Green Nanotechnology in Nordic Construction - Eco-innovation strategies and Dynamics in nordic Window Chains

This project analyzes Nordic trends in the development and industrial uptake of green nanotechno-logy in construction. The project applies an evolutionary economic perspective in analyzing the innovation dynamics and firm strategies in the window value chains in three Nordic countries, Denmark, Finland and Sweden. Hence the project investigates two pervasive parallel market trends: The emergence of the green market and the emergence of nanotechnology. The analysis investigates how a traditional economic sector such as the construction sector reacts to such major trends.Conclusions are multiple, but among the most important are: Eco-innovation has become the perhaps most important driver for innovation in the construction sector. Search into eco-innovative business opportunities is intense among all companies along the three analyzed Nordic window chains. While we generally find a low uptake of nanotechnology in the construction sector in the Nordic countries we do find quite a high number of nanotech applications in the Nordic window chains. Eco-innovation is influencing strongly on the nanotech development. We see several examples of nano-enabled smart, multifunctional green solutions in the Nordic window chains already or about to having a commercial impact. Currently, it seems the greening of markets is beginning to affect the roles different companies play in the chain. We see a marked shift towards more sys-temic, smart eco-innovative solutions which fit well with nanotech opportunities. Overall, the recent greening of the market seems to be opening a window of opportunity for nanotechnology in the Nordic countries but the widespread discreet firm strategizing towards nanotechnology may reduce the exploitation of these

Why is Strategic R&D (Still) Homebound in a Globalized Industry? The Case of Leading Firms in Wireless Telecom

This paper looks at internationalization of R&D in the wireless telecommunications industry. We compare the international distribution of R&D activities that led to the development of wireless standards to other (non standard related) projects. While there is greater evidence that leading companies in this industry are sourcing globally their know how, still more strategic R&D projects remain homebound. This finding is further elaborated through conversations with R&D and IP managers at Ericsson, Motorola, Nokia, and Qualcomm. Semi-structured interviews suggested that a closer look at the internationalization of R&D investment requires scholars to consider maturation and decentralization of R&D and Intellectual Property (IP) management; uncertainties and asymmetries of information, as well as organizational “inertia” might be the reasons for sub-optimal exploitation and “appropriability” of results of foreign R&D subsidiaries. This paper brings therefore forward important questions related to the organization of R&D and inventive activity in this industry worthy of exploration in subsequent research. What interviews emphasized was the importance of IP appropriability. The need for some projects to be better synchronized with IP managers is an element that can contribute to keeping certain R&D activities more homebound than others. This alternative explanation, which relates more to the specificities of IP management and the interactions between IPR and R&D functions of firms, has not been explored yet by the literature and might require further investigation. The paper is structured as follows. The second section provides a brief conceptual discussion of major interpretations of R&D internationalization and a review of the major themes in the empirical literature. Also we consider the specificities of the wireless telecommunications industry. The third section discusses the data that we use and provides the empirical analysis based on recently collected data on essential patents notified to the ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute). In the fourth section we validate our statistical analysis through interviews with managers at the four companies. The fifth section synthesizes and concludes the paper