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The escalating demand for resources in urban and rural construction development raises the crucial question of achieving green development within limited resource constraints. This study delves into the interplay between environmental policy and green development in urban and rural construction. Utilizing the spatial Durbin model for analysis, findings reveal that investment-oriented environmental regulation significantly impacts green development and positive spillover effects in neighboring regions when considering spatial weight matrices. In contrast, cost-based environmental regulations positively affect green development when spatial interactions are disregarded. However, they exhibit negative effects at the spatial level, potentially leading to a "pollution relocation" phenomenon. Although the influence of R& D subsidy-based environmental regulations on green development is not significant, their impact becomes notable upon considering spatial interactions, potentially generating positive effects across regions through mechanisms such as technology diffusion and knowledge transfer. Furthermore, from an endogeneity perspective, the impact of environmental regulatory tools on green development exhibits a time lag effect. Moreover, investment-type regulation in the eastern regions significantly fosters green development, whereas cost-based regulation shows a suppressive effect; investment-type regulation in central regions has a positive spillover on neighboring areas; and R&D subsidies in western regions negatively impact local green development. Moreover, the quality of governmental institutions, market integration, and technological innovation are key factors influencing green development in China's urban and rural construction. This study reveals the direct and indirect effects of various environmental policy tools on green development in urban and rural areas. It emphasizes the importance of considering spatial interactions in implementing environmental policies, providing a theoretical foundation and practical guidance for optimizing environmental policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The common ground of both critics and proponents of green productivity is arguably hinged on the main role of environmental technological advancement. Considering the drive for climate-neutral economy among the Nordic states, the current study examines the role of climate change technological development within the countries and technological spillovers across countries in the pursuit for green economy. By using a combination of pooled mean group approach of autoregressive distributed lag (for coefficient estimation) and the recently developed Granger non-causality approach by Juodis et al. (2021) for the panel dataset analysis over the period 1990–2018, the results reveal that both domestic technological development and spillovers from abroad promote long-run green productivity growth in the panel and country-specific estimations. In both estimations, the impact of international diffusion of climate change technologies on green productivity is found to be larger. Additionally, the influence of these two dynamics of climate change-related technologies on attaining greening economy is the most impactful in Sweden. In the remaining Nordic economies, climate change technology spillovers in Denmark are more impactful than in Finland and least in Norway, while climate change technological development in Norway drives green productivity more than in Finland and least in Denmark. As a robust insight, the Granger causality techniques revealed causality from climate change technologies within the countries, climate change technology spillovers, and population to green productivity. Consequently, public policies should promote green innovativeness and especially learning and knowledge transfer from other countries to achieve climate neutrality targets. • The drivers of green productivity in the Nordic countries are investigated. • Domestic and foreign spillovers of green technology promote green productivity. • Green productivity responds more strongly to foreign technology spillovers. • The impact of climate change-related technologies is the highest in Sweden. • Financial development and population also drive green productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Appropriate technology for sustainable development in developing countries should consider comprehensive societal aspects of the target area and, at the same time, ensure target areas are capable of sustainable transformation. However, appropriate technology has mainly been approached from the engineering or technological aspects, thus becoming a short-term or one-time technology transfer or, despite the social science approach, it has no definite theoretical background. For successful and sustainable appropriate technology activities, appropriate technology should be approached theoretically. Therefore, this study applies the theory of grassroots innovation to appropriate technology, examines how the concepts of grassroots innovation based on local community units can relate to appropriate technology activities in developing countries, and analyzes a case of appropriate technology activity to show that future appropriate technology activities should involve grassroots innovation. The results show that the principles of grassroots innovation underlie successful appropriate technology projects. • Sustainability of appropriate technology can be grounded on a grassroots innovation. • The concept of strategic niche management is applied to appropriate technology. • Context, driving force, niche, organizational form, and resource base are common constructs of the framework. • The case of Laos identifies the relationship between appropriate technology and grassroots innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has developed eight bases to boost the large-scale exploitation of wind power, thereby achieving great success in recent years. In this study, we propose an adjusted technical innovation diffusion model to explore the optimal development paths for the eight bases until 2030. Considering environmental differences, the model mainly takes the following factors into account: economic factors, grid construction, coordination of departments, power system failure and technology diffusion. In addition, we classify the bases into four groups according to their geographical locations and economic development to investigate the common characteristics affecting their development. The empirical analysis indicates that all eight bases may achieve their development goals by 2020, but not all may reach their 2030 goals under most circumstances. The effect of incentive policies varies significantly among regions due to differences in available resources and economic development. Grid availability act as the biggest obstacle to wind power development in regions with abundant resources and underdeveloped economies, whereas a subsidy is the key driver of wind power diffusion in developed regions. • It has explored the optimal development paths for eight wind power bases. • Grid availability is the biggest obstacle in regions with abundant resources. • Financial subsidy is the key driver to wind power diffusion in developed regions. • Not all bases may achieve their goals by 2020 or 2030 under most circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research shows urban sustainability experiments are critical for sustainability transition in cities and beyond, especially when they are multiplied in other contexts and upscaled. Even with a growing body of literature on sustainability experiments, little is known on how these experiments travel to and are contextualized in other contexts. Here we attempt to fill this gap, taking the adoption and proliferation of Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) in Shanghai as a case study. First, based on the system innovation literature, we identify the critical components that characterize the innovative practices. We then examine the contextualization process of EPC in Shanghai using this characterization. Finally, we identify and compare some innovative elements that emerged during the contextualization with those in the original contexts from which Shanghai learned. We argue that post experiment adoption and contextualization requires mobilization and realignments of actors, resources, and institutional arrangements within the process of learning, which involves much more than simple duplication and often with distinctive outcomes, thus in many ways is an innovation in itself. Innovation in post experiment contextualization is supported by various "horizontal linkages" with the original experiment, which include information/knowledge transfer and learning via actor interactions across experiments, but the focus of learning shifts from external (i.e. from the original context) to internal (i.e. within the new context) during the contextualization process. These findings contribute to an in-depth understanding of how innovation can transfer across cases, which is a significant gap in current system innovation literature, and may inform practice in terms of how to facilitate the scaling of experiments to achieve sustainability transitions. • How successful experiments travel across contexts is not well understood. • Embedding innovation requires new social, economic and institutional configurations. • Horizontal linkages critical, but learning mode shifts from external to internal. • Contextualization benefits from predecessors but requires endogenous innovation. • Contextualization could be a new source of innovations that needs renewed attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Insights from battery research and development (R&D) need to be transferred into industrial application to create innovations and thus foster e.g. electro mobility. In terms of battery technology transfer, the early phase of application is particularly challenging due to the close intertwining between R&D and application. Therefore, the present study introduces start-ups as an additional indicator to capture the transition from science to industry within the technology life cycle. The findings show that despite highly dynamic R&D activities, technology transfer is only taking place on a very limited level. Surprisingly, start-ups focus on incremental improvements of existing technologies instead of introducing radical breakthrough-technologies. An analysis of the battery value chain reveals that opportunities for start-ups are rather located downstream in the value chain when integrating cells to battery systems and developing applications relying on innovative battery technologies. The findings contribute to the area of technology life cycle analysis explicitly using start-up companies as additional indicator for the critical transfer step from R&D to application. In a similar vein, technology forecasting literature, which is to date mainly focused on R&D, is expanded by a more application-centred perspective that allows identifying transfer opportunities along the technology value chain. Highlights • Start-ups as new technology life cycle indicator for the early phase of application. • No time lag between basic and applied research in the battery field. • Battery technology transfer takes place on a very limited level. • Start-ups surprisingly focus on incremental improvements of existing technologies. • Opportunities for start-ups concentrated upstream the battery value chain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstracts Research suggests that product service systems (PSS) may usefully form part of the mix of innovations necessary to move society toward more sustainable futures. However, PSS implementation rates are disappointingly low and an implementation gap has emerged. Drawing on consumer culture theory (CCT), this paper provides insights to help resolve this issue in business to consumer markets. Since consumption of use orientated PSS is analogous to access based consumption, six dimensions of access are set out to analyse a case study of infant car seat provision. Five outcomes are derived from the analysis and these include partial identification with accessed product and interplay of use and symbolic value. This analysis questions the view that PSS do not create sufficient value to overcome a preference for ownership in western societies. Rather, PSS consumption is likely to arise when both functional and symbolic value are extracted by consumers and when PSS are promoted to appropriate consumer groups such as ‘nomads’. Further research is needed to explore these phenomena and address the issues they raise in PSS design processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the fight against global climate change, improving energy efficiency and reducing related emissions are critical to mitigating sustainability issues such as global warming. In this regard, technological progress is known to improve energy efficiency and reduce related emissions. However, previous sustainability studies on Africa have paid less attention to energy and emission efficiency convergence among countries, along with the contribution of technological progress to the continent's sustainability. Accordingly, this paper develops a novel framework that assesses energy and emission efficiency convergence, gauges technology inequality, identifies the barriers to technology diffusion, and explores the factors influencing energy and emission efficiency convergence in Africa. The proposed framework incorporates Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA), several economic convergence concepts, a K-means clustering model, the concept of efficiency Gini coefficient, and a group-based inequality decomposition method. We empirically covered 39 African countries from 2006 to 2018. The results show that African countries are, on average, 71.1% energy efficient and 65.3% CO 2 emission efficient, leaving more room for energy saving and emissions reduction. Second, there is strong evidence of convergence in energy and emission efficiencies in Africa. Third, despite the observed convergence process, there is significant heterogeneity between two research groups (i.e., low-and high-efficiency groups of countries) in terms of energy and emission efficiencies, with persistent technology inequality suggesting a lower contribution of environmental technological advancements to the continent's sustainability. Furthermore, cross-group inequality is the primary barrier to technology diffusion. Fourth, regional cooperation accelerates the convergence process in the two efficiency indicators. While economic development, industrial structure, and renewable energy consumption (REC) tend to favor energy and emission efficiency growth, rising foreign direct investment (FDI) and energy prices have a negative impact. Meanwhile, the effects of energy prices, FDI, and REC on emission efficiency are insignificant. Based on our findings, we discussed policy implications to promote energy and emission efficiency convergence and narrow environmental technology gaps. • Convergence in Total-factor energy and emission efficiency in Africa is explored. • Technology inequality across African countries is measured. • There is strong evidence of convergence in TFEE and TFCEE in Africa. • A persistent technology inequality is found among African countries. • Cross-group efficiency inequality is the main barrier to technology diffusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting urine-recycling technologies can support a transition to circular nutrient management systems. Although these technologies have been developed since the 1990s, their large-scale implementation remains limited. From a technological innovation system (TIS) perspective, "knowledge development and diffusion" is a critical function in the development phase. Yet, available methods in the literature to evaluate this function are not standardized. Hence, this study aims to fill this literature gap by developing a novel multi-criteria framework for evaluating knowledge functions. Several characteristics of emerging technologies are reflected in the criteria, including the rate of growth, novelty, diffusion, and relationship to incumbent systems. The knowledge base was measured by bibliometric analysis of publications obtained from comprehensive mapping. Results showed that the rate of publications and knowledge diffusion increased sharply in 2011–2021 compared to 1990–2010. However, the function still has insufficiency in some criteria. The lack of innovation in scientific research and the diversification of technologies were found to be impediments. The analysis also identified the lock-in of conventional technologies and centralized infrastructures in terms of publication dominance as another impediment. For the TIS to be legitimate and to grow, more pilot-scale implementations at a higher level are recommended to demonstrate that the technology works in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adopting urine-recycling technologies can support a transition to circular nutrient management systems. Although these technologies have been developed since the 1990s, their large-scale implementation remains limited. From a technological innovation system (TIS) perspective, "knowledge development and diffusion" is a critical function in the development phase. Yet, available methods in the literature to evaluate this function are not standardized. Hence, this study aims to fill this literature gap by developing a novel multi-criteria framework for evaluating knowledge functions. Several characteristics of emerging technologies are reflected in the criteria, including the rate of growth, novelty, diffusion, and relationship to incumbent systems. The knowledge base was measured by bibliometric analysis of publications obtained from comprehensive mapping. Results showed that the rate of publications and knowledge diffusion increased sharply in 2011–2021 compared to 1990–2010. However, the function still has insufficiency in some criteria. The lack of innovation in scientific research and the diversification of technologies were found to be impediments. The analysis also identified the lock-in of conventional technologies and centralized infrastructures in terms of publication dominance as another impediment. For the TIS to be legitimate and to grow, more pilot-scale implementations at a higher level are recommended to demonstrate that the technology works in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to examine and compare the contributions to environmental innovation of the public sector and private sector, respectively, and to compare their determinants. We analyze the development over time of triadic patents, classified as environmental technological innovations, for six major patenting countries from 1990 to 2014. This is done using a factor decomposition analysis framework. The analysis is done at both country aggregate level, and for a set of specific technological topics: alternative energy production, energy conservation, agriculture and forestry, and waste management. Results indicate that there has been a shift at an aggregate level towards environmentally sustainable technologies. In the private sector, the shift can be attributed to changes in research priorities and an increased scale of R&D. In the public sector, increased patenting of environmentally sound technologies can be attributed to efficiency gains. The largest difference between the public and private sector is observed in R&D efficiency, where in the private sector, reductions in efficiency have contributed negatively to patent growth, whereas the opposite is true for the public sector. In both sectors, research focus has shifted towards energy-related technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many environmental networks form around specific initiatives with prescribed outcome objectives. When the objectives are met, the networks frequently disband. Technological transfer halts and the social capital built up during the initiative fragments, in many cases, disappearing altogether. In an era of globally unsustainable economic activity, encouraging progressive innovation and broadening the scale and scope of knowledge transfer is one strategy for helping to attenuate ecological damage. This paper presents empirical field work which explores the Kalundborg Symbiosis in Denmark – a network of economic actors that has organically come together to implement industrial ecology principles – and documents how this network has managed to foster progressive innovation. The four drivers which emerged as central for fostering collaboration are i) a pragmatic environmental mindset, ii) the existence of opportunities to explore possibilities, iii) mutually beneficial initiatives and iv) the presence of dominant needs which stimulate a proactive search for solutions. The paper also contributes to sustainable public policy and urban planning literature by considering how municipal involvement can foster progressive and sustained development within the Kalundborg Symbiosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The absence of a dominant design can impede the diffusion of environmental technologies. A certain degree of standardization is necessary so that firms are able to focus on process innovations that make the technology accessible to the masses. In this context, this paper studies how technological centrality and home bias in the innovation process influence the emergence of dominant designs in the mobility sector. An analysis of over 5000 electric-vehicle innovations shows that technological centrality hinders a dominant design from emerging. However, a bias in favor of innovations from the home continent mitigates this negative effect. Thus, innovations from East Asia do not consider European and U.S. innovations and vice versa. East Asian firms are different from both European and North American firms in how home bias affects the emergence of dominant designs. In East Asia, home bias has more impact on the emergence of dominant designs for central technologies than in other continents, while it has less impact for other technologies. Home bias is hence not only a firm-level mechanism, but also a helpful construct for the study of innovation systems. A lack of international standard cooperation might further influence future managerial and governmental decisions fostering developments towards cleaner technologies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Africa is predicted to be the region most affected by climate change and water is one of the sectors with anticipated severe impacts. Innovations in this sector are being promoted as part of the adaptation solutions to this problem. In this paper, we use available data on water-related climate change adaptation technological developments to examine the degree to which the vulnerability to climate change in the water sector is motivating these innovations. Using pooled data for African countries between 1990 and 2016, we estimate the relationship between climate-induced vulnerability in the water sector and water-related innovations, controlling for country size and proxies for technology transfer environment, institutional and regulatory quality, knowledge base, and research and development activity. Data on innovative activity shows evidence of over-dispersion; thus we use the negative binomial distribution with robust standard errors for estimation of our model. We find evidence that countries most exposed to water stress are innovating at lower rates. Though counterintuitive, this result is explained by the fact that such vulnerable countries also tend to have little research and development infrastructure needed to develop the kind of high quality innovations that usually necessitate patenting. Our result suggests that African countries experiencing water stress may need to reconsider priorities in the design of water-related adaptation to climate change. We also find that a country's knowledge base and openness to trade are important determinants of adaptation technologies in the water sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There might not be enough market demand to foster continuous technological development of eco-innovation in its initial stage due to its low-cost competitiveness. Therefore, demand induced by policy can play an important role for eco-innovation. Existing studies indicate that demand-side policy significantly impacts the development and diffusion of new technologies. However, the mechanism of how demand-side policy facilitates innovation is unclear. This study hypothesizes that policy-induced demand affects production activities, and verifies that these production activities promote innovative output. We analyze the solar photovoltaic sector of 14 major countries from 1999 to 2016. The estimations are conducted using panel fixed-effects regression and three-stage least squares (3SLS). The results confirm the mechanism by which policy-induced demand positively impacts production activities and the expansion of production contributes to innovation performance. This helps us to understand the importance of demand-side policy for eco-innovation. Furthermore, our study, by unpacking the mediating mechanisms of production that transmit the effects of demand-side policy, offers pragmatic reasons for the need for policy-makers pursuing eco-innovation to engage in encouraging production activity. • We study the effect of demand-side policy on eco-innovation in solar PVs. • The increase of production in solar PVs is induced by demand-side policy. • Eco-innovation in solar PVs is positively related with demand-side policy. • Production positively mediates the impact of demand-side policy on eco-innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Biogas as an energy carrier can play an important role in low carbon energy transitions. However, in some countries, biogas technologies are just starting to be used, while in others a more mature stage has been reached. Such heterogeneous development raises a basic question: what are the driving forces behind biogas technologies? In order to address this question, we conduct a systematic literature review on seven mature biogas markets: Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Sweden, the Czech Republic and the United Kingdom. As a result, we synthesize our findings under a typology of what we call system drivers – i.e. drivers of technological innovation systems – and conceptually explain their potential links to system functions. Based on the findings from 42 systematically selected publications and some grey literature, we categorize the system drivers under four interrelated groups (1) proaction to challenges, (2) policy support, (3) cooperation and (4) capability of technology. We argue that the notion of 'system drivers' sheds some light on why socio-technical transitions are ahead in particular sectors in certain countries. In doing so, we extend the previous literature on the functions of technological innovation systems, which previously has offered limited explanations on the causal mechanisms behind socio-technical transitions. In addition, we offer some suggestions for policymakers and practitioners who seek to initiate or expand the diffusion of biogas technologies. Image 1 • The concept of 'inducement mechanisms' is revisited and extended. • The driving forces behind seven mature biogas markets are explored. • A typology of system drivers is proposed and linked to system functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Massive diffusion of green technologies is significant for building a cleaner world. However, the process of technology diffusion is usually slow and complex. An in-depth understanding of the mechanism regarding green technology diffusion is an essential precondition for effectively stimulating this process. Green technology diffusion heavily involves both social and technological changes. Although existing studies have provided rich knowledge about identifying critical drivers and barriers affecting green technology diffusion, research that considers consumers' pro-environmental attitudes and green technology diffusion as an evolving system is still sparse. Aiming at exploring the co-evolution of consumers' pro-environmental attitudes and green technology diffusion, this paper builds an agent-based model that integrates the relative agreement model with technology diffusion theories to conduct a sequence of controlled numerical experiments, which progressively unveil how attitudinal and technological factors impact green technology diffusion. The main findings include that (1) improving consumers' pro-environmental attitudes is prominently beneficial to green technology diffusion and maturation; (2) technology maturity has very limited impact on consumers' first-time purchases but significantly affects consumers' satisfaction, which would further impact consumers' repeat purchases; (3) consumers that do not support green technologies frequently emerge during the evolution of attitudes (despite the high technology maturity), which corresponds to the emergence of the anti-environmental groups observed in the real world; (4) active interactions between non-adopters enable their attitudes to converge, which results in the polarization of consumers' attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The innovative technologies search efficient ways of environmental preservation allied to organizational advantages. The innovation is an approach that contributes to understand the relationship between society, economy and environment. The technology parks are considered propitious environment for the development of innovative technologies. The Itaipu Technological Park (ITP) hosts eco-innovation projects in renewable energy in a dynamics that can be explained by Geels' (2006) multilevel perspective (MLP) on the socio-technical transition theory. This article's objective is to analyze the four innovations developmental trajectory in renewable energy of ITP, from the MLP multiphase analysis. The multiple case study of qualitative nature, the main applied technique was interviews. Out of the examined cases, two innovations are in the technical specialization phase, whereas the other two are in the diffusion and in the technology advancement phase. The results show that the ITP created a suitable environment for eco-innovation development companies in renewable energy. • A multi-phase analysis of four renewable energy highlighted the process of institutionalization and installation of sustainable technology. • The knowledge evolution creates an ingrained evolution trajectory in a cumulative knowledge. • The ITP has presented itself in a favorable environment for the development of new energy technology. • More appropriate laws that encourage the development of these and other energy technologies are challenges. • New socio-technical occupations are challenges for the spread of energy innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study applies the technological innovation system framework to the case of the fuel cell sector in Taiwan. Many Asian latecomers, such as Taiwan, tend to adopt a top-down approach to emphasize the importance of environmental issues but the result is limited. We aim to take Taiwan's fuel cell innovation system as an example to explore why Taiwan has formulated a technological innovation system to engage universities, research institutes, and firms to undertake R&D and entrepreneurial activities, but the results are still limited with respect to innovation and commercialization. This paper identifies the problems and challenges in Taiwan's fuel cell innovation system by using an embedded case study to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of the systems in seven system functions. The study contributes to the increased understanding for the development of renewable energy from the perspective of latecomer nations whereas the mechanism behind technological transition and the strategies of actors within technological innovation systems deserve closer attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]