Innovation logics and energy consumption in the service sector: a characteristics-based approach and its application to food retail services

Abstract

The contribution of services to wealth and job creation in contemporary economies continues to increase, as does their demand for energy. However, the energy issue as it relates to services has been little explored in the literature, with the exception of ICT and transport. The still dominant hypothesis is that of a sector whose output is intangible and whose energy consumption is therefore low. Similarly, while the literature on innovation in services has undeniably grown over the past two decades, the question of the relationship between innovation in services and the evolution of the demand for energy has been neglected. This article is devoted to an analysis of this relationship. The aim is to develop an analytical framework capable of identifying the consequences in terms of energy of different innovation logics in services. The framework is then applied to the case of food retailing.