Driving Green Investments by Measuring Innovation Impacts. Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis for Regional Bioeconomy Growth

Fabiana Gatto, Sara Daniotti and Ilaria Re
Additional contact information
Fabiana Gatto: Consorzio Italbiotec, 20138 Milan, Italy
Sara Daniotti: Consorzio Italbiotec, 20138 Milan, Italy
Ilaria Re: Consorzio Italbiotec, 20138 Milan, Italy

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 21, 1-27

Abstract: Regional policies play a pivotal role in green transition and pursuing the European Green Deal decarbonization targets. Despite the general recognition of the strategic value of the bioeconomy in realizing this challenge, regional roadmaps for its growth are not yet a widespread tool in local innovation policy. Conversely, driving green investments by measuring the innovation potential of the bioeconomy could shape a low-carbon economy by leveraging the full potential of local resources. In order to validate a replicable decision-making model driving 2021–2027 ERDF funds towards this mission, this paper measures the economic, social and technological impact of the Lombard bioeconomy through five applications and eight criteria. The methodology allows quantification of the local bioeconomy value and, through a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA), identifies the bio-based applications with the highest innovation potential. By measuring the current and prospective impact of the bioeconomy, Bio-chemicals, Agri-foods, and Biopolymers emerges as the applications with the highest innovation potential rate for Lombardy. Five recommendations to drive green investments and shape the regional roadmap for the bioeconomy are finally defined, providing a tool for industrial applications with a greater impact on local competitiveness.

Keywords: multi-criteria decision making analysis; bioeconomy; regional investments; MCDA; innovation potential; green transition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/11709/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/21/11709/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:21:p:11709-:d:663034

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().