Diffusion Of Sustainable Innovations Research Articles

Enhancing Sustainable Business Models for Green Transportation

Business models (BMs) are crucial for the successful market penetration and diffusion of sustainable innovations. Nonetheless, consumer preference knowledge about adopting electric vehicles (EVs) under innovative BMs is low. Drawing on existing conceptualizations of BMs, this investigation studied consumer preferences for three innovative BMs (EV-leasing; battery-leasing; B2C EV-sharing) and the traditional total purchase BM. This research aimed to analyze the growth of the EV market, as well as to understand consumer preferences regarding business models and how these can overcome the barriers to EV purchase. During this study, an empirical study was applied based on a quantitative method. Data were collected through Google Forms and disseminated via social media. Using survey data to conduct a quantitative analysis, the findings showed that most people have an interest in EVs but consider their high cost the main barrier. The environmental benefits are the main motivation for buying an EV, since people are very concerned about the environment. Regarding the innovative business models (IBMs), most people were not aware of their existence but believed that they were fundamental for EV acquisition.

Changing the market for a sustainable innovation

The development and diffusion of sustainable innovations are of interest to various public and private sector actors. The diffusion of sustainable innovations into value networks facilitates and is facilitated by the change of markets towards sustainability; however, this interaction needs further investigation. We examine how combinations of value network actors' intentions and activities affect market change for a sustainable innovation We empirically explore market change related to introducing bioplastics into plastic food packaging value networks. We increase the understanding of market change for a sustainable innovation by showing how not only the actors with direct intentions to support the innovation but actors and activities indirectly related to the sustainable innovation contribute to market change. Such indirectly supportive activities focus on broader sustainability aims and can, for example, change market representations, practices, and norms in favor of the sustainable innovation. We propose sustainability layers to understand the diverse sustainability focuses of actors and their relation to the market change in question. Specifically, we contribute to market change literature by broadening the examination scope beyond the most active actors driving market change for an innovation.

It's not the market, stupid: On the importance of non-market economies in sustainability transitions

It has been widely assumed that market mechanisms are central in incentivizing the development of sustainable innovations and that market formation is critical for the diffusion of innovations. We challenge the centrality of markets in understanding and promoting the development and diffusion of sustainable innovations using the case of the System of Rice Intensification. This innovation for sustainable rice cultivation was developed and diffused without relying on market mechanisms yet has been adopted by millions of farmers worldwide. To further our understanding of economic mechanisms beyond markets, we revisit Polanyi's distinction between markets, reciprocity, redistribution, and subsistence. This distinction helps to situate markets in a broader economic context and helps to understand how mechanisms for market exchange intersect with other types of economies in ways that can either positively or negatively affect sustainability.

Buy, lease, or share? Consumer preferences for innovative business models in the market for electric vehicles

Although business models are critical to the successful market penetration and diffusion of sustainable innovations, little is known about consumer preferences for adopting electric vehicles (EVs) under innovative business models. Drawing on existing conceptualisations of business models, we study consumers’ preferences for three innovative EV business models: (i) battery-leasing, (ii) EV-leasing, and (iii) Business-to-Customer (B2C) EV-sharing, in addition to the conventional EV-buying model. By conducting a nationwide stated preference (SP) experiment in China, we show that consumers perceive battery-leasing and EV-buying models to be close substitutes, while EV-leasing and EV-sharing models are perceived as independent. Important monetary attributes are the operational cost saving in the battery-leasing model and the leasing cost in the EV-leasing model. Critical service and policy attributes include home charging capability, vehicle licensing policy, and the density of battery-swapping stations for the battery-leasing model. We also find that female consumers, those who are well-educated, and those who have a pro-EV attitude are most likely to adopt EVs in innovative business models. Our work has significant value for companies and government in terms of better designing and supporting the innovative business models for EV adoption.

Meta-organizing firms' capabilities for sustainable innovation: A conceptual framework

Organizing practices at the collective level of firms and entrepreneurs, i.e. ‘meta-organizing’, is a necessity for the development and diffusion of sustainable innovations. This paper seeks to build a meta-organization approach of sustainable innovation's governance. To do so, we conducted a three-stage literature review and analysis to 1) identify organizational capabilities that businesses need to acquire to develop sustainable innovations, 2) uncover attributes of meta-organizations as devices for governance, 3) relate these attributes to the capabilities for sustainable innovations. Our contributions are twofold: first we build a more comprehensive understanding of organizational capabilities, insisting on the overlooked importance of accountability, in addition to existing literature on anticipation, resilience, reflexivity, responsiveness and inclusion. Second, we highlight the key role of meta-organizations in facilitating the meta-governance of these capabilities. We propose a research agenda to further investigate these issues in several families of meta-organizations.

Media’s Role in Enhancing Sustainable Development in Zambia

The dual pressures of climate change and population growth in Africa make enhancing sustainable development an important focus of initiatives hoping to reach as many people as possible with appropriate innovations. Resource and infrastructure challenges often limit the ability of programs to expand through the use of extension and other forms of in-person training. Although media such as radio, television, and mobile phones cannot replace the value of interpersonal communication, they can offer a low-cost alternative for reaching large audiences in even some of the most remote regions. With the increasing use of media for sustainable development come questions relating to the ability of these channels to move beyond a one-way flow of information to include and respond to local knowledge and experiences and to create dialogue, both farmer to farmer and between farmers and designers of educational messaging. This article evaluates the role of media in promoting sustainable agriculture in Zambia. Specifically, the findings present qualitative feedback from 34 smallholder farmers targeted by Community Markets for Conservation’s current radio programming efforts around sustainable agriculture. Results demonstrate the centrality of the radio program alongside other forms of communication, such as extension and farmer-to-farmer communication, as well as written and visual communication. These findings consider direct and indirect exposure to these efforts and the importance of radio in offering a foundation for dialogue and increased social diffusion of sustainable innovations in remote regions.

Municipal demand-side policy tools and the strategic management of technology life cycles

This research is particularly concerned with public policy instruments which may help to accelerate the development and diffusion of sustainable innovations and support local economic development. While sustainable technology sectors are in high demand, firms still face significant barriers in developing and diffusing their technologies in regions throughout the world (Hoff, 2012). This area has been less explored in the extant research yet recent experiences suggest that supply side tools may not always have positive benefits for supporting clean technology evolution, or for taxpayers. Leveraging innovation policy and technology life cycle literature, we develop a model of demand-side policy instruments which could be applied at different stages of the technology s-curve in order to accelerate the adoption of sustainable technologies. Implications for managers, public policy actors and researchers are considered.

Cumulative causation in biofuels development: a critical comparison of the Netherlands and Sweden

Supporting the development and diffusion of sustainable innovations has become a dominant topic on the political agenda of many countries. However, this has proven to be a difficult task. To increase insight in such processes, this paper takes biofuel technologies in the mobility sector as the topic of a comparative case study. Various national governments have supported innovation trajectories around biofuels. We analyse, assess and compare two such trajectories as they have developed so far: one in the Netherlands and one in Sweden. A Technological Innovation System (TIS) approach is applied. A TIS is constituted by actors, networks and institutions, that are to be gradually constructed around a technology. We analyse whether governments and entrepreneurs have succeeded in developing seven key processes, or system functions, necessary for the development and diffusion of biofuel technologies. By analysing the build-up of system functions over time we identify virtuous and vicious forms of cumulative causation. The Dutch and Swedish TISs for biofuels are followed from 1990 to 2005. Our comparison shows that, due to the fulfilment of system functions and the emergence of cumulative causation, the Swedish TIS has reached a market expansion and broad social implementation of biofuels, whereas the Dutch TIS has established considerably less.