and identified three innovation management journals leading the field.
3773883
Environmental Innovation and Employment Dynamics in Different Technology Fields - An Analysis Based on the German Community Innovation Survey 2009
The employment effects of environmental technologies are in the focus of politicians but there are only few studies analyzing these effects for different environmental innovation fields. We use the 2009 wave of the German part of the Community Innovation Panel (CIS) allowing for such an analysis at the firm level. The main focus of the paper lies on the analysis of the adaptation behavior of firms with respect to the relationship of employment and (environmental) innovation. We use an endogenous switching regression approach to take the simultaneous character of innovation activities and employment demand into consideration. Our econometric analysis shows that innovative firms in general are characterized by a significantly more dynamic employment development. Especially the realization of environmental process innovations leads to a higher employment within the firm. The theoretical background of this finding is that process innovation induced cost savings improve the competitiveness of firms. This has a positive effect on demand and thus also increases employment. A more detailed analysis by different environmental innovation fields shows that material and energy savings are positively correlated to employment because they especially help to increase the profitability and competitiveness of the firm. On the other side, air and water process innovations that are still dominated by end-of-pipe technologies have a negative impact on the employment development.
143545494
Technological trajectories and R&D for environmental innovation in UK firms☆
Abstract This article reports results of a 1993 questionnaire survey of how UK companies have been innovating technologically in response to environmental pressures. The survey sought to identify factors stimulating UK firms to innovate more environmentally friendly products and processes, and to investigate the changes in R&D activity they have undertaken to facilitate such innovation. In devising the questionnaire and interpreting the results, we have been strongly influenced by the theoretical frameworks developed over the past 15 years which describe technological developments in terms of ‘selection environments’ and ‘technological trajectories’. Useful though such frameworks are, we conclude that they need to be supplemented by concepts derived from the sociology of technology and from studies of corporate strategies.
8707617
The Employment Impact of Cleaner Production on the Firm Level Empirical Evidence from a Survey in Five European Countries
This paper analyses the determinants of employment reactions of firms when environmental innovations have been carried out. It differentiates hereby between employment increases and decreases. The data stem from a telephone survey covering more than 1500 firms in five European countries that have introduced environmental innovations recently. Environmentally beneficial product and service innovations create jobs in contrast to process innovations. Employment changes occur in the wake of major innovations only and especially in small firms and firms with positive sales expectations. While innovations purely motivated by environmental goals tend not to have employment effects, cost reductions envisaged by environmental innovations reduce employment. We detect skill biased technological change of environmental innovations. Environmental innovations have a small but positive effect on employment on the firm level. Thus, environmental support programmes do not counteract labour market policy. A further shift from end-of-pipe technologies to cleaner production, especially towards product and service innovations, would be beneficial for the environment and creates jobs.
153385547
Determinants of environmental innovation in US manufacturing industries
Abstract This paper provides new evidence on the determinants of environmental innovation. We employ panel data models to study how environmental innovation by US manufacturing industries responded to changes in pollution abatement expenditures and regulatory enforcement during the period 1983 through 1992. We find that (1) environmental innovation (as measured by the number of successful environmental patent applications granted to the industry) responded to increases in pollution abatement expenditures, however, (2) increased monitoring and enforcement activities related to existing regulations did not provide any additional incentive to innovate. We also find some empirical evidence that environmental innovation is more likely to occur in industries that are internationally competitive.
109173584
Issues in Assessing the Contribution of Research and Development to Productivity Growth
This article outlines the production function approach to the estimation of the returns to R&D and then proceeds to discuss in turn two very difficult problems: the measurement of output in R&D intensive industries and the definition and measurement of the stock R&D "capital." The latter concept leads to a discussion of modeling of the spillover effects of R&D and to suggestions for possible measurement of such effects via the concept of technological distance between firms and industries. Somewhat more familiar econometric problems (multicollinearity and simultaneity) are taken up in the next section and another section is devoted to estimation and inference problems arising more specifically in the R&D context. Several recent studies of returns to R&D are then surveyed, and the paper concludes with a plea for a lowering of expectations as to what the available data can tell us and with suggestions for ways of expanding the current data base in this field. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)
16902520
ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION
Discusses the notion that the ability to exploit external knowledge is crucial to a firm's innovative capabilities. In addition, it is argued that the ability to evaluate and use outside knowledge is largely a function of the level of prior related knowledge--i.e., absorptive capacity. Prior research has shown that firms that conduct their own research and development (R&D) are better able to use information from external sources. Therefore, it is possible that the absorptive capacity of a firm is created as a byproduct of the firm's R&D investment. A simple model of firm R&D intensity is constructed in a broader context of what applied economists call the three classes of industry-level determinants of R&D intensity: demand, appropriability, and technological opportunity conditions. Several predictions are made, including the notions that absorptive capacity does have a direct effect on R&D spending and spillovers will provide a positive incentive to conduct R&D. All hypotheses are tested using cross-sectional survey data on technological opportunity and appropriability conditions--collected over the period 1975 to 1977 for 1,719 business units--in the American manufacturing sector from Levin et al. (1983, 1987) and the Federal Trade Commission's Line of Business Program data on business unit sales, transfers, and R&D expenditures. Results confirm that firms are sensitive to the characteristics of the learning environment in which they operate and that absorptive capacity does appear to be a part of a firm's decisions regarding resource allocation for innovative activity. Results also suggest that, although the analysis showing a positive effect of spillovers in two industry groups do not represent a direct test of the model, positive absorption incentive associated with spillovers may be sufficiently strong in some cases to more than offset the negative appropribility incentive. (SFL)
154510697
The Driver of Green Innovation and Green Image – Green Core Competence
This study proposed a novel construct – green core competence – to explore its positive effects on green innovation and green images of firms. The results showed that green core competences of firms were positively correlated to their green innovation performance and green images. In addition, this research also verified two types of green innovation performance had partial mediation effects between green core competences and green images of firms. Therefore, investment in the development of green core competence was helpful to businesses for the enhancement of their green innovation and green images. Furthermore, this study found that green core competence, two types of green innovation performance, and green images of medium & small enterprises (SMEs) were all significantly less than those of large enterprises in the information and electronics industry in Taiwan. Therefore, there was the advantage of firm size for the green core competence in this industry, and it was imperative for SMEs to develop and create their green core competences to strengthen their green innovation performance, and green images.
10191606
Resources and capabilities as drivers of hotel environmental marketing strategy: Implications for competitive advantage and performance
Building on the resource-based view, we develop a model of drivers and outcomes of environmentally friendly marketing strategies in the Greek hotel sector. Data collected from 152 hotels reveal that possessing sufficient physical and financial resources is instrumental in achieving effective green marketing strategies. In addition, shared vision and technology sensing/response capabilities help develop a sound environmentally friendly marketing strategy. In turn, the adoption of such a strategy is conducive to obtaining competitive advantage, which subsequently increases the potential to achieve superior market and financial performance. Furthermore, the study finds that the effect of environmental marketing strategy on competitive advantage is stronger in the case of intense competitive situations, while market dynamism has no moderating effect on this association. Several implications can be drawn from the study findings for both corporate and public policy makers and interesting directions for future research are provided.
167618929
Proactive environmental strategies: a stakeholder management perspective
This paper includes an empirical analysis of the linkages between environmental strategy and stakeholder management. First, it is shown that several simultaneous improvements in various resource domains are required for firms to shift to an empirically significant, higher level of proactiveness. Second, more proactive environmental strategies are associated with a deeper and broader coverage of stakeholders. Third, environmental leadership is not associated with a rising importance of environmental regulations, thereby suggesting a role for voluntary cooperation between firms and government. Finally, the linkages between environmental strategies and stakeholder management, based on a sample of 197 firms operating in Belgium, appear more limited than expected. Country-specific characteristics may to a large extent account for these results. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
9330680
Stimulating Different Types of Eco-Innovation in the UK: Government Policies and Firm Motivations
In this paper, we adopt a recent OECD framework and examine the role of external policy tools and internal firm specific factors for stimulating three different types of eco-innovations that range on a spectrum of lower to higher technological and environmental impacts: End-of-Pipeline Pollution Control Technologies, Integrated Cleaner Production Technologies and Environmental R&D. Using a novel firm-level dataset from a DEFRA survey, we estimate a Tobit model, which provides empirical evidence showing that these eco-innovations are motivated by different external policy tools and internal firm specific factors. Our findings indicate that End of Pipeline Technologies and Integrated Cleaner Production Technologies are mainly driven by equipment upgrade motives with a view of improving efficiency while environmental regulations are effective in stimulating the End-of-Pipeline technologies and Environmental R&D. Interestingly, alongside government induced regulations, we find that market factors, mainly motivated by cost savings, are effective in driving Environmental R&D. Finally, ISO14001 certification is effective in strengthening the positive impact of environmental management systems on both End-of-Pipeline technologies and Environmental R&D while CSR policies have no significant impact on motivating any of the eco-innovations.
113589077
Green and Competitive: Ending the Stalemate
The need for regulation to protect the environment gets widespread but grudging acceptance: widespread because everyone wants a livable planet, grudging because of the lingering belief that environmental regulations erode competitiveness. The prevailing view is that there is an inherent and fixed trade-off: ecology versus the economy. On one side of the trade-off are the social benefits that arise from strict environmental standards. On the other are industry's private costs for prevention and cleanup -- costs that lead to higher prices and reduced competitiveness. With the argument framed this way, progress on environmental quality has become a kind of arm-wrestling match. One side pushes for tougher standards; the other tries to roll them back. The balance of power shifts one way or the other depending on the prevailing political winds. This static view of environmental regulation, in which everything except regulation is held constant, is incorrect. If technology, products, processes, and customer needs were all fixed, the conclusion that regulation must raise costs would be inevitable. But companies operate in the real world of dynamic competition, not in the static world of much economic theory. They are constantly finding innovative solutions to pressures of all sorts -- from competitors, customers, and regulators. Properly designed environmental standards can trigger innovations that lower the total cost of a product or improve its value. Such innovations allow companies to use a range of inputs more productively -- from raw materials to energy to labor -- thus offsetting the costs of improving environmental impact and ending the stalemate. Ultimately, this enhanced resource productivity makes companies more competitive, not less. Consider how the Dutch flower industry has responded to its environmental problems. Intense cultivation of flowers in small areas was contaminating the soil and groundwater with pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers. Facing increasingly strict regulation on the release of chemicals, the Dutch understood that the only effective way to address the problem would be to develop a closed-loop system. In advanced Dutch greenhouses, flowers now grow in water and rock wool, not in soil. This lowers the risk of infestation, reducing the need for fertilizers and pesticides, which are delivered in water that circulates and is reused. The tightly monitored closed-loop system also reduces variation in growing conditions, thus improving product quality. Handling costs have gone down because the flowers are cultivated on specially designed platforms. In addressing the environmental problem, then, the Dutch have innovated in ways that have raised the productivity with which they use many of the resources involved in growing flowers. The net result is not only dramatically lower environmental impact but also lower costs, better product quality, and enhanced global competitiveness. (See the insert "Innovating to Be Competitive: The Dutch Flower Industry.") This example illustrates why the debate about the relationship between competitiveness and the environment has been framed incorrectly. Policy makers, business leaders, and environmentalists have focused on the static cost impacts of environmental regulation and have ignored the more important offsetting productivity benefits from innovation. As a result, they have acted too often in ways that unnecessarily drive up costs and slow down progress on environmental issues. This static mind-set has thus created a self-fulfilling prophecy leading to ever more costly environmental regulation. Regulators tend to set regulations in ways that deter innovation. Companies, in turn, oppose and delay regulations instead of innovating to address them. The whole process has spawned an industry of litigators and consultants that drains resources away from real solutions. POLLUTION = INEFFICIENCY Are cases like the Dutch flower industry the exception rather than the rule? …
600126
A Contingent Resource-Based View of Proactive Corporate Environmental Strategy
We integrate perspectives from the literature on contingency, dynamic capabilities, and the natural resource-based view of the firm to propose how dimensions of the general competitive environment of a business will influence the development of a dynamic, proactive corporate strategy for managing the business–natural environment interface. We also explain how certain characteristics of the general business environment—uncertainty, complexity, and munificence—moderate the relationship between the dynamic capability of a proactive environmental strategy and competitive advantage. We conclude with a discussion of implications for research and practice.
167358584
A Natural-Resource-Based View of the Firm
Historically, management theory has ignored the constraints imposed by the biophysical (natural) environment. Building upon resource-based theory, this article attempts to fill this void by proposing a natural-resource-based view of the firm—a theory of competitive advantage based upon the firm's relationship to the natural environment. It is composed of three interconnected strategies: pollution prevention, product stewardship, and sustainable development. Propositions are advanced for each of these strategies regarding key resource requirements and their contributions to sustained competitive advantage.
154563537
The effect of environmental innovations on employment changes: an econometric analysis
This paper examines the determinants of employment changes due to an environmental innovation of an establishment. The data stem from telephone surveys in five European countries. 1594 interviews have been realized with environmentally innovative establishments representing the European industry and service sector. Based on results of discrete choice models, we show that if the most important environmental innovation is a product or service innovation it has a significantly positive effect on the probability of an increase in employment compared with the probability of no noticeable change. In contrast, if the most important environmental innovation is an end-of-pipe innovation it has a significantly positive influence on employment decrease. Methodologically, we consider the multinomial logit model and several multinomial probit models. We find that the estimates of the parameters of the explanatory variables are very similar in the different approaches. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.
152796869
The Porter Hypothesis Revisited: A Literature Review of Theoretical Models and Empirical Tests
The debate on the relationship between environmental regulation and competitiveness has been a topic of discussion for a number of years now. As early as 1991, the American economist Michael E. Porter proposed that stringent environmental regulation (under the condition that it is efficient) can lead to win-win situations, in which social welfare as well as the private net benefits of firms operating under such regulation can be increased. This paper analyses the Porter hypothesis with regard to two aspects. Firstly, it will analyse the theoretical reasoning behind the hypothesis by discussing and analyzing the arguments brought forward in favour of and against the hypothesis based on the discussion of different theoretical analyses and models by various authors in the field. Secondly, the paper reviews influential empirical studies trying to test the Porter hypothesis. The analysis of empirical work will allow (at least to some degree) to assess whether theoretical conclusions about the Porter hypothesis are confirmed by empirical research.
37164667
A “Manhattan Project” for climate change?
Climate change is a chronic yet unprecedented threat to civilization. Large scale abatement of greenhouse-gas emissions would require not only replacing carbon-intensive fuels (like coal and oil) with low-emission or carbon-free energy alternatives, but also replacing much of the infrastructure that uses primary and secondary energy. As a political issue, the scale of the problem makes carbon mitigation unique and difficult to resolve. Its chronic nature is another obstacle to implementation of policy in the near term. It would take decades to displace fossil fuels even if the technologies to do so were available. Furthermore, disagreement has arisen on whether currently available technologies are sufficient to significantly reduce emissions over the next several decades (Pacala and Socolow 2004; Hoffert et al. 2002). The notion of developing new technologies before mandating emissions reductions has gained currency in response to these complexities. The Bush Administration climate policy favors this line of thinking, rejecting any Kyoto-style arrangement involving mandatory targets and proposing the development of new technologies as an alternative (Bush 2005). Here we argue that such approaches are based on the misconception that innovations needed for carbon mitigation can be effectively and efficiently developed without carbon regulations. One concrete version of the “technology first” view has been expressed almost daily by scientists, political leaders, and others: Global warming problem can be solved in a timely fashion only through a crash research and development program similar to the Manhattan Project (Clinton 2005; Friedman 2005) or Apollo Project (See http://www.appolloalliance. org). The target of a “Manhattan Project” on Climate Change would be low-carbon technologies for energy generation and use. A common rationale for this approach is that the fossil-fueled greenhouse effect cannot be regulated away, an assertion that ignores the potential affect of regulation on innovation. Climatic Change (2007) 80:199–204 DOI 10.1007/s10584-006-9202-7
13470936
Environmental Regulation and the Export Dynamics of Energy Technologies
The pollution haven hypothesis (PHH) affirms that an open market regime will encourage the flow of low-technology polluting industries toward developing countries because of potential comparative advantages related io low environmentai standards. In contrast, the hypothesis suggested by Porter and vari der Linde claims that innovating firms operate in a dynamic competitive situation which allows global diffusion of environmental-friendly technologies. Environmental regulation may represent a relevant mechanism through which technological change is induced. In this way, countries that are subject io more stringent environmental regulations may become net exporters of environmental technologies. This paper provides new evidence ori the evolution of export ftows of environmental technologies across different countries for the energy sector. Advanced economies, particularly the European Union, have increasingly focused on the role of energy policies as tools for sustaining the development path. The Kyoto Protocol commitments, together with growing import dependence ori energy products, have brought attention to the analysis of innovation processes in this specific sector. The analysis uses a gravity model in order io test the determinants and the transmission channels through which environmental technologies for renewable energies and energy efficiency are exported to advanced and developing countries. Our results are consistent with the Porter and van der Linde hypothesis where environmental regulation represents a significant source of comparative advantages. What strongly emerges is that the stringency of environmental regulation supplemented by the strength of the National Innovation System is a crucia1 driver of export performance in the field of energy technologies.
152536220
Determinants of Eco-innovation from a European-wide Perspective - an Analysis based on the Community Innovation Survey (CIS)
Eco-innovations lead to less environmental impacts or to a reduction of energy use and are therefore crucial for climate protection. Recently, the determinants of eco-innovation activities have been widely explored for single countries but there is still a lack of country comparisons mainly because of data restrictions. In 2009, a special module on eco-innovation has been included in the Community Innovation Survey (CIS) allowing a comparison of the determinants of eco-innovation in 19 different European countries. Our analysis especially focuses on Eastern European transformation countries because the determinants of eco- innovation in these countries have not yet been systematically analyzed. Concerning the introduction of eco-innovation, the econometric analysis shows that regulation activities seem to be more important for Eastern European countries. This is especially the case for 'traditional fields' such as air, noise, soil, water, recycling or dangerous substances. Except energy saving measures, environmentally related subsidies seem to be quantitatively more important for the Eastern European countries pointing to the lower financial performance of the respective firms. Furthermore, Eastern European countries are more relying on competitors and external R&D as information sources indicating a technology transfer from West to East.
15764693
EMAS and ISO 14001: the differences in effectively improving environmental performance
Abstract Despite the importance that environmental management systems have in the environmental policy agenda, the debate on their effectiveness to improve environmental performance (e.g. the reduction of polluting emissions) is still open among researchers and practitioners. Furthermore, no previous quantitative works have addressed the comparative study of the effectiveness of the two main reference standards that set requirements for an environmental management system: the international standard ISO 14001 and the European EMAS scheme. In order to fill this gap, this research paper investigates the impacts of EMAS and ISO 14001 on the reduction of carbonic anhydride emissions on 229 energy intensive plants in Italy. By applying a rigorous statistical method, the results suggest that the implementation of an environmental management system in energy intensive industries has a clear influence on environmental performance both in the short and in the long term, but a different effect of ISO 14001 and EMAS on environmental performance occurs.
154596308
Assessing policy strategies for the promotion of environmental technologies: A review of India's National Solar Mission
There is widespread consensus that no individual policy instrument but rather a “policy mix” is needed to effectively drive the development and diffusion of environmental technologies. However, what exactly constitutes such a policy mix remains largely undefined. This paper takes this discussion a step further by developing a comprehensive framework for assessing and comparing policy approaches for the promotion of environmental technologies. It begins with a critical review of existing policy mix concepts, pointing out key shortcomings. To address the identified challenges, it proposes the concept of a policy strategy as an alternative framework for policy assessment and comparison. This serves as the basis for integrating findings from the literature on environmental innovation and technological change in a comprehensive framework for assessing policy strategies for the promotion of environmental technologies. The framework is then applied for the assessment of India's National Solar Mission, the country's strategy for promoting solar energy technologies. Based on the resulting findings, the potential and limitations of the proposed framework are discussed.
113406854
Governing offshoring in a stringent environmental policy setting: Evidence from Italian manufacturing firms
This paper provides evidence of how environmental regulatory stringency relates to firms' offshoring decisions, while controlling for firms' characteristics and (environmental) strategies. Relying on an original dataset of Italian manufacturing firms, a distinction is drawn between international outsourcing and foreign direct investments, and between offshoring destinations in Northern versus Southern regions. Our estimates show that a stricter environmental regulation is related to a higher probability of production being outsourced to foreign suppliers in the South, but not to foreign direct investments. The magnitude of this effect is very low, however. Offshoring decisions are mainly affected by firms' ICT endowment, marketing and internationalization strategies, and adoption of environmental product innovations and standards. In particular, eco-innovative firms are found more likely to adopt governance decisions that enable a stricter control over the supply chain, as in the case of foreign direct investments.