Loading...
4 results
Search Results
Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
- Challenges and opportunities of decarbonization for the economic recovery post-pandemic: The question of directionality in innovation policiesPublication . Bento, Nuno; Fontes, Margarida; Barbosa, Juliana; Mamede, Ricardo PaesABSTRACT: Countries face a double challenge of unprecedented scale consisting in drastically reducing carbon emissions in the time of a generation, while recovering the economy from the worst pandemic crisis in a century. Innovation is key in the response to this double challenge. Innovation policies are increasingly directed at achieving both goals, as governments seek opportunities for transforming the economic structure along with decarbonization. We raise the question of the effect of the direction in the success of the policies for the sustainability transition to achieve the economic transformation. We start by analyzing the processes of change in the economic structure. We identify three possible strategies of transformation: decarbonization, dematerialization and digitalization. Then we compare the evolution of the economic complexity of Portugal, which aspires to transform its economy, with that of three countries that are respectively reference in each one of the three strategies: Denmark, The Netherlands, and Ireland. Successful strategies evidence specialization in products that involve extensive and sophisticated knowledge, produced with high connectivity to other activities and with low carbon footprint. Based on these results and informed by the theory, we propose a set of conditionsârelated to the promotion of connectivity to growing sectors, high social return technologies and varietyâthat need to be aligned in the direction of the policies in order to increase their potential for transformative change.
- Assessing the industrial effects of the deployment of renewable energy technologies: when product identity mattersPublication . Barbosa, Juliana; Fontes, Margarida; Bento, NunoABSTRACT: Investment in renewable energy technologies (RET) produces impacts on economic activity and job creation that are fundamental to increase the social acceptability of those technologies. Previous research that attempted to measure the impacts of RET has mainly focused on its effects in energy production and climate mitigation, but surprisingly little is known about the potential of RET to transform the industrial structure of an economy. This paper proposes a methodology to understand and measure the industrial transformative impact of RET. The paper draws on contributions from the sustainability transitions literature and from the economic literature that analyses the socioeconomic impacts of RET, and combine them with the economic complexity literature in order to address two main gaps: the lack of measurement of industrial transformative effects in the first; and the assumption of product homogeneity in the second that precludes an assessment of more structural impacts. We develop a conceptual approach to the way technology deployment can lead to changes in the industrial structure, centered on the notion of product heterogeneity intrinsic to the economic complexity literature. We advance three main dimensions along which to measure the changes in the industrial structure driven by modifications in the basket of products being produced due to the development of the technology value chain: sophistication, connectivity, and competitiveness. We also propose a more precise delineation of the industrial value chain of the technology, by considering the actual weights of each sector to the technology and the technology to each sector. This approach is applied to the case of wind energy in Portugal (a successful fast follower), compared with three other main wind energy producers (Spain, Denmark, Germany). The results show a strong relationship between the deployment of the technology and the sophistication and the competitiveness of the Ăcloud of productsĂ composing the industrial value chain. The paper proposes a novel analytical framework and measurement tools that can support a timely assessment of the effects of sustainable energy technologies in the industrial structure, with relevance for policy.
- Aumentar os impactos transformadores das inovaçÔes sustentĂĄveis: evidĂȘncia das tecnologias de energia renovĂĄvel marinhaPublication . Fontes, Margarida; Bento, Nuno; Sousa, Cristina; Barbosa, Juliana; Santos, HĂ©lder; SĂĄ Marques, TeresaRESUMO: Tanto as empresas como os decisores polĂticos procuram aproveitar as oportunidades para criar atividade e emprego na transição para uma economia de baixo carbono. Os co-benefĂcios da transição sustentĂĄvel sĂŁo cada vez mais investigados pelos ganhos potenciais que proporcionam aos paĂses e pela sua contribuição para a aceitação social da transição sustentĂĄvel. Em particular, o desenvolvimento e a experimentação de novas tecnologias energĂ©ticas deverĂŁo criar efeitos de aprendizagem localizados que melhorem os custos e o desempenho dessas tecnologias, permitindo, ao mesmo tempo, que os atores criem capacidade e diversifi quem para novas atividades necessĂĄrias Ă cadeia de valor emergente. Este Policy brief esclarece como a polĂtica tecnolĂłgica e a estratĂ©gia industrial se podem complementar, de modo a criar recursos coletivos para acelerar o progresso de tecnologias emergentes, obtendo vantagens competitivas, e transformando os sectores existentes.
- Inter-sectoral relations to accelerate the formation of technological innovation systems. Determinants of actors entry into marine renewable energy technologiesPublication . Bento, Nuno; Fontes, Margarida; Barbosa, JulianaABSTRACT: Decarbonizing the energy system requires new technologies, whose formation and diffusion needs the attraction of actors from different sectors to compose the value chain. Sectoral interactions are crucial and dependent on contextual and technological factors, as well as firm-specific characteristics. This paper examines the determinants of firm diversification towards a new technology and their role in sectoral interactions. We combine concepts from technological innovation systems (TIS), sectoral innovation systems and organization studies to examine the drivers of actors' entry as well as their impact on systems' formation, through the effect on intersectoral relations associated with technological variety and relatedness. The development and demonstration of marine renewable energy technologies (MRET) in Portugal over the past two decades provides the empirical case. A database of 237 companies includes responses from a survey of a large part of the actors involved in MRET and potential entrants. A standard binary logit model estimates the effect of a set of drivers of firms' entry in MRET. Firms are more driven by variety-led factors and technology maturity, than by their technological capacity and sectoral proximity. We derive implications for policy and theory, namely for the conceptualization of inter-sectoral relations in TIS.