Forging Links Between Innovation and Sustainability

Forging Links Between Innovation and Sustainability
Author: Amir Gabriel
Publisher:
Total Pages: 502
Release: 2016
Genre: Climate change mitigation
ISBN:

Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the North American energy and energy-intensive materials production sectors account for more than 50 percent of total GHG emissions. Based on the argument that CO2 emissions need to be reduced by more than 50 percent by 2050, energy sector and energy-intensive materials production processes that cause environmental harm are considered a key contributor that cannot be neglected. The challenge is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from both sectors consistent with corporate sustainability goals and government policy objectives. Energy firms have been auctioning aggressively on carbon-free alternatives to minimize their current footprint. Reducing energy demand and consumption along with related GHG emissions decrease in the production processes of the five key materials: steel, cement, plastic, paper, and aluminum; can have a considerable impact on the environment. Therefore, this research studies the role of innovation and sustainability in the evolution and co-evolution of the energy and energy-intensive materials production firms' sectors within North America. A quantitative understanding of the causal significance of the association between corporate innovation and corporate sustainability and their combined effects on corporate financial performance would be of great value to decision-makers. Previous academic literature has focused on the importance of innovation, but relying solely on innovation will not guarantee a firm's success. Sustainability is becoming an increasingly central feature of business operations. Because firms are more likely to apply financial resources to programs that directly affect their profitability, the study offers an analysis of the combined impact of innovation and sustainability on a firm's financial performance as an aid to support the decision calculus for allocation of scarce resources. This study presents a synthesis of the literature broadly described as the resource-based view, the capability approach, institutional theory and the stakeholder's theory. A structural equations model is developed with corporate innovation and corporate sustainability as the exogenous (independent) latent constructs and corporate financial performance as the endogenous (dependent) latent construct. The study uses the structural equation modeling (SEM) technique to analyze the hypothesized theory using archived data extracted from different publicly- and privately-available reports. All financial information was obtained from Compustat, an accounting, and financial database for more than 25,000 publicly held companies, as well as research and development expenditures for 2014. All environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and community involvement information was retrieved from public corporate responsibility reports and corporate citizenship documents. All patent information was acquired from the Lens database, an open public resource for innovation cartography, the USPTO, short for, United States patent and trademark office, and the CIPO, short for, Canadian intellectual property office. The structural equation model provides evidence that exogenous (independent) latent constructs have strong, significant positive associations with the endogenous (dependent) latent construct. The model shows that corporate sustainability has a significantly greater association with corporate financial performance than corporate innovation. Based upon key innovative characteristics consisting of R&D expenditures, R&D prior, patent applications, patents granted, and R&D expenditure as a proportion of total revenues, namely R&D intensity, the model displayed a positive association with corporate financial viability. The data analyzed showed a strong and positive association between different sustainability themes' indicators and the firms' financial prosperity. Further, it was proven empirically that there is a strong positive association among the innovation manifest variables chosen with the corporations' financial viability different indicators. Analysis of results indicates a strong reciprocal association between corporate innovation and corporate sustainability which is valid in both directions. Sustainability can drive innovation, and innovation can foster and prompt sustainability. The research illustrates how environmental stewardship, social responsibility, and community involvement manifest indicators can be combined to reflect an organization's level of sustainable development as well as innovation indicators that describe economic performance. Research results provide insights on how businesses respond to societal demands while maintaining long-term business viability. This study offers a clear understanding of different relationships and capability to evaluate the potential impact of key factors. Results of this study will assist corporate managers to better understand the impact of innovation and sustainability expenditures, therefore, improve the allocation of scarce resources. This dissertation outlines new empirical evidence of North America's energy and energy-intensive materials production sectors with time dependency of performance. The research outlines the theoretical and practical basis for improved corporate financial performance and offers recommendations for additional studies. The qualitative components of this study provide a greater understanding of the concepts multidisciplinary and linkages, of the relationship between sustainability and innovation. The study has created an instrument that can help shape organizational transitions and evolution. Stakeholders can use this comprehensive document to aid organizations' response to environmental, social, and economic challenges and issues.

Harnessing Technology for More Inclusive and Sustainable Finance in Asia and the Pacific

Harnessing Technology for More Inclusive and Sustainable Finance in Asia and the Pacific
Author: Asian Development Bank
Publisher: Asian Development Bank
Total Pages: 54
Release: 2018-10-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9292613499

Asia and the Pacific continues to embrace financial technology advances that are reshaping the traditional banking and financial services industry. This is being done through the digitalization, decentralization, and disintermediation of economic transactions. This report tracks the progress of financial innovation in the region, and discusses its implications for financial inclusion and stability as well as its challenges. It also identifies key policy issues for central banks, financial regulators, and international financial institutions.

Collaborative Advantage

Collaborative Advantage
Author: Jonas Nahm
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 257
Release: 2021
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0197555365

"In an era of rapid international economic integration, how do countries interact, innovate, and compete in industries, like energy, that are fundamental to national interests? Collaborative Advantage: Forging Green Industries in the New Global Economy examines the development of wind and solar industries, two sectors of historic importance that have long been the target of ambitious public policy. As wind and solar grew from cottage industries into $300 billion global sectors, China, Germany, and the United States each developed distinct constellations of firms with starkly different technical capabilities. The book shows that globalization itself has reinforced such distinct national patterns of industrial specialization. Economically, globalization has created opportunities for firms to specialize through collaboration with others. Politically, new possibilities for specialization have allowed firms to repurpose existing domestic institutions for application in new industries. Against the backdrop of policy efforts that have generally failed to grasp the cross-national nature of innovation, the book offers a novel explanation for both the causes of changes in the global organization of innovation and their impact on domestic politics. As interdependence in global supply chains has again come under fire in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, Collaborative Advantage challenges the notion that globalization is primarily about competition, highlighting instead the central role of collaboration in in the global economy, particularly in clean energy industries critical to solving the climate crisis"--

Innovations Towards Sustainability

Innovations Towards Sustainability
Author: Marco Lehmann-Waffenschmidt
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2007-08-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3790816507

Contains eight articles together with comments by twenty authors and discussants on the topic of innovations and sustainability. This volume provides an insight into the relation between innovations and sustainability from the perspective of evolutionary economics.

KONDRATIEFF WAVES

KONDRATIEFF WAVES
Author: Leonid E. Grinin
Publisher: ООО "Издательство "Учитель"
Total Pages: 232
Release:
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 5705757409

This fourth issue of the Yearbook ‘Kondratieff Waves’ has the subtitle ‘The Spectrum of Opinions’, as its papers cover a whole range of problems. The Yearbook consists of three sections. The Introduction of this issue is dedicated to Nikolai Kondratieff's ideas which still are important to an analysis of the world economic situation. The first section (Long Waves in the Context of World Economy and Politics) includes five contributions devoted to the study of different spheres from economy to jihadism. The speeches of Kondratieff medal laureates are published in the second section (Kondratieff Medal: Winners' Speeches). It presents a very impressive collection of different views of well-known and young researchers. The last section (Reviews and Notes) includes Antony Harper's re view of Leonid Grinin, Andrey Korotayev and Arno Tausch's monograph ‘Economic Cycles, Crises, and the Global Periphery’ published by Springer International Publishing. This issue will be useful for economists, social scientists, as well as for a wide range of those interested in the problems of the past, present, and future of global economy and globalization.

Responsible Business Decision Making

Responsible Business Decision Making
Author: Annemieke Roobeek
Publisher: Kogan Page Publishers
Total Pages: 377
Release: 2023-08-03
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1398612294

In the past, profit was the driving force for most business investment decisions. However, now organizations need to additionally deliver on impact goals. Responsible Business Decision Making provides a practical guide for how organizational leaders can make smart responsible business decisions. It offers a framework that eliminates internal bias, aligns ethical values with business goals and draws on diverse case studies. The book will answer questions such as: how can dialogue and data optimize decision-making? How can ESG goals be translated into concrete manageable actions? Which decisions best suit the strategic objectives of the organization? This new edition has been updated to offer an increased focus on dialogue and data-driven decision making and new coverage on ESG, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), digital transformation and the Raworth's Doughnut Economy framework. Readers will benefit from many new international cases covering topics such as ESG investment, SDG impact measurement and sustainability transformation.

Innovation Studies

Innovation Studies
Author: Jan Fagerberg
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Total Pages: 230
Release: 2013-10-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 019150985X

Innovation is increasingly recognized as a vitally important social and economic phenomenon worthy of serious research study. Firms are concerned about their innovation ability, particularly relative to their competitors. Politicians care about innovation, too, because of its presumed social and economic impact. However, to recognize that innovation is desirable is not sufficient. What is required is systematic and reliable knowledge about how best to influence innovation and to exploit its effects to the full. Gaining such knowledge is the aim of the field of innovation studies, which is now at least half a century old. Hence, it is an opportune time to ask what has been achieved and what we still need to know more about. This is what this book sets out to explore. Written by a number of central contributors to the field, it critically examines the current state of the art and identifies issues that merit greater attention. The focus is mainly on how society can derive the greatest benefit from innovation and what needs to done to achieve this. However, to learn more about how society can benefit more from innovation, one also needs to understand innovation processes in firms and how these interact with broader social, institutional and political factors. Such issues are therefore also central to the discussion here.

Innovation for Sustainability

Innovation for Sustainability
Author: Nancy Bocken
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2019-02-22
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3319973851

The aim of this edited book is to provide a comprehensive overview of the opportunities and challenges related to innovation for sustainability. Combining work from both emerging and established scholars in different academic fields, this book provides an integrated understanding of the topic from four perspectives. First, the big picture: frameworks, types, and drivers; second, strategy and leadership; third, measurement and assessment and fourth, tools, methods and technologies. Chapter 11 of this book is available open access under a CC BY 4.0 license at link.springer.com. The editors donate their remuneration for this book to conservation organisation the WWF.

System Innovation for Sustainability 1

System Innovation for Sustainability 1
Author: Arnold Tukker
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 482
Release: 2017-09-08
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 135128018X

Sustainable consumption and production (SCP) was adopted as a priority area during the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002 and has since become one of the main vehicles for targeting international sustainability policy. Sustainable consumption focuses on formulating equitable strategies that foster the highest quality of life, the efficient use of natural resources, and the effective satisfaction of human needs while simultaneously promoting equitable social development, economic competitiveness, and technological innovation. But this is a complex topic and, as the challenges of sustainability grow larger, there is a need to re-imagine how SCP policies can be formulated, governed and implemented. The EU-funded project "Sustainable Consumption Research Exchanges" (SCORE!) consists of around 200 experts in the field of sustainable innovation and sustainable consumption. The SCORE! philosophy is that innovation in SCP policy can be achieved only if experts that understand business development, (sustainable) solution design, consumer behaviour and system innovation policy work together in shaping it. Sustainable technology design can be effective only if business can profitably make the products and consumers are attracted to them. To understand how this might effectively happen, the expertise of systems thinkers must be added to the mix. System Innovation for Sustainability 1 is the first result of a unique positive confrontation between experts from all four communities. It examines what SCP is and what it could be, provides a state-of-the-art review on the governance of change in SCP policy and looks at the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches. The SCORE! experts are working with actors in industry, consumer groups and eco-labelling organisations in the key consumption areas of mobility, food and agriculture, and energy use and housing – responsible for 70% of the life-cycle environmental impacts of Western societies – with the aim of stimulating, fostering or forcing change to SCP theory in practice. The System Innovation for Sustainability series will continue with three further volumes of comprehensive case studies in each of these three critical consumption areas. Each chapter of this book examines problems and suggests solutions from a business, design, consumer and system innovation perspective. It primarily examines the differing solutions necessary in the consumer economies of the West, but also comments on the differing needs in rapidly emerging economies such as China, as well as base-of-the-pyramid economies. The System Innovation for Sustainability series is the fruit of the only major international research network on SCP and will set the standard in this field for some years to come. It will be required reading for all involved in the policy debate on sustainable production and consumption from government, business, academia and NGOs for designers, scientists, businesses and system innovators.

Co-Creation for Sustainability

Co-Creation for Sustainability
Author: Christopher Ansell
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Total Pages: 184
Release: 2022-08-02
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1800438001

The ebook edition of this title is Open Access and freely available to read online. Co-Creation for Sustainability brings global SDGs to the local level, explaining local co-creation practices, the creation of collaborative platforms, and the empowerment of stakeholders to have a positive collective impact.