Thomas Cleff

Determinants of environmental product and process innovation

While integrated product policy (IPP) receives increasing attention, it is still not well understood which factors and policy instruments influence the environmental performance of products. Thus this paper investigates the determinants of innovative behaviour in companies with regard to various areas of end-of-pipe and integrated environmental protection, including integrated product innovation. It pays particular attention to the influence of environmental policy instruments on product and process innovation. Its approach could be placed somewhere between environmental and industrial economics: in contrast to the up to now dominant approach of environmental economics, it integrates discoveries from the field of innovation research. The paper takes its data from the Mannheim Innovation Panel (1996), complemented by a subsequent telephone survey of environmental innovators. In a multivariate analysis, significant influence from strategic market goals on environment-related product innovation becomes evident. This differs from environment-related process innovation, which is mainly determined by regulation. With respect to individual environmental policy instruments, a significant influence of so-called ‘soft’ regulation (e.g. labels, eco-audits) on product-integrated environmental innovation can be discerned. Copyright

Determinants of Environmental Product and Process Innovation — Evidence from the Mannheim Innovation Panel and a Follow-Up Telephone Survey

While Integrated Product Policy (IPP) receives increasing attention, it is still not well understood which factors and policy instruments influence the environmental performance of products. Thus this paper investigates the determinants of innovative behaviour in companies with regard to various areas of end-of-pipe and integrated environmental protection, including integrated product innovation. It pays particular attention to the influence of environmental policy instruments on product and process innovation. Its approach could be placed somewhere between environmental and industrial economics: in contrast to the up to now dominant approach of environmental economics, it integrates discoveries from the field of innovation research. The paper takes its data from the Mannheim Innovation Panel (1996), complemented by a subsequent telephone survey of environmental innovators. In a multivariate analysis, significant influence from strategic market goals on environment-related product innovation becomes evident. This differs from environment-related process innovation which is mainly determined by regulation. With respect to individual environmental policy instruments, a significant influence of so-called “soft” regulation (e.g. labels, eco-audits) on product integrated environmental innovation can be discerned.

Are there any first‐mover advantages for pioneering firms?

Purpose – In environmental policy first mover advantages for environmental technologies are often taken for granted. It is a popular view to see the state as a political entrepreneur who introduces a certain environmental policy instrument and thus becomes the world market leader or the lead market for the respective technology. Against this background, the purpose of this paper is to find out if the idea of first mover and lead market advantages can be justified by theories and empirical evidence.Design/methodology/approach – A wide range of theoretical and empirical papers from the business management and industrial economics literature were reviewed to provide success factors for different timing‐to‐market and lead market strategies of environmental innovations.Findings – A successful innovator is not necessarily the first but very often one of the early movers within the competition of different innovation designs. The paper shows that the success of a timing strategy depends on country‐specific lead ...

Demand‐oriented innovation strategy in the European energy production sector

Purpose – This paper aims to use a lead market approach for each of 25 European Union member states (EU‐25) to assess the likelihood that locally preferred innovation designs in the Energy Production Sector will become successful in other countries. Based on the lead market analysis, it aims to outline implications for innovation management.Design/methodology/approach – The paper identifies and operationalises indicators to measure and compare the lead market properties of the energy production sector at international level. The indicators used are taken from the Community Innovation Surveys, the Eurostat/OECD PPP and Expenditure Database, the UNCTAD FDI‐Database, the EU Business Demography Statistics, and the Eurostat Foreign Trade Database (Comext).Findings – French energy production companies proved the most effective at orienting their product innovations towards the needs of customers in international markets. The companies in other countries within the EU trade on home markets that exhibit barriers ...

A tool to predict perceived urban stress in open public spaces

This article presents an exploratory framework to predict ratings of subjectively perceived urban stress in open public spaces by analysing properties of the built environment with GIS and Space Syntax. The authors report on the findings of an empirical study in which the environmental properties of a sample of open public spaces in the city of Darmstadt, Germany were constructed and paired to users’ ratings. The data are analysed using different types of multivariate analyses with the aim to predict the ratings of perceived urban stress with a high explained variance and significance. The study finds that open public space typologies (park, square, courtyard, streets) are the best predictors for perceived urban stress, followed by isovist characteristics, street network characteristics and building density. Specifically, the isovist visibility, vertices number and perimeter, previously related to arousal and complexity in indoor spaces, show significant relation to perceived urban stress in open public spaces, but with different direction of effects. A model is presented that achieves a predictive power of R2 = 54.6%. It extends existing models that focused on green spaces and streetscapes with a first exploratory attempt to predict more complex reactions such as perceived urban stress.

Rich, lavish and trendy

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to research lesbian fashion consumption in order to draw conclusions on the attractiveness of the lesbian target segment for the fashion industry. So far, lesbians’ fashion consumption behaviour has hardly been researched. However, an evinced lesbian stereotype exists which describes doctrinal feminists with an antipathy against consumption in general and fashion shopping in particular. In contrast, gay men have been identified quite contrary as an attractive market segment and marketers have started to particularly target this so-called “dream market”. Design/methodology/approach – First, qualitative semi-structured interviews (n=18) were conducted to gain first insights into fashion consumption behaviour of lesbians. Second, a quantitative online survey (n=879) was carried out to generate more detailed findings. Due to the difficult reachability of the homosexual consumer target group, the segment’s high online media affinity was used and data collection was conduc...

Identifying Lead Markets in the European Automotive Industry: An Indicator-based Approach

Abstract This paper presents an indicator-based methodology to identify lead markets in the European automotive industry. The lead market approach tries to explain why certain countries are better positioned than others for developing and launching new products. While much research stresses the role of excellence in technology and interaction among users and producers, the lead market approach focuses on the role of demand characteristics. Based on the concept of innovation design, a lead market is defined as a country where customers prefer that design which subsequently becomes the globally dominant design. We use an indicator-based approach which has been successfully employed for individual products as well as for various industries in order to identify lead markets in the European automotive industry. Employing five lead market factors, our results show that the EU is by far no homogeneous market for automobiles and national markets differ considerably in their lead market potential. The German market is found to be most promising to serve as a lead market, while other European countries with a strong automotive tradition like France, Italy, the UK, and Sweden score lower. Our findings suggest that firms from the automotive industry should exploit this diversity of market characteristics within Europe when developing and launching new products.

Do first mover advantages for producers of energy efficient appliances exist? The case of refrigerators

Energy efficiency regulation is an important driver for innovations in environmental technologies. Improvements of energy efficiency do not only contribute to reach envi-ronmental policy targets, they can be furthermore economically profitable. E.g. private households can reduce their costs in the long term by using efficient household appli-ances. But how can the specific competitive position on this market be assessed for German producers, and how strong is the competitiveness from firms coming from emerging economies? We analyse - as an example - the global refrigerator market, using the lead market approach for environmental innovations. As our results show, Germany has the most lead market potentials for energy-efficient refrigerators, followed by Korea und Italy. First mover advantages for high-tech energy efficient appliances can be realised on the German market. This is backed by high en-ergy efficiency standards in Europe which diffuse after some years to other countries. Since the pay-off time for energy efficient household appliances is with 7 to 10 years quite long, also a cost strategy with low prices can be successful. Especially in the case when the price of electricity and the national income are low. Markets for such products are for example in Asia and Russia. Producers use the existence of both strategy options to operate with different brands and product lines in different market niches at the same time. For firms in countries that do not have sufficient lead market potentials, innovations in energy efficiency must be targeted to fit the preferences of users in the lead market. The screening of the lead market can take on varying degrees of intensity. A good way for a company to estab-lish ties with a lead market is via producers with long experience on the Lead Market. It can be realised through a simple sales cooperation with local producers or a merger with a local producer of the lead market.

Internationale Märkte und Innovationen. Wie innovativ sind die Chemieunternehmen in Europa

Es gibt viele Beispiele fur technologisch ausgereifte Innovationen, die sich auf internationalen Markten nicht durchsetzen konnten. Der Grund hierfur liegt nicht selten darin, dass Unternehmen den Nutzen von Innovationen ausschlieslich uber deren technologische Effizienz definieren und erst spater bemerken, dass die Innovation die Bedurfnisse der internationalen Kundschaft weniger erfullt, als eine vergleichbare Konkurrenzinnovation. Im folgenden Beitrag wird untersucht, inwieweit die Marktstruktur der Lander der EU-25 die Innovationsfahigkeit seiner jeweils nationalen Chemieunternehmen beeinflusst. Mit Hilfe des Lead Market Ansatzes werden funf entscheidende Lead Market Faktoren herausgearbeitet, durch internationale Statistiken operationalisiert und die Herstellerlander identifiziert, deren Marktstrukturen besonders gut dafur geeignet sind, die kunftigen Weltstandards bei Innovationen in der Chemischen Industrie zu setzen.

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Fashion Industry: How Eco-Innovations Can Lead to a (More) Sustainable Business Model in the Fashion Industry

This chapter uncovers the most important insights into the challenges encountered by fashion companies that want to realize eco-innovation to market a justified, sustainable brand. This chapter examines the opportunities and risks and highlights the major changes that companies should make within the fashion industry to become more sustainable. To support the main objective, an interview questionnaire was designed to compare sustainability experts’ perceptions with current fashion brand attitudes towards social responsibility. The results indicate that while the current fashion industry is taking steps to become more sustainable, this is a slow process. This delay is mainly due to a repetitive pattern: preserving the fashion industry is a vicious cycle where stakeholders do not cooperate to change. Among many others, the first challenge is for governments, businesses, and consumers to become more aware of the importance of sustainability to break the current pattern in which “fast fashion” dominates “slow fashion” and to speed up developments. Based on the interview results, recommendations are made for the fashion industry for its eco-innovation in processes and products.