Environmental innovations, local networks and internationalization

Giulio Cainelli, Massimiliano Mazzanti and Sandro Montresor ()

No 1108, Openloc Working Papers from Public policies and local development

Abstract: This paper investigates the drivers of the environmental innovations (EI) introduced by firms in local production systems (LPS). The role of firm network relationships, agglomeration economies and internationalization strategies is analysed for a sample of 555 firms in the Emilia-Romagna region, North-East of Italy. Cooperating with 'qualified' local actors - i.e. universities and suppliers - is the most important driver of EI for most firms, along with their training policies and IT innovations. The role of agglomeration economies is less clear and seems to depend on the EI propensity of more locally oriented firms playing in industrial district areas, which might even turn agglomeration economies into dis-economies. Networking effects and agglomeration economies are instead found to strongly promote the adoption of EI by multinational firms, thus highlighting the importance of local-global interactions. We provide some interesting findings for particular kinds of challenging EI in such fields as CO2 abatement and ISO labelling, generally extending the analysis of EI drivers by joining local and international factors.

Keywords: Eco-innovation; foreign ownership; networking; district; agglomeration economics; local production systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C21 F23 L60 O13 O30 Q20 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cis, nep-cse, nep-env, nep-ino, nep-net, nep-res, nep-sbm and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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Related works:
Journal Article: Environmental Innovations, Local Networks and Internationalization (2012)
Working Paper: Environmental Innovations, Local Networks and Internationalization (2011)
Working Paper: Environmental Innovations, Local Networks and Internationalization (2011)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:trn:utwpol:1108

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