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Circular economy (CE) describes a concept that aims at saving resources by minimizing the use of material and energy over the entire life‐cycle of products, including production and repair, as well as reuse and recycling. CE innovations help to realize the goals of sustainable development by targeting environmental, economic, and social dimensions of sustainability. This paper looks at the economic and social dimensions by investigating whether firms with CE innovations perform better or worse in terms of sales growth and employment. Our econometric analysis uses data from two waves of the German part of the Community Innovation Survey. Quantile regressions show that CE innovations are positively linked to turnover and employment growth. While there is no statistically significant impact on labor productivity, at the same time, firms with CE innovations show a significantly better financial standing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We analyse the geographic proximity of innovative firms to different types of knowledge sources in an urban environment on a microgeographic scale. Based on a comprehensive panel data set of manufacturing and service firms in the German capital city Berlin, we investigate the characteristics of firms' knowledge environment while differentiating by the type of innovation. Geocoded firm locations at the level of individual addresses allows us to describe the knowledge environment of firms on a very fine microgeographic scale. We find that innovative firms are located in places with higher numbers of same-sector firms, more start-ups and a higher inflow of other firms. They also locate in closer proximity to universities and research institutes. These differences decay rapidly within a few metres (50–250 m), indicating a truly microgeographic scope of knowledge sources in urban environments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For the formation of new verbs, Persian very productively employs complex predicates, while the derivation of simple verbs has been held to be marginal or even inexistent. We use data from internet fora, blogs, and messaging services to argue that the derivation of simple verbs from nominals is a productive process at least among speakers of colloquial Persian who actively use online media. Two acceptability tests of seven verbs and two 'placebo verbs' conducted among 58 participants produced more than 7,000 gradings. They show that such verbs are surprisingly well accepted, with statistically significant differences depending on age, gender, region, TAM form, and the individual verbs. Some of these results seem quite straightforward (e.g., acceptance declining with age), others rather not (for instance, the present and past progressive is very well accepted). The results run counter to the assumption that a gradual substitution of synthetic structures (simple verbs) by analytical ones (complex predicates) is a unidirectional process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is often regarded as the next general-purpose technology with a rapid, penetrating, and far-reaching use over a broad number of industrial sectors. The main feature of new general-purpose technology is to enable new ways of production that may increase productivity. However, to date, only a few studies have investigated the likely productivity effects of AI at the firm-level, presumably due to limited data availability. We exploit unique survey data on firms' adoption of AI technology and estimate its productivity effects with a sample of German firms. We employ both a cross-sectional dataset and a panel database. To address the potential endogeneity of AI adoption, we also implement IV estimators. We find positive and significant associations between the use of AI and firm productivity. This finding holds for different measures of AI usage, i.e., an indicator variable of AI adoption, and the intensity with which firms use AI methods in their business processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Empirical analyses of eco-innovation determinants have rarely been able to distinguish between different areas of environmental impact. The present paper tries to close this gap by employing a new and unique dataset based on the German Community Innovation Survey, conducted in 2009. The main purpose of this paper is to test whether different types of eco-innovation (according to their environmental impacts) are driven by different factors. Beside a complex set of different supply, firm-specific, and demand factors, the literature on determinants of eco-innovation accentuates the important role of regulation, cost savings and customer benefits. We find that current and expected government regulation is particularly important with regard to pushing firms to reduce air (e.g. CO2, SO2 or NOx) as well as water or noise emissions, avoid hazardous substances, and increase recyclability of products. Cost savings are an important motivation for reducing energy and material use, pointing to the role of energy and raw material prices as well as taxation as drivers for eco-innovation. Customer requirements are another important source of eco-innovations, particularly with regard to products with improved environmental performance and process innovations that increase material efficiency, and reduce energy consumption, waste and the use of dangerous substances. Firms confirm a high importance of expected future regulations for all environmental product innovations. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Presents the contributions of the Austrian Association for Radical Geography and its legacy in the critical discourse of traditional geography. Capital accumulation; Destruction of natural resources; Spatial integration and disintegration of societies; Internationalization; Social marginalization.

The present study investigates the effects of energy-related technologies on economic performance at firm level. We distinguish clearly between adoption and use of energy-related technologies (process innovation in the broad sense) and product innovation in energy-related fields. We take into consideration four energy-related policy instruments (and expected demand for energy-related new products and services). We investigate the possibility of indirect effects of policy on performance via adoption or innovation by interacting adoption and innovation variables with policy instrument dummies. We test our hypotheses not only for the pooled data but also separately for the three countries (Austria, Germany, Switzerland) that are taken into consideration in this study. We find a positive direct effect of investment expenditures for energy-related technologies on labour productivity – that measure intensity of adoption of energy-related technologies – and a positive indirect effect of energy taxes via investment in energy-related technologies. Further, we find positive direct and indirect effects of regulation , standards and voluntary agreements via the adoption of production-related technologies and for technologies for the generation of renewal energy sources . We find neither direct nor indirect effects of the sales of innovative energy-related products – that measure product innovation in energy-related products – on labour productivity. No differences among the three countries could be detected with respect to investment in energy-related technologies and sales of innovative energy-related products. The indirect effects of regulation and standards and voluntary agreements can be primarily traced back to German firms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Competitive production costs compared to conventional fuels are imperative for biofuels to gain market shares, as current tax advantages for biofuels are only temporary. Comparing production costs of different biofuels with fossil fuels is a challenge due to the complexity of influencing factors. The objective of this research paper is threefold: 1) to project future bio-fuel feedstock prices based on the crude oil price development, the price index for agricultural products, growth in world population, growth in wealth per capita income, and change in energy consumption per capita, 2) to simulate production costs under consideration of likely economies of scale from scaling-up production size and technological learning and 3) to compare different biofuels and fossil fuels by scenario analysis. A calculation model for biofuel production is used to analyse projected production costs for different types of biofuels in Europe for 2015 and 2020. Unlike engineering oriented bottom–up approaches that are often used in other biofuel studies, the macro-economic top–down approach applied in this study enables an economic comparison and discussion of various fuel types based on reference scenarios of crude oil prices of €50, €100, €150 and €200 per barrel. Depending on the specific raw material prices as well as the conversion costs, the analysis delivered a differentiated view on the production costs and thus on the competitiveness of each individual type of fuel. The results show that 2nd generation biofuels are most likely to achieve competitive production costs mid- to long-term when taking into account the effects from technological learning and production scale size as well as crude oil price scenarios between €50 and €200 per barrel for both reference years. In all crude oil price scenarios, bioethanol from lignocellulosic raw materials as well as biodiesel from waste oil are associated with high cost saving potentials which enable them to outperform fossil fuels and 1st generation biofuels. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Governments at the EU and the member state level are placing increased emphasis on public research and development (R&D) for energy and the environment to advance a circular economy (CE). To achieve CE goals, it is critical to engage SMEs as they represent the vast majority of enterprises in the EU. To date, there is a lack of evidence regarding the impact of these public R&D investments on SMEs' CE activities. We address this gap by analysing the impact of public environmental and energy R&D on CE implementation and investment by SMEs. The study draws from a multi-level database of 10,618 SMEs across 28 EU member states for the period 2013–2015 from the Flash Eurobarometer 441 survey and country-level data from other EU sources. Employing a mixed-level probit regression, we find that the knowledge generated by public environmental and energy R&D, defined as country-level investments in this activity from 2004 to 2015, positively affects SMEs' implementation of CE activities. Additionally, the study finds that public environmental and energy R&D affects the level of SMEs' investment in CE activities negatively, suggesting that more public R&D can substitute for the financial efforts that SMEs have to take when implementing CE activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]