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Please attend PDW prior to ONE social 3-7 Saturday in Fairmount Queen Elizabeth Hochelaga 3.

Dare to Care About the Green Economy:

Setting the Agenda for Future Research -- Integrating Current Literature & Moving to New Questions  

 

Primary Sponsor: Alfred Marcus, University of Minnesota

 

Other Sponsors (feel free to suggest others)

 

•   Magali Delmas, UCLA
•   Israel Drori (Shmuel Ellis), Tel Aviv
•   Benson Honig, McMaster
•   Rocki-Lee DeWitt, University of Vermont
•   Jan.Lepoutre. Vlerick
•   Mike Lenox, Darden
•   Ravi Madhavan, Pitt
•   Don Siegel, SUNY/Albany
•   Paul Shrivastava, Concordia
•   Siri Terjesen, Indiana
•   Rolph Wustenhagen, St. Gallen
•   Itai Sened Washington University, St. Louis
•   Mike Wright,  Nottingham

  
Abstract

To the extent that there will be a global transition to greener economy, different clusters of institutions will assume different roles. They will specialize in different aspects of the green economy based on their different sets of assets and capabilities. The purpose of the PDW will be to better formulate questions about the green economy based on the existing literature. Here are some of the questions that will be considered in the workshop:

·         How do newly organizing industrial ecosystems, like those in green technology, gain momentum?

·         How do they structure themselves?

·         How do the different segments/fields within these ecosystems evolve in early stage/nascent markets?

·         How do the players rely on each other to manage and deal with the ambiguities, the risk, and the uncertainty?

·         What are the characteristics of the different sub-industries and niches associated with the green economy?

·         What are the key policy components in various countries?

·         What is 'new' about cleantech and cleantech clusters?

·         What kind of 'liability of newness' characterizes the industry?

·         How do global division of tasks and specialization influence the evolution of clean tech as an emerging field?

·         How geographical and ecological characteristics promote or impede the evolutionary path of this field and specialization within it? 

 

Overview

The literature on the green economy is fragmented. Topics that have been covered include: institutional weakness; natural capital and social movements; joint problem-solving and trust; positive feedback loops and systems; entrepreneurs and incumbents; governments and voluntary associations, and venture capital. How do these elements fit together relate? How might they be put together into a broader model or theory? A proposed model can serve as a starting point for discussions. A short review of how topics in this model have been covered in extant literature follows.

 

For a green economy to flourish it must overcome the type of institutional weakness that plagues the evolution of any new field of activity. Though this weakness can be mitigated through "dialectical processes" involving many events over an extended period (Hargrave and Van de Ven, 2006) the persistence of this weakness can dampen the development of the green economy. The number and type of supporting organizations needed for to take-off can be quite large, and the relationships among these organizations complicated. Mitchell and Welch (2009) list some of the different types of supporting organizations that might be involved:

·         Public agencies

·         Quasi-public and public-private ventures

·         Private for profit and non-profit organizations

·         Task forces and councils

·         Trade offices and/or technical and business assistance organizations

·         Eco-industrial and green business parks

·         Green zones or incubators

·         University technology centers

The activities in which these organizations engage are many. They include providing for consumer education, creating forums for business networking, establishing standards for quality, certifying products and services, funding, facilitating supply chain development, engaging in workforce improvement, building an area's reputation and "green" brand, attracting dedicated venture capital, and facilitating flexible manufacturing.

How many of these organizations have to be in place and what are the optimal ties among these them? Which of the activities in which they engage are most critical? Theoretically, this problem can be conceptualized as a collective action problem (Olson, 1965), for which Axelrod's (1997) solution assumes a type of spontaneous self-organization that reduces or eliminates a need for hierarchy. However, for such a solution to be realized special conditions must be in place. The players must be rational, self-interested, and well-informed. They must able to recognize the moves of other players and have access to the moves' history of these moves. Relationships must be repeated, the number of players set, the choices simple, the payoffs fixed and known in advance, and the players moves simultaneous.  If these assumptions are relaxed, as shown in numerous experiments and field studies (Ostrom, 2000) institutional weakness may persists. Ostrom's groundbreaking Nobel Prize work explores this dilemma.  

 

Natural Capital and Social Movements. In new fields like the green economy, dispute exists in the empirical literature about the extent to which natural capital, that is the availability of resources like the wind or sun, influences market development.. 

 

Joint Problem Solving and Trust. McEvily and Marcus (2005) suggest that organization ties that facilitate the diffusion of green capabilities must include joint problem solving arrangements. Trust and information sharing promote joint problem solving, but they take time to develop. From where do the trust and the capacity for information sharing arise? J

 

Positive Feedback Loops and Systems.  Jacobsson and Bergek (2004) propose that an underlying wave of market and technological opportunities by itself is insufficient for the blocking factors to be overcome and the green economy to take-off.  Thus, long time spans of as much as 50 years or more might have to exist needed before alternatives to conventional energy production take off. For takeoff to occur, positive feedback loops among supporting organizations have to be greater than negative feedback loops.

 

Entrepreneurs, and Incumbents. The relationship among incumbents and startups is critical.  

The burden on the entrepreneurs to construct markets in nascent fields like the green economy is high. 

 

Governments and Voluntary Associations. By themselves, governments may not have the power to induce a take-off of the green economy. Marcus and Geffen (1998) argue that opposing logics in as governments and markets plus firms' capacities have to be harmonized if sustainable business development is to occur. Market-government interactions yield unintended consequences and are likely to channel green business development in surprising ways. Y

 

Venture Capital. Though governments alone may not be able to induce take-off of green businesses, they can be influential with regard to VC funding (Burer and Wustenhagen, 2008). O

 

 

 

Format

 

The design of the PDW will consist of a type of collective-brainstorming. Each of the participants will introduce themselves and will indicate their interests in the PDW's theme, and how their past research relates to the theme. The PDW will be open and we will invite those who attend also to introduce themselves and indicate their interests in the PDW's theme, and how their past research relates to it. The global and comparative dimensions of the topics should be a primary focus.

 

• How have these issues or challenges been confronted in different settings throughout the world and overcome or not overcome?
• What are the lessons to be learned?

 

After hearing introductory remarks from the participants and the audience, we will open it up to suggestions on how to rework the preliminary model (Figure 1) based on the following questions:

 

·         How do newly organizing industrial ecosystems, like those in green technology, gain momentum?

·         How do they structure themselves?

·         How do the different segments/fields within these ecosystems evolve in early stage/nascent markets?

·         How do the players rely on each other to manage and deal with the ambiguities, the risk, and the uncertainty?

·         What are the characteristics of the different sub-industries and niches associated with the green economy?

·         What are the key policy components in various countries?

·         What is 'new' about cleantech and cleantech clusters?

·         What kind of 'liability of newness' characterizes the industry?

·         How do global division of tasks and specialization influence the evolution of clean tech as an emerging field?

·         How geographical and ecological characteristics promote or impede the evolutionary path of this field and specialization within it? 

 

The aim is to hold a focused discussion leading an agenda for future research that integrates current literature and moves to new questions.

 

• What should these questions be?

 

• How will they advance theory and further practice, both increasing out knowledge and having an impact?   

 

The session then will consist of a panel discussion among the participants with active input from the audience. need at least 3.5 hours for this PDW, ideally on a Sunday morning.