Vanessa Oltra

Determinants and Specificities of Eco-Innovations Compared to Other Innovations--An Econometric Analysis for the French and German Industry Based on the Community Innovation Survey-super-1

Many recent papers deal with exploring and explaining the determinants of eco-innovations for different countries supporting the formulation of efficient policy measures to trigger eco-innovation activities of firms. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of econometric cross-country analyses allowing recognizing common cross-country determinants, but also country-specific characteristics of eco-innovations. Based on data from the fourth Community Innovation Survey for France and Germany, the present paper contributes to fill this gap. Using a fully harmonized econometric model for the two countries, we are able to detect remarkable similarities concerning the different determinants of eco-innovations despite differences in the national innovation systems. The results confirm the central role of regulation and cost savings as motivations for eco-innovations compared to other innovations. Furthermore, eco-innovative activities seem to require more external sources of knowledge and information. Due to the respective regulation, in France, universities as cooperation partners seem to be more important compared to Germany.

Patents as a measure for eco-innovation

This paper examines the usefulness of patent analysis for measuring eco-innovation. The overall conclusion is that patents are a useful means for measuring environmentally motivated innovations, such as pollution control technologies and green energy technologies, and for general purpose technologies with environmental benefits. For these types of innovations it is acceptable to use patent analysis, provided they are carefully screened. Patent analysis may be used for measuring five attributes of eco-innovation: (1) eco-inventive activities in specific technology fields, (2) international technological diffusion, (3) research and technical capabilities of companies, (4) institutional knowledge sources of eco-innovation, and (5) technological spillovers and knowledge flows. Up until now it is mainly used for measuring eco-inventive activity.

Research Insights and Challenges on Eco-Innovation Dynamics

Increasingly the term environmental technology is superseded by the broader concept of eco-innovation in recognition of the shifting attention to changes in product characteristics, product chains and processes. Issues of resource efficiency, the closing of material loops and alternative systems of consumption and provision are discussed under the new label of eco-innovation. Eco-innovation is also the stated aim of national and EU policy. It is part of the sustainable development strategy and the economic growth strategy of the European Commission because of the policy assumption of offering a “double win”. In 2008, the Executive Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation (EACI) of the European Commission launched a programme dedicated to eco-innovation with the aim of supporting innovative products, services and technologies that can make better use of our natural resources and reduce Europe’s ecological footprint. Whereas environmental technology and environmental services come from the environmental goods and services sector, eco-innovation is produced in all sectors. Ecoinnovations are innovations whose environmental impact on a life cycle basis is lower than those of relevant alternatives and many innovations qualify as such. The innovation may be an adaptation of an existing product or technology process, a product or process new to the world, something organizational, distributional or presentational, and a mix of old and new elements. Like normal (non-eco) innovations, eco-innovations may be technological, organizational, intangible or systemic, and, like any innovation, they require knowledge, attention, capabilities, resources and coordination for their development and adoption. Since the 1990s, an extensive theoretical and empirical literature has been developed on the effects of environmental policy instruments upon innovation and competitiveness, as well as on the different types of environmental innovations and eco-technologies developed by firms. Initially this question has been tackled in the field of environmental economics with a focus on the debate on economic vs. regulatory instruments. Within this literature the

The dynamics of environmental innovations: three stylised trajectories of clean technology

In this article, we explore the dynamics of environmental innovations developed by firms to comply with environmental regulations. Our analysis is based on a micro-simulation model of industrial dynamics. The question arises: how do firms competing in the same industry deal with environmental issues without altering their productive efficiency or the performance of the product? We focus on clean technology which seeks to combine environmental and productive dimensions by way of innovation offsets. Our simulations show that an innovative strategy based on a good balance between environmental and productive dimensions takes more time to develop and needs to address a ‘competence destroying effect’. Finally, we study favourable conditions for the development of this type of clean technology and draw some policy implications.

Environmental innovation and clean technology: an evolutionary framework

This paper provides a framework for the analysis of clean technology which covers the factors inducing, stimulating and constraining environmental innovations of firms. Such a framework relies on recent empirical and theoretical contributions to environmental innovations. The representation of clean technology draws from several industrial case studies on the reduction of the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the chemical and the metallurgical industries. Our conceptual background is based on the theoretical analysis of innovation put forward by evolutionary thinking. We provide an interpretation of clean technology in terms of trajectories guided by environmental innovations within the boundaries of particular paradigms. Such interpretation enables us to emphasise the sources of impediments to the adoption of clean technology and to underscore some policy implications. (This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)