oil prices breaks and trends abstract this paper contributes to the literature of the stationarity of financial time series and the literature on oil and macroeconomics in several ways first it uses kejriwal and perron 2010 sequential procedure to endogenously determine multiple structural changes in real oil prices without facing the circular testing problem between structural changes and stationary assumptions of previous tests second it performs a diagnostic check to detect the significance and magnitude of the potential breaks third it uses the above information to test for the existence of stochastic trends in real oil prices and fourth it speculates about possible explanations for the break dates found in order to encourage further work and discussions the exercise uses monthly data from january 1861 to august 2011

estimation of de facto flexibility parameter and basket weights in evolving exchange rate regimes a new technique for estimating countries de facto exchange rate regimes synthesizes two approaches one approach estimates the implicit de facto basket weights in an ols regression of the local currency value rate against major currency values here the hypothesis is a basket peg with little flexibility the second estimates the de facto degree of exchange rate flexibility by observing how exchange market pressure is allowed to show up here the hypothesis is an anchor to the dollar or some other single major currency but with a possibly substantial degree of exchange rate flexibility around that anchor it is important to have available a technique that can cover both dimensions inferring anchor weights and the flexibility parameter we test the synthesis technique on a variety of fixers floaters and basket peggers we find that real world data demand a statistical technique that allows parameters and regimes to shift frequently accordingly we here take the next step in estimation of de facto exchange rate regimes endogenous estimation of parameter breakpoints following bai and perron jel numbers f31 f41

transforming the energy sector the evolution of technological systems in renewable energy technology this paper analyses the development and diffusion of technologies that utilize renewable energy sources in germany sweden and the netherlands the analysis enlarges the life cycle model of industry evolution to one where the focus is on the formation and evolution of new technological systems particular focus is on explaining success and failures in shifting from a formative phase into one characterized by positive feedbacks a set of challenges is identified for policy makers attempting to influence the process of transforming the energy sector

comparing systems approaches to innovation and technological change for sustainable and competitive economies an explorative study into conceptual commonalities differences and complementarities this paper makes a distinction between three theoretical frameworks that have been highly influential in the discourse on innovation competitiveness and sustainability sectoral systems of innovation ssi technological innovation systems tis and socio technical systems st systems these frameworks share a common systems approach to innovation but are often positioned as different bodies of literature that correspond to different epistemic communities this paper is explorative and conceptual in nature it presents a systematic comparative review of ssi tis and st systems based on the following analytical dimensions 1 system boundaries 2 actors and networks 3 institutions 4 knowledge 5 dynamics and 6 policy approach in the concluding section commonalities and differences of the three approaches are presented and suggestions for complimentarily are made c 2010 elsevier ltd all rights reserved

prospects for global market expansion of china s wind turbine manufacturing industry abstract emerging economies are increasingly contributing to global innovation including clean tech innovation the development of china s wind power sector has often been used to illustrate this point china s domestic wind power market is the largest in the world and is largely supplied by domestic manufacturers competition for market share in the domestic market may pressure firms to innovate which consecutively improves prospects for global expansion this paper reviews developments in china s domestic wind turbine market using the technological innovation system framework we analyze the pressure to innovate arising from market competition and assess the prospects for global expansion of chinese wind turbine manufacturers we conclude that domestic customers are not pressured or incentivized to perform with respect to power output such that turbine manufacturers are not pressured to perform with respect to turbine efficiency or maintenance needs pressure to innovate is further reduced by formalizing connections between wind farm developers and turbine manufacturers chinese turbine manufacturers cannot yet compete with leading global brands in technological leadership the prospects for exports are improved however by the preferential supply of project financing from institutional investors such as the china development bank from chinese utilities that seek global expansion and from the manufacturers themselves

prospective analysis of technological innovation systems identifying technological and organizational development options for biogas in switzerland abstract in this article we put forward a concept for the identification and analysis of future development options of technological innovation systems the key element of our approach the so called variation analysis is a methodology to identify coherent socio technical and organizational variants within a specific innovation field consistent combinations of these two dimensions may be interpreted as nuclei for alternative future developments of innovation systems the method may be used in discursive foresight processes to inform strategy formulation of firms or policy makers who see a utility in furthering the innovation field the paper has a focus on developing the theoretical background and the analytical structure of the methodology empirically we illustrate the method for the innovation system of biomass digestion in switzerland

corporate social responsibility in the international banking industry this article aims at providing a framework to assess corporate social responsibility with international banks currently it is mainly rating institutions like eiris and kld that provide information about firms social conduct and performance however this is costly information and it is not clear how the rating institutions arrive at their conclusion we develop a framework to assess the social responsibility of internationally operating banks we apply this framework to more than 30 institutions and find significant differences among individual banks countries and regions furthermore it appears that social responsibility of these banks has significantly improved between 2000 and 2005

regime changes in international real interest rates are they a monetary phenomenon in this paper we use the bai and perron 1998 2001 2003 methodology to test for multiple structural breaks in the mean real interest rate for 13 industrialized countries we find extensive evidence of structural breaks in the mean real interest rate for all 13 countries in an attempt to explain the breaks in international real interest rates we also test for multiple structural breaks in the mean inflation rate for the 13 countries once again we find extensive evidence of structural breaks in the mean inflation rate for all of the countries interestingly the breaks in inflation rates and real interest rates often coincide with increases decreases in the mean inflation rate as we move from one regime to the next typically associated with decreases increases in the mean real interest rate

lock in of mature innovation systems the transformation toward clean concrete in the netherlands energy intensive processing industries like the concrete industry form the base of the economy and account for a large part of global greenhouse gas emissions sectoral transformation to cleaner basic materials is therefore crucial and institutional pressure to do so is increasing however socio technical studies have not sufficiently addressed these sectors this paper therefore sets out to analyze the systemic problems that inhibit the transformation of the mature innovation system of the concrete sector toward the development and diffusion of clean concrete innovations for the case of the netherlands a structural functional approach has been frequently applied to identify such systemic problems but has been limited to emerging technological innovation systems consequently the approach tends to overlook the systemic lock in that arises from closed cycles of interdependent systemic problems and vested interests that characterize mature innovation systems and that hamper system transformation this paper analyzes these characteristics to extend the application of the structural functional approach to the transformation of mature innovation systems interviews with 28 stakeholders were conducted and triangulated with reports websites and other documents a list of systemic problems was identified that originate within actors institutions networks technology and infrastructure and that impaired the performance of all system functions except knowledge development systemic problems are indeed found to be sustained through systemic lock in i e closed cycles of interdependent systemic problems through strategic often collective action established firms with vested interests were able to reinforce these interdependent systemic problems to inhibit clean concrete innovation the study concludes that systemic lock in inhibits the sustainability transformation of the mature innovation system of concrete in the netherlands and confirms that the application of the structural functional approach can be extended from emerging to mature innovation systems overcoming systemic lock in requires a series of well coordinated policy measures that should be implemented in a specific order to prevent reverting back to the lock in around the original system configuration

communities matter institutional preconditions for community renewable energy abstract energy transitions are high on political agendas from a practical viewpoint community approaches are deemed essential in order to transition from a predominantly centralized energy supply to a decentralized one and to exploit the potential of renewable energies in this paper i discuss how the emergence of community based energy projects can be analyzed from an institutional perspective in this context a community is treated as an individual institutional order that shapes decisions i examine how community structures the implementation of biogas cooperatives in the autonomous province of south tyrol in northern italy my findings suggest that community spirit a cooperative tradition and the norms of locality and responsibility are central drivers behind the emergence and constitution of biogas cooperatives not only do these institutional features of community influence the decision concerning which farmers are in or out but also plant location and scale i argue that community is a necessary analytical category for understanding community energy

towards a knowledge based theory of the geographical cluster co located firms within related industries enhance the ability to create knowledge by variation and a deepened division of labour the interdependent development between economic activities and local institutions make the cluster attractive to some industries and hostile to others the very reasons why cognitive distance might be small within the cluster tend to make cognitive distance great between clusters and make interfirm co operation across bodies of knowledge more costly the additional value created when clustering may justify the additional cost copyright 2001 by oxford university press

technological regimes and schumpeterian patterns of innovation this paper proposes that the specific pattern of innovative activities in an industry can be explained as the outcome of different technological learning regimes a technological regime is defined by the particular combination of technological opportunities appropriability of innovations cumulativeness of technical advances and properties of the knowledge base building upon the distinction between schumpeter mark i and schumpeter mark ii industries this paper provides empirical estimates of the relationships between indicators of the schumpeterian patterns of innovation concentration of innovative activities stability in the hierarchy of innovators and importance of new innovators and indicators of the variables defining technological regimes

entrapment in large technology systems institutional commitment and power relations abstract large technology systems cannot be developed without social commitments usually including legal especially in the form of contracts organisational involving producers users and financiers and political involving various actors associated with the state commitments without such commitments there can be no innovation and no investment given the high risks that are entailed however embedded commitments can create inertia causing inferior technologies and technology paths to survive long after they should have been abandoned this form of technological lock in may be reinforced when there are close relations between producers and states which prevent markets and democratic processes from operating effectively these phenomena are illustrated through study of the thermal oxide reprocessing plant thorp a nuclear reprocessing plant in the uk the lesson for technology policy is that much more attention needs to be given to the maintenance of reversibility and adaptability in infrastructural development

institutional dynamics and technology legitimacy a framework and a case study on biogas technology legitimacy is central for both novel and established technologies to mobilize the resources necessary for growth and survival a loss of legitimacy in turn can have detrimental effects for an industry in this paper we study the rise and fall of technology legitimacy of agricultural biogas in germany over a period of more than 20 years 1990 2012 the field witnessed impressive growth and professionalization for many years and has become one of the key technologies in germany s energy transition in recent years however it has been confronted with major criticism which finally resulted in a substantial cut back of public and political support the aim of our study is twofold in empirical terms we will explain the technology s loss of legitimacy despite its compliance with original policy objectives growth and maturation in theoretical terms we work toward a more general framework to understand technology legitimacy and to explain the institutional dynamics of technological innovation systems

firm level determinants of international certification evidence from ethiopia summary this paper investigates a wide range of plausible determinants of international certification ic in ethiopia while past studies focus on the effect of international laws the findings of this paper suggest that domestic pressure and firm capability are also equally important besides export orientation we find international connectivity sources of finance such as credit from local banks or local customers and manager s human capital as significant determinants of ic once such factors are controlled for firm size sector and nationality of owner appear not to matter furthermore we find that certification may not necessarily enhance business performance in the short run

global value chains and market formation process in emerging export activity evidence from ethiopian flower industry abstract this article provides a case study of the ethiopian flower export industry which successfully emerged at time when the eu market main destination was already characterised by increasingly stringent standards and delivery requirements entering this market required a multitude of capabilities at firm sector and national levels several of these capabilities were absent or weak in the domestic market when the new activity kicked off the article analyses how the capabilities of individual firms and the industry at large co evolved and the role of various actors in the market formation process

understanding carbon lock in abstract this paper narrative argues that industrial economies have been locked into fossil fuel based energy systems through a process of technological and institutional co evolution driven by path dependent increasing returns to scale it is asserted that this condition termed carbon lock in creates persistent market and policy failures that can inhibit the diffusion of carbon saving technologies despite their apparent environmental and economic advantages the notion of a techno institutional complex is introduced to capture the idea that lock in occurs through combined interactions among technological systems and governing institutions while carbon lock in provides a conceptual basis for understanding macro level barriers to the diffusion of carbon saving technologies it also generates questions for standard economic modeling approaches that abstract away technological and institutional evolution in their elaboration the question of escaping carbon lock in is left for a future paper

the market failure and the systemic failure rationales in technological innovation systems abstract in this paper we analyse the conceptual relationship between the market failure rationale and the systemic failure rationale as justifications for policy intervention within an innovation systems is analytical framework current policy analyses in the is literature are characterised by two contrasting theoretical positions regarding the way in which both rationales are conceptually interrelated in one strand of the literature the market failure rationale is considered as a valid although insufficient justification for policy intervention that therefore needs to be complemented by the arguments put forward by the systemic failure rationale this perspective implicitly presents the systemic failure framework as a more general approach than the market failure perspective on the other hand a number of is policy contributions explicitly reject the market failure approach and consider it a flawed argument for government intervention in this theoretical view the systemic failure approach is thus proposed as a more appropriate alternative innovation policy rationale despite their relevance as the theoretical bases that currently underpin actual innovation policy design an analysis of the robustness and conceptual coherence of these contrasting perspectives has not been provided so far in this work we set the analytical steps we deem required for this analysis and investigate under which premises the relationship between the market failure and the system failure rationales proposed by these two policy perspectives is valid from a theoretical point of view

spurious long memory uncommon breaks and the implied realized volatility puzzle abstract one of the puzzles in international finance is the frequent finding that implied volatility is a biased predictor of realized volatility however given asset price volatility is often characterized as possessing long memory the recent literature has shown that allowing for long range dependence removes this bias of course the appearance of long memory can be generated by the presence of structural breaks this paper discusses the effect of structural breaks on the implied realized volatility relation simulations show that if significant structural breaks are omitted testing can spuriously show the typical patterns of fractional cointegration found in the literature next empirical results show that foreign exchange implied and realized volatility contains structural breaks the breaks in the implied series never closely anticipate or co occur with those of the realized series suggesting that the market has no ability to forecast structural change when breaks are accounted for in the bi variate framework the point estimate of the slope parameter falls and the null of unbiasedness can be rejected allowing for structural breaks suggests that the implied realized volatility puzzle might not be solved after all

comparing innovation systems a framework and application to china s transitional context abstract this paper proposes a generic framework for analyzing innovation systems anchored around five fundamental activities r d implementation end use education linkage and focused on the performance implications of a system s structure and dynamics rather than simply describing the role and performance of particular actors institutions and policies this approach focuses on system level characteristics including the distribution of these activities within the system the organizational boundaries around them coordination mechanisms evolutionary processes and the effectiveness of the system in introducing diffusing and exploiting technological innovations the framework is applied to a comparison of china s national innovation system under central planning and since reforms revealing the evolving structure and dynamics of this system and current inconsistencies and perverse incentives that policymakers must address to realize their development goals more generally it provides a basis for addressing the implicit assumptions of organizational types roles and convergence among innovation systems emerging in very different contexts whether national regional or industrial

the development of an infrastructure for entrepreneurship abstract this paper takes a macroperspective of entrepreneurship and focuses on the issues and events involved in constructing an industrial infrastructure that facilitates and constrains entrepreneurship this infrastructure includes 1 institutional arrangements to legitimate regulate and standardize a new technology 2 public resource endowments of basic scientific knowledge financing mechanisms and a pool of competent labor as well as 3 proprietary rd numerous entrepreneurial actors in the public and not for profit sectors play crucial roles it motivates one to examine the different roles played by these actors and how their joint contributions interact to develop and commercialize a new technology this in turn makes it possible to understand how the risk time and cost to an individual entrepreneur are significantly influenced by developments in the overall infrastructure for entrepreneurship it also explains why the entrepreneurs who run in packs will be more successful than those that go it alone to develop their innovations

analyzing the functional dynamics of technological innovation systems a scheme of analysis various researchers and policy analysts have made empirical studies of innovation systems in order to understand their current structure and trace their dynamics however policy makers often experience difficulties in extracting practical guidelines from studies of this kind in this paper we operationalize our previous work on a functional approach to analyzing innovation system dynamics into a practical scheme of analysis for policy makers the scheme is based on previous literature and our own experience in developing and applying functional thinking it can be used by policy makers not only to identify the key policy issues but also to set policy goals

evaluating the long run impacts of the 9 11 terrorist attacks on us domestic airline travel although the us airline industry began 2001 with 24 consecutive profitable quarters including net profits in 2000 totaling 7 9 billion the impact of the 9 11 event on the industry was substantial whereas the recession that began in early 2001 signaled the end of profitability the 9 11 terrorist attacks pushed the industry into financial crisis after air travel dropped 20 over the september december 2001 period compared to the same period in 2000 given the decline in domestic air travel an important question is whether the detrimental impact of the attacks was temporary or permanent that is did airline travel return to the trend that existed prior to the terrorist attacks there are theoretical reasons to the believe that it would not economists have long viewed travel mode choices as the outcome of a comparison of opportunity costs and benefits thus anything that permanently raises the opportunity cost of travel holding benefits constant should reduce the level of travel volume to determin

sharp breaks or smooth shifts an investigation of the evolution of primary commodity prices this paper explores the behavior of real commodity prices over a 50 year period attention is given to how the shifting means for various commodity prices have changed with a special emphasis on behavior since the mid 2000s to identify structural changes in commodity prices we estimate shifting mean autoregressions by using the bai and perron 1998 procedure for determining structural breaks low frequency fourier functions and a procedure that specifies shifts to be smooth logistic functions of time we find that the pattern in the timing of shifts is suggestive of the causal factors underlying the recent boom

institutional activism in the early american automobile industry abstract a common proposition is that new industries gain constitutive legitimacy through claim making by institutional activists yet neoinstitutional research seldom analyzes the effects of claim making on the formation of new organizations and how the effect of claim making is moderated by other sources of constitutive legitimacy advertising legal recognition and a policy regime favorable to business i explore the relationship between claim making by activists and new organization building in a study of the early american automobile industry when auto clubs organized reliability contests to validate the automobile the results show that the visibility of reliability contests within the focal state increased foundings of car firms in the state but that this effect diminished with advertising legal recognition of the car and the existence of a business friendly governor in the focal state taken together these results demonstrate that claim making is crucial in the early phase of gaining legitimacy for new industries

on the coexistence of positive and negative externalities in the inter powertrain relationships abstract the green knowledge based economy has complicated the dynamical knowledge interactions in the multi technology sector of transportation that involves a constellation of interrelated powertrain technologies including the internal combustion engine hybrid and battery electric vehicles icev bev and hev based on the biological ecology perspective and the technological innovation system tis framework we explore the dynamical inter powertrain relationships in terms of knowledge diffusion over 1985 2016 we measure their knowledge diffusion by extracting patents and publications forward citations from the scopus and derwent databases respectively quantifying by the lotka volterra l v equations our results show that powertrains support and inhibit their knowledge diffusion growth by projecting positive and negative externalities which are carried through the tis co dynamics our results reveal these externalities are manifested in a mix of biological relationship modes such as symbiosis parasitism commensalism and amensalism we therefore challenge the assumed pure competition between icev and bev or their predator prey relationships with hev by elaborating on the notions of creative destruction and creative accumulation our research contributes to the innovation systems literature by accommodating knowledge diffusion co dynamics as an extension to the tis framework making it more outward oriented moreover the co existence of positive and negative externalities builds up a multi cross path interactions view that extends the conventional single path view in the path dependency literature our research drives insightful knowledge for strategising and policy making in regard with investing in new disruptive technologies sustaining the incumbent technology or hybridising them as a transitionary or stationary solution towards sustainable mobility transition

a complexity approach to innovation networks the case of the aircraft industry 1909 1997 successful innovation depends on complementary competencies in networks of producers users and governmental bodies the effects of complementarities within innovation networks are modeled using kauffman s nk model from the model the hypothesis is derived that producers users and governments self organize in specialized innovation networks producers of particular technologies increasingly focus on particular user markets in particular countries data on 863 aircraft models 1909 1997 show these strong specialization patterns in the post war period policy implications are indicated emphasizing the recent rise in transnational collaborations which can be understood as a means of escaping historical specialization patterns

corporate social responsibility in the multinational enterprise strategic and institutional approaches what is the relationship of global and local country specific corporate social responsibility csr to international organizational strategy applying the strategic logic of the bartlett and ghoshal typology to the realm of csr multinational firms should respond to pressures for integration and responsiveness from salient stakeholders however an institutional logic would suggest that multinational firms will simply replicate the existing product market organizational strategy multidomestic transnational global in their management of csr these alternative approaches are tested with a survey instrument sent to mnes operating in mexico the results of this study are consistent with the proposition that institutional pressures rather than strategic analysis of social issues and stakeholders are guiding decision making with respect to csr we develop implications for mne management and research as well as public policy

a functionalist framework to compare research systems applied to an analysis of the transformation of the chinese research system abstract this paper presents an analytical framework for the comparative analysis of national research systems we follow evolutionary accounts of the research system in combination with insights from functionalist economics of innovation and organisational theorists we also illustrate the potential use of this framework by applying it to an analysis of the chinese research system s transformation between 1980 and 2005 during this period this system is considered to have gradually changed from a centrally planned system to a mixed model this implies a move in the direction of a perfect market ideal type the increased performance of the overarching functions of the research system can be partially explained by these institutional changes

long term evolutionary change in organizational populations theory models and empirical findings in industrial demography organizational ecology is a theoretical perspective on organizations that attempts to explain long term social evolution especially the rise and fall of organizational populations this artist review the most sustained demographic research program of the perspective one based on the density dependent model of legitimation and competition it discusses the theoretical model and evidence from industrial demography that has been offered in its support as well as criticisms that have been registered unresolved research problems of the program are identified and three major models in progress attempting to address these open questions are discussed and compared copyright 1997 by oxford university press

prospects for expanded utilization of biogas in germany the prospects for expanded utilization of biogas systems in german was analysed by identifying the operational and policy factors affecting the complete chain of processes from implementation process for biogas plants through to biogas production and utilization it was found that the renewable energies act eeg and energy tax reliefs provide bases for the support of expanded utilization upgrading of biogas to natural gas quality for utilization in the transportation sector was arguably the most promising technology that could support rapid utilization expansion sustainable deployment of biogas systems in light of the unstable feedstock prices and availability and the need for subsidy free operation in the long term requires enhancement of feedstock flexibility and quality characteristics to maximise gas yield and optimisation of the anaerobic digestion process management assessment of energy balance and potential environmental impacts of the integrated process chain provides a holistic assessment of sustainability the results also support the development and foster of policies and framework for development of biogas as environmentally friendly energy resource among a mix of renewable energy sources hence compete favourably with fossil fuels to enhance the prospects for expanded utilization

political regime change and the real interest rate the effect of changes in policy regimes on real interest rates has important implications for financial and economic theory there is little current evidence that policy regime changes have any impact on the level of real interest rates we use large political changes as our measure of policy regime changes changes in presidential administration are more significantly correlated with real rate changes than are changes in the federal reserve chair or the mean shift points identified by garcia and perron 1996 using time series methods we also show that change of party control of congress is a significant factor explaining real rates we argue that theoretical models built on the assumptions of constant or policy invariant real interest rates are at variance with the empirical evidence

trend breaks long run restrictions and contractionary technology improvements abstract structural vector autoregressions with long run restrictions are extraordinarily sensitive to low frequency correlations recent literature finds that the estimated effects of technology shocks are sensitive to how one treats hours per capita however after allowing for statistically and economically significant trend breaks in productivity results are much less sensitive hours fall when technology improves the issue is that the common high low high pattern of productivity growth and hours i e the low frequency correlation inevitably leads to a positive estimated response the trend breaks control for this correlation this example suggests a practical need for care in using long run restrictions

globalization and the environment determinants of firm self regulation in china critics assert that globalization is detrimental to the environment because it encourages location of polluting industries in countries with low environmental regulations we suggest that globalization might also have positive environmental effects because global ties increase self regulation pressures on firms in low regulation countries using survey data from firms in china we find that multinational ownership multinational customers and exports to developed countries increase self regulation of environmental performance

determinants of international standards in sub saharan africa the role of institutional pressure from different stakeholders abstract international environmental and quality standards in africa are seen as being driven by pressure from international markets and importers this study presents a conceptual framework where other stakeholders and plant resources are included in the argument for standards we argue that among other stakeholders international banks as creditors are important determinants international banks most of which are committed to sustainable practices facilitate the diffusion of standards they also perform sustainability related risk analysis urging customers to demonstrate corporate social responsibility our results also suggest that foreign ownership plant size and business communications through company website are important for the adoption of standards in africa

the impact of the shale gas revolution on the u s and japanese natural gas markets we investigated whether the increase in the us shale gas production changed the structures of the us and japanese natural gas markets using market data for the period 2002 5 2012 5 our analysis consists of a structural break test and market integration analysis the bai and perron structural break test detected a break point of natural gas prices and consumption in 2005 as well as other external shocks hurricane katrina and the lehman shock that are irrelevant to shale gas development we eliminated the impact of these shocks by separating the data set using the breaks identified in our analysis we found the breaks skewed the estimation a market linkage existed between the us and japanese markets in the original data set while it did not in the separated data the vector autoregressive var model also indicated a significant change before and after the break point the us market had a one side influence on the japanese market before 2005 but the influence disappeared after 2005 our results implied that the shale gas revolution triggered by the increase in shale gas production in 2005 caused the change in the relationship between the us and japanese natural gas markets

economic performance through time prize lecture to the memory of alfred nobel december 9 1993 this abstract was borrowed from another version of this item

government debt dynamics and the global financial crisis has anything changed in the ea12 this paper seeks to shed light on possible changes in the government debt dynamics for the first 12 euro area countries structural breaks are present around the global financial crisis for most countries but not for germany and france the two core countries in the euro area the properties of the government debt dynamics differ markedly across the countries receiving bailouts

international and domestic pressures and responses of chinese firms to greening abstract organizational responses to international and domestic institutional pressures may help proactive corporate environmental practices and routines diffuse to chinese organizations who are key participants in global product chains using the 2006 survey data on 377 chinese manufacturers in six major industrial groups in suzhou dalian and tianjin cities we propose and test a relationship between normative coercive and mimetic international institutional pressures and the adoption of three important proactive corporate environmental practices routines iso 14001 tqem total quality environmental management and eco auditing by chinese firms we also argue for and find that this relationship is greater than that arising from corresponding normative coercive and mimetic internal domestic pressures finally we find a positive effect of international parenting or partnering on the adoption of proactive corporate environmental practices and routines these findings have important implications as chinese organizations continue to go global and international organizations seek global product supply chain partners within china

comparing the innovation effects of support schemes for renewable electricity technologies a function of innovation approach abstract the aim of this paper is to provide a comparative assessment of the innovation effects of instruments which support the diffusion of renewable electricity technologies with a functions oriented technological innovation system perspective the paper provides a link between two major streams of the literature the functions of innovation systems and the literature on renewable electricity support schemes we show that when a functional perspective is adopted feed in tariffs are likely to be superior to other policy instruments quotas with tradable green certificates and tendering although they still need to be complemented with other instruments most importantly direct r d support furthermore those innovation effects are affected by the specific design elements of the instruments chosen

the impact of international standards certification on the performance of firms in less developed countries this paper examines the effects of international standards certification isc on both productivity and sales performance for firms from a wide set of countries exhibiting different degrees of institutional development against a large dataset of manufacturing firms operating in 59 countries we find that isc raises productivity and sales performance of firms through efficiency gains and quality signaling with the effects being larger in countries where market supporting institutions are weak the largest gain in performance comes from direct productivity improvements helping firms to climb the technological ladder and closing the productivity gap with firms based in developed countries

structural breaks in international tourism demand are they caused by crises or disasters it is recognised that the tourism industry is vulnerable to some form of crises or disaster however despite the attention given to the nature and consequences of tourism crises and disasters there is a gap in the literature regarding the ex post detection of these events in this article we estimate both the number and date of structural breaks in international tourism arrival series for 25 countries and madeira island using the bai and perron 1998 structural break test we compare the date of tourism crises and disasters to the dating of these structural breaks we observe that tourism crises and disasters are largely consistent with the dates of breaks therefore this method allows us to solve a gap in the tourism industry related to the correct allocation of negative shocks in international tourism arrival demand to crisis or disaster phenomena

entrepreneurial propensity of innovation systems theory methodology and evidence abstract this paper develops theoretically methodologically and empirically the notion of the entrepreneurial propensity of innovation system by integrating knowledge intensive entrepreneurship kie and innovation system is concepts it first uses a composite index methodology to measure knowledge intensive entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial opportunities at the national level it then applies cluster analysis based on composite indexes for the eu countries in order to group them by entrepreneurial opportunities we also assess the influence of a system s complementary activities on the emergence of kie by partial least squares path modelling pls pm method pls demonstrates that the epis is statistically sound concept and that kie is affected by market technological and institutional opportunities the paper provides empirical evidence that institutions affect knowledge intensive entrepreneurial experimentation not directly but via technology and markets kie is market driven process however its overall effects are determined not solely by market opportunities but by interaction of market with technological and institutional opportunities hence we show that kie is a systemic feature of is and that new knowledge innovation and entrepreneurship are inseparable elements of a dynamic is

deep transitions emergence acceleration stabilization and directionality abstract industrial society has not only led to high levels of wealth and welfare in the western world but also to increasing global ecological degradation and social inequality the socio technical systems that underlay contemporary societies have substantially contributed to these outcomes this paper proposes that these socio technical systems are an expression of a limited number of meta rules that for the past 250 years have driven innovation and hence system evolution in a particular direction thereby constituting the first deep transition meeting the cumulative social and ecological consequences of the overall direction of the first deep transition would require a radical change not only in socio technical systems but also in the meta rules driving their evolution the second deep transition this paper develops a new theoretical framework that aims to explain the emergence acceleration stabilization and directionality of deep transitions it does so through the synthesis of two literatures that have attempted to explain large scale and long term socio technical change the multi level perspective mlp on socio technical transitions and techno economic paradigm tep framework

sectoral systems of innovation and production the concept sectoral system of innovation and production provides a multidimensional integrated and dynamic view of sectors it is proposed that a sectoral system is a set of products and the set of agents carrying out market and non market interactions for the creation production and sale of those products a sectoral systems has a specific knowledge base technologies inputs and demand agents are individuals and organizations at various levels of aggregation they interact through processes of communication exchange co operation competition and command and these interactions are shaped by institutions a sectoral system undergoes change and transformation through the co evolution of its various elements 2002 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

innovation system strengths and weaknesses in progressing sustainable technology the case of swedish biorefinery development based on the combination of economic challenges and uncertain policy conditions in the united states european union and elsewhere the development of advanced biorefineries has progressed slower than anticipated this has delayed the transition to a more sustainable and less carbon intensive economy in this article we adopt the technological innovation system tis approach to analyze advanced biorefinery development in sweden a front runner country in current development the analysis highlights a number of system strengths e g long term research funding significant research infrastructure strong actor networks that have contributed to developing the swedish tis but also important system weaknesses e g weak coordination among ministries lack of industrial absorptive capacity unclear roles inhibiting it the article highlights a combination of four policy measures that build on the system strengths to address the system weaknesses a the implementation of a deployment policy for creating domestic niche markets b improved policy timing and more structured coordination among different governmental agencies c the provision of stronger incentives for mature industries to invest in rd and d improved organization and financing of existing research infrastructure in addition to the empirical contribution the article contributes with novel insights into the tis framework by highlighting the dynamics between system strengths and weaknesses and suggests that system strengths should be better emphasized in future tis studies

a review of the european offshore wind innovation system offshore wind has the potential of becoming an important pillar of the future european energy system it can contribute to policy objectives on climate change energy security green growth and social progress however the large potential of offshore wind does not automatically lead to a large share in future energy systems neither does the emergent stage of development of the technology recent insights in innovation studies suggest that the success chances of technological innovations are to a large extent determined by how the surrounding system the innovation system is built up and how it functions in this paper we assess the offshore wind innovation systems of four countries denmark the uk the netherlands and germany with the objective to provide recommendations for strengthening the overall european offshore wind innovation system we use the technological innovation system tis approach to analyse the system in 2011 based on the analysis we identify a number of challenges that the european offshore wind sector faces some of them include a serious deficiency of engineers fragmented policies and poor alignment of national regulatory frameworks cost of the technology and limited grid infrastructure since the problems hinder the entire system development we call for a systemic policy instrument that would support the innovation system around this technology and contribute to its wider diffusion in europe

innovation policy rationales lessons and challenges innovation policy has emerged as a new field of economic policy during the last few decades this paper explores the rationales for national innovation policies as laid out in the existing literature on the subject and considers what the lessons and challenges for theory and practice in this area are innovation policy attempts to influence innovation activity often with the purpose of increasing economic growth but it can also have more specific aims such as preventing unwarranted climate change improving national health and so on the increasing attention given to innovation policy at the national level from the 1990s onwards went hand in hand with the development of a new systemic understanding of innovation which in a better way than before accounted for the stylised facts of innovation activity as identified by empirical work the system approach as the paper shows came to have a significant influence on the subsequent policy discourse drawing on recent advances in innovation systems theory a synthetic framework for the analysis of innovation policy is developed and used to highlight issues of particular relevance for the conduct of innovation policy and future scholarly work in this area less

compulsive policy making the evolution of the german feed in tariff system for solar photovoltaic power abstract in recent years policy approaches that build upon the notion of innovation systems have enjoyed increasing attention in science technology and innovation policy but while the usefulness of systemic thinking in policy making has been demonstrated in a large number of empirical settings we still lack a detailed understanding of the dynamics at play when policy makers address systemic problems in this paper we show how complex interdependencies and the uncertain nature of technological change shape the process of targeted policy interventions in socio technical systems toward this end we analyzed the evolution of the german feed in tariff fit system for solar photovoltaic power a highly effective and widely copied policy instrument targeted at fostering the diffusion and development of renewable energy technologies we find that the policy has been subject to a considerable amount of changes many of which are the result of policy makers addressing specific system issues and bottlenecks interestingly however often these issues themselves were driven by unforeseen technological developments induced by previous policy interventions we argue that the pattern of policy serving as both a solution to and a driver of technological bottlenecks shows strong similarities with what rosenberg 1969 called compulsive sequences in the development of technical systems by shedding more light on how the characteristics of socio technical systems affect policy interventions our framework represents a first step toward more closely integrating the literature on innovation systems with the work on policy learning

evolutionary approaches for sustainable innovation policies from niche to paradigm fostering technological innovation is considered as an important element of policies towards sustainable development in the past 10 years evolutionary policy approaches have been increasingly advocated for several reasons they seem well equipped to underpin sustainable innovation policies they focus on dynamics of change and their drivers they allow for a substantive perspective on technologies beyond mere input output relations taking into account trajectories and different characteristics of innovation and they are able to describe circumstances under which established technologies might persist even when they are to some extent inferior to their new competitors lock in however the policy effectiveness of evolutionary approaches in cases in which radical or systemic changes are involved is not yet proven in this paper we assess the theoretical rationale instrumental aspects and the coping with policy constraints of three evolutionary policy approaches which have also been used in empirical studies strategic niche management transition management and time strategies each approach has its strengths and specific problems and all three have to be further developed and tested out but they hold promise for contributing to non incremental change with economic and environmental benefits by shaping processes of variation selection and retention with the outcomes feeding back into policy they may also be used in other areas in which innovation direction is important for instance health care or food

downward nominal wage flexibility real or measurement error this paper presents a new method to correct for measurement error in wage data and applies this method to address an old question how much downward wage flexibility is there in the united states we apply standard methods developed by bai and perron to identify structural breaks in time series data applying these methods to wage histories allows us to identify when each person experiences a change in nominal wages the length of the period of constant nominal wages is left unrestricted and is allowed to differ across individuals as are the size and direction of the nominal wage change we apply these methods to data from the survey of income and program participation the evidence we provide indicates that the probability of a cut in nominal wages is substantially overstated in data that are not corrected for measurement error