Title: Green innovation value chain frame of comparisons: market and public policy implications

Authors: Erik L. Olson

Addresses: BI Norwegian Business School, Nydalsveien 37, 0484 Oslo, Norway

Abstract: The Green Innovation Value Chain (GIVC) is a framework that compares the relative attractiveness of a green technology with conventional competitors(s) along stakeholder links representing the manufacturer, distributor, end-user, government and the environment. Previous GIVC analyses have examined hybrid car and PV solar technologies, and concluded that each provides poor financial and environmental returns across the GIVC links in comparison with the most similar gasoline-powered car and natural gas-generated electricity, respectively. The current research addresses the potential bias of using a single comparison point by including additional competing products/technologies that reflect actual marketplace or public policy-advocated technology substitution. Although some of the new comparisons provide more encouraging green technology results than the earlier analyses, the overall conclusion remains that neither technology is likely to be attractive to stakeholders and widely displace the new comparison points. The market and public policy implications of the findings are then discussed.

Keywords: green innovation value chain; innovation diffusion; solar power; solar energy; green vehicles; hybrid electric vehicles; HEVs; hybrid vehicles; green subsidies; green technology; markets; public policy; bias; technology substitutions.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTPM.2015.069219

International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management, 2015 Vol.15 No.2, pp.178 - 196

Received: 09 Jul 2014
Accepted: 03 Dec 2014
Published online: 05 May 2015 *

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