Changing Configuration of Alternative Energy Systems

Recent and rampant regulatory changes for sustainable development are seeking to transform current energy systems towards cleaner and greener forms of energy sources. In this scenario, alternative energy technologies are considered the building blocks towards this transformed energy system. This chapter will show how the alternative energy market since the 1970s changed, in response to external oil price shocks and to other selective pressures and institutions. It will observe that the configuration of the market has been changing since 1970s, in terms of firm-composition, size and types of technologies considered in the green energy mix. It will further provide three explanations explaining why there are changes between firms, policies and these energy technologies. These three processes are considered important in determining technological innovation among firms in clean and green energy technologies.Renewable Energy, New Technologies, Firm Competition, Technology Policy, Energy Technologies

Le capitalisme fondé sur la connaissance et le changement dans les stratégies des entreprises industrielles

This paper explores the changing nature of contemporary capital accumulation focusing in particular on the increasing importance of knowledge inputs in the production process. The growing knowledge-intensity of production reflected in the role of design, research and development, marketing, management and advertising in the growth strategy of the firm, has had numerous consequences for the nature of competition amongst firms and for the internationalization of production. As increased knowledge-intensity of production gave rise to ever more rapid technological change in industry, the need for greater flexibility in production and labour processes became acute, more so as the global economic crisis deepened and competition from newly industrializing countries rose.Automation and sub-contracting were important new strategies. So too was the segmentation and delocalization of production processes to cheap labour countries in the Third World and Eastern Europe. More recently, as the costs and risks involved in R&D escalated, large corporations have also begun to decentralize knowledge production itself by funding research and development activities outside the MNC, and by internationalizing knowledge production itself through the establishment of research laboratories abroad or the implementation of a System of world product mandates for selected manufacturing subsidiaries

Innovation Systems: Implications for agricultural policy and practice

Farmers and businesses need to adapt constantly if they are to survive and compete in the rapidly evolving environment associated with the contemporary agricultural sector. Rethinking agricultural research as part of a dynamic system of innovation could help to design ways of creating and sustaining conditions that will support the process of adaptation and innovation. This approach involves developing the working styles and practices of individuals and organizations and the incentives, support structures and policy environments that encourage innovation. Previous efforts to support agricultural sector innovation largely targeted agricultural policy and research organizations. The systems approach recognizes that innovation takes place through the interaction of a broader set of organizations and activities. These patterns of interaction and working styles and practices – or institutions as they are referred to by social scientists – need to adapt continuously if they are to meet the changing demands of the evolving agricultural sector. Institutional learning is central to this process and will ensure research organizations remain relevant and continue to introduce innovations that impact positively on the livelihoods of the poor.innovation, systems, agricultural Research, adaptation, Agricultural and Food Policy, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies,

Policies for capacity development

No description supplie