Führende Märkte und Öko-Innovationen: Ein Rahmen für Innovation und ökologische Wirtschaftsforschung

Dieses Diskussionspapier des Zentrums für Europäische
Wirtschaftsforschung (ZEW) befasst sich mit der Frage, ob
Umweltbestimmungen dazu beitragen können, durch den Export
von Innovationen, die von lokalen
 Marktbedingungen und nationalen Regulierungen
angeregt worden sind, führende Märkte zu
schaffen. Zwei Fallstudien werden analysiert: die Entstehung
und internationale Verbreitung der Windenergieerzeugung und
treibstoffeffiziente Technologien für Personenkraftwagen.

The following summary is reproduced from the discussion
paper: „Lead Markets of Environmental Innovations: A Framework for
Innovation and Environmental Economics“ by Marian Beise and Klaus
Rennings (ZEW Centre for European Economic Research) 

Environmental regulations often want to stimulate the generation
and adoption of eco-efficient innovations. An important argument in
the public debate is also the creation of new markets for
environmentally benign products, processes and services that other
countries adopt and therefore generate export opportunities for the
pioneering country. The research so far concentrated on the
question how national environmental regulation can induce
innovations. The question addressed in this paper is whether
environmental regulations can create lead markets, enabling local
firms to export innovations that are induced by local market
conditions and national regulations. We identify relevant factors
for lead markets of environmental innovations: price advantages,
demand advantages, transfer advantages, export advantages and
strict regulation (Porter-effect).

The approach is applied to two case studies: fuel-efficient
passenger cars and wind energy. In both cases, one country adopted
the innovation firstly. Later, other countries followed the same
innovation design favoured by the lead market. The lead market
became a large exporter in the wind generation and car industry
respectively. We discuss the regulations employed and the reasons
for the international success of the innovations induced by
them. 

We draw some conclusions concerning the relevance of our
identified lead market factors for the two cases. Price advantages
seem to be a relevant albeit not dominating driver of the
international diffusion of the innovation in both cases. Demand
advantages are crucial for the lead market of fuel-efficient cars
since other criteria of global demand are still more important than
environmental criteria. Transfer advantages can be identified in
both cases since the R&D activities of the German automobile
firms and the respective efforts of the Danish wind industry are
intensively watched by other countries. Export advantages address
the similarity of market conditions at home and abroad. They are
more important in the wind energy case than for fuel-efficient
cars. Finally the market structure or Porter effect has proved to
be relevant in both cases. In the case of wind energy strict
regulation, together with an anticipated regulatory trend as
described above, can be seen as the dominating success factor for
Denmark as a lead market. Without strict regulations and
international policy diffusion renewable energies would not be
competitive. For fuel efficient cars the Porter effect is less
important since environmental regulation is to date still
outweighed by consumer preferences that steer diametrically into
the opposite direction. 

Summing up, all lead market factors seem to be at least relevant
for environmental innovations. The importance of the Porter effect
depends on its relation to global demand and regulatory effects. If
national regulation is supported by global demand or regulatory
trends, a strong effect can be identified, as was shown in the
cases of wind energy in Denmark and
Diesel-High-pressure-direct-injection in Germany. If it is not
supported, the market remains idiosyncratic, as could be seen in
the failure of the the Golf Ecomatic.

Click here to download the full paper from the ZEW Centre for European Economic Research website