Description
Product Pioneers For A Green Economy
The 100 environmentally friendly product and service innovations examined in the course of the project Dif-
fusion Paths of Sustainability Innovation, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research,
included 58 improvement innovations and 42 radical innovations. While some three quarters of all impro-
vements were introduced to the market by established companies on their own (64%), or simultaneously
with start-up companies (10%), some two thirds of all radical innovations are credited to start-up companies.
For Germany’s energy-policy turnaround and the goals of a «green economy», that means that start-ups in
«green» lead markets are in the future to be stimulated and supported in a targeted manner. The important
thing here is that start-up companies, to a much higher degree than established companies, are guided by
«green» motives. This has implications both for the message of«green» start-up entrepreneurs, and for the
manner of the subsidy and funding of start-ups in the areas of environmental technologies, clean tech and
other «green» future-oriented markets.
Success and Failure of «Green Innovations»
Start-ups:
Product Pioneers
for a Green Economy
Summary
About the research project: All of Germany is talking about the energy-policy turnaround, and yet the transition is
moving ahead very slowly in business and society. While there is no lack of innovative technologies and solutions,
not all of them succeed in establishing themselves on the market. However, why do certain «green» innovations
succeed, while others fail? How are the ideas of sustainability disseminated? The project Diffusion Paths of Sustai-
nability Innovations has addressed these issues. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
in the context of its Technology and Innovation Analysis (ITA)program, it investigated the market introduction and
dissemination of 100 environmentally friendly product and service innovations (funding code 16 I 1601). The study
is the ?rst worldwide to systematically analyze the diffusion processes of such a large number of sustainability in-
novations, and to carry out an empirically supported ascertainment of the key factors affecting diffusion dynamics.
Creative destruction
One hundred years ago, the Austrian-German eco-
nomist Joseph Schumpeter (1912/1983) explained the
transformation of economic structures by means of
the key role of entrepreneurship. New enterprises, he
argued, develop creative and fundamentally new pro-
ducts and services, bring them onto the market, and
thus crowd out existing, less ef?cient technologies and
products of established companies. New companies are
hence simul taneously creative and destructive. Schum-
peter introduced the concept of «creative destruction»,
Start-ups create innovations
The results obtained by the Diffusion Paths of Sustai-
nability Innovations research project show that, depen-
ding on the degree of innovation, new companies on
the one hand and established ones on the other differ in
terms of their signi?cance for the implementation and
dissemination of innovative sustainability solutions.
Among the 100 environmentally friendly product and
service innovations investigated in the context of the
present project, 58 were incremental innovations and
42 were radical innovations. While some three quarters
of all incremental innovations were introduced by esta-
blished companies either alone (64%) or simultaneously
with start-up companies (10%), some two thirds of all
radical innovations were accounted for by start-up com-
which he saw as being rooted in the fact that entre-
preneurs and start-up businesspeople discover «creati-
ve answers» to changing conditions and challenges of
their time. This «creative response» (Schumpeter 1947),
and the radical innovations associated with it, are fun-
damentally different from the improvement and opti-
mization of existing products and processes, which can
be characterized as «adaptive response». To this day, it is
possible to distinguish between different types of stra-
tegies for sustainability innovation on this basis.
panies. Of the radical innovations, 55% were brought
onto the market by companies founded speci?cally for
the purpose of the respective innovation, and another
12% simultaneously with established companies.
In light of this result, it is possible to make a distinc-
tion regarding the knowledge to date of the role and
signi?cance of «Davids» and «Goliaths«, respectively,
in innovation and diffusion processes (cf. Hockerts und
Wüstenhagen 2010): Start-ups and new companies are
evidently the key market actors in the development
and market introduction of radical sustainability inno-
vations, while incremental innovations tend more to be
the turf of established companies.
F
i
c
h
t
e
r
,
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(
2
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0
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)
STRATEGIC ORIENTATION
Process
Eco-ef?cient process
optimization
Radical
process innovations
Market
Market-share protection
and differentiation
Market creation and
development
Society
Legally induced
adaptation innovations
Visionary alternative
models
Strategic types of
sustainability innovations
PRODUCT FIELD
Path-optimizing
(adaptive response)
Path-generating
(creative response)
FIRST PROVIDER (PIONEER)
Established
company
37
13
50
Incremental innovation
Radical innovation
Total
Start-up
company
15
23
38
An established
and a start-up
company
6
6
12
Total
58
42
100
Who are the pioneers of
sustainability innovation?
In how many cases (n = 100) was an innova-
tion introduced to the market by an establis-
hed company, or by a start-up company?
LEVEL
OF
INNOVATION
Signi?cance of start-up and established companies, by type of innovation and by industry
Market pioneer
(?rst provider)
Of 10 products/service
innovations
in this area, market
introduction
was accomplished by
...
start-up companies:
9 cases*
start-up companies:
7 cases*
start-up companies:
7 cases*
start-up companies:
9 cases**
start-up companies:
7 cases**
established companies:
7 cases
established companies:
7 cases***
established companies:
8 cases***
established companies:
9 cases
established companies:
10 cases
Innovation type
Of 10 product/service
innovations
in this area,
the innovation type
was
radical innovation:
10 cases
radical innovation:
8 cases
radical innovation:
7 cases
incremental
innovation:
10 cases
incremental
innovation: 10 cases
incremental
innovation: 5 cases
incremental
innovation: 5 cases
incremental
innovation: 8 cases
incremental
innovation: 7 cases
incremental
innovation: 9 cases
Type of
innovation/industry
combination
Radical innovations contribute
to the emergence
of a new industry
(renewable energies)
ditto (telecommunications/
Internet economy )
ditto
(renewable energies)
Incremental innovations create
a new market segment within
established industries
(agriculture/ food; trade)
ditto
(agriculture, chemistry)
Incremental innovations in
established industries (construction,
machine-tool industries);
Radical innovations create
new market segments
ditto
(transportation, logistics)
Incremental innovations
in established industries
(computer industry)
ditto
(electrical industry)
ditto
(computer industry)
PRODUCT FIELD
Low exergy-
systems
Telecommunications
and online services
Renewable
energy facilities
Organic food
Renewable
raw materials
Construction
and heating materials
Sustainable
mobility
Energy-ef?ciency
in computer centers
Energy-ef?cient
electric devices
Green IT
devices
* Of which one was accomplished simultaneously with an established company
** Of which three were accomplished simultaneously with an established company
*** Of which one was accomplished simultaneously with a start-up company
What role do start-ups play in sustainable innovation?
Prof. Dr. Klaus Fichter: With regard to the question as
to which companies and innovations dominate in which of
the ten product ?elds examined, there is a clear pattern. With
their radical innovations, start-ups contribute decisively to
the emergence of new industries, such as renewable energies,
low-exergy systems, telecommunications and the Internet
economy. Moreover, in established industries, start-ups gene-
rate new market segments by means of incremental inno-
vations. In the product ?elds investigated, this was true for
organic foods and renewable resources.
Dr. Ralf Weiss: In such product ?elds as construction and
heating technology, or sustainable mobility, which are lo-
cated within mature industries, established companies are
dominant in the market introduction of environmentally
friendly product and service innovations. However, their mar-
ket innovations are primarily incremental innovations. But
there too, radical innovations and the market segmentation
usually associated with them are primarily the province of
start-up companies. In such mature industries as the electric
industry and the computer industry, established companies
dominate the innovation activity. The new market introduc-
tions made by these established market actors are largely li-
mited to incremental innovations.
Has the signi?cance of pioneers for the «green economy»
already established itself in the public consciousness?
Prof. Dr. Klaus Fichter: Research results show that both
start-up companies and established companies are important
for the development, market introduction and dissemination
of sustainability innovations; however these are of varying
signi?cance, depending on the degree of innovation and the
phase involved. Both radical and incremental innovations
are needed for climate protection, the expanded use of rene-
wable resources, and other green economy goals. The need for
efforts by established companies to make their products and
services more resource ef?cient and more environmentally
friendly has already been addressed by many political initi-
atives and legislative measures, such as «greening Goliaths.»
On the other hand, the signi?cance of start-ups for the «green
economy» has received too little attention so far.
Are sustainability innovations a pro?table business
model?
Dr. Ralf Weiss: As to the question of who the pioneers in
the development and market introduction of sustainability
innovations are, it is necessary not only to distinguish bet-
ween start-ups and established companies, but also with re-
gard to the motives or goals which cause the market pioneers
to develop their environmentally friendly products or service
INTERVIEW
FIRST PROVIDER (PIONEER)
Explicitly «green» or sustainability-oriented
corporate pro?le?
«Green» or sustainability-oriented
goals are secondary
No explicitly «green» or sustainability-
oriented corporate pro?le
Total
Established
company
6
12
32
50
Start-up
company
23
2
13
38
An established
and a start-up
company
8
1
3
12
Total
37
15
48
100
In how many cases (n = 100) was an innovation
introduced to the market by an established or
start-up company with an explicitly «green»
or sustainability-oriented corporate pro?le?
The «green goals» of market pioneers of sustainability innovation
;
innovations. Here, it appears that sustainability innovations
are not at all primarily developed and disseminated by com-
panies with exquisitely «green» or sustainability-oriented
corporate pro?les. Half the 100 sustainability innovations
investigated were introduced by market participants who did
not pursue any explicitly environmental or sustainability-
oriented goals. Here, it can be assumed that it was largely
business or pro?t-oriented motives that played the main
role. In twelve cases, the ?rst providers did have «green» or
sustainability-oriented corporate goals, although these were
clearly secondary for those companies. In somewhat more
than one third of the cases examined, environmentally
friendly products or services were introduced to the market
by «green» pioneers, in other words, by companies for which
environmental protection and sustainability were central
corporate goals.
Prof. Dr. Klaus Fichter: It is notable that start-ups were
to a much larger degree motivated by «green» goals than
were established companies. Considerably more than half the
38 start-up companies which were the ?rst market providers
of sustainability innovations did so in order to make a contri-
bution to a «green»mode of economics. Only one third of the
start-up companies had no explicit sustainability-oriented
goal de?nition. This result is of great signi?cance for start-up
support, since it shows that the bulk of start-ups in the area
of environmental technology, cleantech and other «green»
future-oriented markets are strongly driven by sustainability.
This has implications for the message of «green» start-ups, as
well as for the manner of supporting and ?nancing them.
How are «green» start-ups currently being supported
by government?
Dr. Ralf Weiss: Although the fact that entrepreneurs and
start-ups are the engines of structural change is one that is
known in theory, it has hardly been re?ected at all in subsidy
policies for environmental technologies or «green» lead mar-
kets, or in policy strategies for the transformation to a «green
economy.» The same is true for the support of start-ups. Alt-
hough Germany has an extensive system for supporting
innovative start-ups, the targeted support for start-ups in
«green» lead markets, or the stimulation of innovative start-
ups oriented toward a transformation to a «green economy»
hardly exist at all to date.
PROF. DR. KLAUS FICHTER is the founder and director of the
Borderstep Institute for Innovation and Sustainability. He is a
professor at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg,
where he holds the Chair for Innovation and Sustainability.
At the center of his research work are theoretical questions
of evolutionary economics and interactive economics, as well
as empirical and application-oriented aspects of innovation
management, the generation of sustainability innovation, as
well as “green” future markets and environmentally oriented
entrepreneurship (eco-entrepreneurship).
DR. RALF WEISS is a senior researcher at the Borderstep
Institute for Innovation and Sustainability. Central to his re-
search are questions of the development of new products
and areas of business for opening up sustainability markets,
as well as sustainable entrepreneurship, sustainable innova-
tion and sustainable venturing.
What is to be done?
On the basis of investigative results, important conclusions and recommendations for action regarding the energy-
policy turnaround and the goals of a«green economy» have been formulated:
Research and innovation support:
;
Targeted support for SME pioneers in «green» lead markets, as a strategy for «upscaling the Davids», and the
evolution of both niche and mass markets
;
Targeted support for «green tech» innovation communities, to support cluster formation in areas of environ-
mental technologies/cleantech, and support for «emerging Davids.»
Start-up support:
;
Lead-market-oriented start-up support: «Multiplying Davids» in green lead markets, such as electro-mobility,
renewable energies, renewable resources, recycling, etc.
;
Making tailored forms of venture capital available for «green» start-ups
;
Establishment of«green» start-up centers, e.g. in the area of cleantech and climate innovation
;
Incorporation of sustainability criteria in business-plan competitions
;
Awarding of sustainability-oriented start-up prizes, e. g., a national climate-protection start-up award.
Diffusion and structural support
;
«Greening Goliaths»: Improved incentives for established companies to enter into «green» future markets (parti-
cipation in or takeover of green start-up companies, etc.), e. g., through binding and long-term framework setting
by government in favor of «green» lead markets
;
Support for effective business association structures in young «green» industries.
Imprint:
Borderstep Institute for Innovation and Sustainability
Clayallee 323
14169 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)30 - 306 45 1000
Fax: +49 (0)30 - 306 45 1009
E-Mail: [email protected]
Internet: www.borderstep.de
Sources:
Fichter, K. (2009). »Verantwortung durch schöpferische Zerstörung« [Respon-
sibility through creative destruction]. In Antoni-Komar, I. et al. (ed.), Neue Kon-
zepte der Ökonomik – Unternehmen zwischen Nachhaltigkeit, Kultur und Ethik
[New concepts of economics: Companies between sustainability, culture and
ethics], pp. 143–162, Marburg: Metropolis.
Hockerts, K. & Wüstenhagen, R. (2010). Greening Goliaths versus emerging Da-
vids: Theorizing about the role of incumbents and new entrants in sustainable
entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 25, Issue 5, pp. 481–492.
Schumpeter, J. (1912). Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung (2nd ed., 1926).
München/Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. In English: Schumpeter, J. (1983). The
Theory of Economic Development. New Brunswick NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Schumpeter, J. (1947). The Creative Response in Economic History. Journal of
Economic History, 7, 149–159.
Fichter, K. & Clausen, J. (2013). Erfolg und Scheitern «grüner» Innovationen:
Warum einige Nachhaltigkeitsinnovationen am Markt erfolgreich sind und an-
dere nicht [The success and failure of green innovations: Why some sustaina-
bility innovations are successful on the market and others are not]. Marburg:
Metropolis. Due to appear in early 2013.
doc_191178847.pdf
Product Pioneers For A Green Economy
The 100 environmentally friendly product and service innovations examined in the course of the project Dif-
fusion Paths of Sustainability Innovation, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research,
included 58 improvement innovations and 42 radical innovations. While some three quarters of all impro-
vements were introduced to the market by established companies on their own (64%), or simultaneously
with start-up companies (10%), some two thirds of all radical innovations are credited to start-up companies.
For Germany’s energy-policy turnaround and the goals of a «green economy», that means that start-ups in
«green» lead markets are in the future to be stimulated and supported in a targeted manner. The important
thing here is that start-up companies, to a much higher degree than established companies, are guided by
«green» motives. This has implications both for the message of«green» start-up entrepreneurs, and for the
manner of the subsidy and funding of start-ups in the areas of environmental technologies, clean tech and
other «green» future-oriented markets.
Success and Failure of «Green Innovations»
Start-ups:
Product Pioneers
for a Green Economy
Summary
About the research project: All of Germany is talking about the energy-policy turnaround, and yet the transition is
moving ahead very slowly in business and society. While there is no lack of innovative technologies and solutions,
not all of them succeed in establishing themselves on the market. However, why do certain «green» innovations
succeed, while others fail? How are the ideas of sustainability disseminated? The project Diffusion Paths of Sustai-
nability Innovations has addressed these issues. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
in the context of its Technology and Innovation Analysis (ITA)program, it investigated the market introduction and
dissemination of 100 environmentally friendly product and service innovations (funding code 16 I 1601). The study
is the ?rst worldwide to systematically analyze the diffusion processes of such a large number of sustainability in-
novations, and to carry out an empirically supported ascertainment of the key factors affecting diffusion dynamics.
Creative destruction
One hundred years ago, the Austrian-German eco-
nomist Joseph Schumpeter (1912/1983) explained the
transformation of economic structures by means of
the key role of entrepreneurship. New enterprises, he
argued, develop creative and fundamentally new pro-
ducts and services, bring them onto the market, and
thus crowd out existing, less ef?cient technologies and
products of established companies. New companies are
hence simul taneously creative and destructive. Schum-
peter introduced the concept of «creative destruction»,
Start-ups create innovations
The results obtained by the Diffusion Paths of Sustai-
nability Innovations research project show that, depen-
ding on the degree of innovation, new companies on
the one hand and established ones on the other differ in
terms of their signi?cance for the implementation and
dissemination of innovative sustainability solutions.
Among the 100 environmentally friendly product and
service innovations investigated in the context of the
present project, 58 were incremental innovations and
42 were radical innovations. While some three quarters
of all incremental innovations were introduced by esta-
blished companies either alone (64%) or simultaneously
with start-up companies (10%), some two thirds of all
radical innovations were accounted for by start-up com-
which he saw as being rooted in the fact that entre-
preneurs and start-up businesspeople discover «creati-
ve answers» to changing conditions and challenges of
their time. This «creative response» (Schumpeter 1947),
and the radical innovations associated with it, are fun-
damentally different from the improvement and opti-
mization of existing products and processes, which can
be characterized as «adaptive response». To this day, it is
possible to distinguish between different types of stra-
tegies for sustainability innovation on this basis.
panies. Of the radical innovations, 55% were brought
onto the market by companies founded speci?cally for
the purpose of the respective innovation, and another
12% simultaneously with established companies.
In light of this result, it is possible to make a distinc-
tion regarding the knowledge to date of the role and
signi?cance of «Davids» and «Goliaths«, respectively,
in innovation and diffusion processes (cf. Hockerts und
Wüstenhagen 2010): Start-ups and new companies are
evidently the key market actors in the development
and market introduction of radical sustainability inno-
vations, while incremental innovations tend more to be
the turf of established companies.
F
i
c
h
t
e
r
,
K
.
(
2
0
0
9
)
STRATEGIC ORIENTATION
Process
Eco-ef?cient process
optimization
Radical
process innovations
Market
Market-share protection
and differentiation
Market creation and
development
Society
Legally induced
adaptation innovations
Visionary alternative
models
Strategic types of
sustainability innovations
PRODUCT FIELD
Path-optimizing
(adaptive response)
Path-generating
(creative response)
FIRST PROVIDER (PIONEER)
Established
company
37
13
50
Incremental innovation
Radical innovation
Total
Start-up
company
15
23
38
An established
and a start-up
company
6
6
12
Total
58
42
100
Who are the pioneers of
sustainability innovation?
In how many cases (n = 100) was an innova-
tion introduced to the market by an establis-
hed company, or by a start-up company?
LEVEL
OF
INNOVATION
Signi?cance of start-up and established companies, by type of innovation and by industry
Market pioneer
(?rst provider)
Of 10 products/service
innovations
in this area, market
introduction
was accomplished by
...
start-up companies:
9 cases*
start-up companies:
7 cases*
start-up companies:
7 cases*
start-up companies:
9 cases**
start-up companies:
7 cases**
established companies:
7 cases
established companies:
7 cases***
established companies:
8 cases***
established companies:
9 cases
established companies:
10 cases
Innovation type
Of 10 product/service
innovations
in this area,
the innovation type
was
radical innovation:
10 cases
radical innovation:
8 cases
radical innovation:
7 cases
incremental
innovation:
10 cases
incremental
innovation: 10 cases
incremental
innovation: 5 cases
incremental
innovation: 5 cases
incremental
innovation: 8 cases
incremental
innovation: 7 cases
incremental
innovation: 9 cases
Type of
innovation/industry
combination
Radical innovations contribute
to the emergence
of a new industry
(renewable energies)
ditto (telecommunications/
Internet economy )
ditto
(renewable energies)
Incremental innovations create
a new market segment within
established industries
(agriculture/ food; trade)
ditto
(agriculture, chemistry)
Incremental innovations in
established industries (construction,
machine-tool industries);
Radical innovations create
new market segments
ditto
(transportation, logistics)
Incremental innovations
in established industries
(computer industry)
ditto
(electrical industry)
ditto
(computer industry)
PRODUCT FIELD
Low exergy-
systems
Telecommunications
and online services
Renewable
energy facilities
Organic food
Renewable
raw materials
Construction
and heating materials
Sustainable
mobility
Energy-ef?ciency
in computer centers
Energy-ef?cient
electric devices
Green IT
devices
* Of which one was accomplished simultaneously with an established company
** Of which three were accomplished simultaneously with an established company
*** Of which one was accomplished simultaneously with a start-up company
What role do start-ups play in sustainable innovation?
Prof. Dr. Klaus Fichter: With regard to the question as
to which companies and innovations dominate in which of
the ten product ?elds examined, there is a clear pattern. With
their radical innovations, start-ups contribute decisively to
the emergence of new industries, such as renewable energies,
low-exergy systems, telecommunications and the Internet
economy. Moreover, in established industries, start-ups gene-
rate new market segments by means of incremental inno-
vations. In the product ?elds investigated, this was true for
organic foods and renewable resources.
Dr. Ralf Weiss: In such product ?elds as construction and
heating technology, or sustainable mobility, which are lo-
cated within mature industries, established companies are
dominant in the market introduction of environmentally
friendly product and service innovations. However, their mar-
ket innovations are primarily incremental innovations. But
there too, radical innovations and the market segmentation
usually associated with them are primarily the province of
start-up companies. In such mature industries as the electric
industry and the computer industry, established companies
dominate the innovation activity. The new market introduc-
tions made by these established market actors are largely li-
mited to incremental innovations.
Has the signi?cance of pioneers for the «green economy»
already established itself in the public consciousness?
Prof. Dr. Klaus Fichter: Research results show that both
start-up companies and established companies are important
for the development, market introduction and dissemination
of sustainability innovations; however these are of varying
signi?cance, depending on the degree of innovation and the
phase involved. Both radical and incremental innovations
are needed for climate protection, the expanded use of rene-
wable resources, and other green economy goals. The need for
efforts by established companies to make their products and
services more resource ef?cient and more environmentally
friendly has already been addressed by many political initi-
atives and legislative measures, such as «greening Goliaths.»
On the other hand, the signi?cance of start-ups for the «green
economy» has received too little attention so far.
Are sustainability innovations a pro?table business
model?
Dr. Ralf Weiss: As to the question of who the pioneers in
the development and market introduction of sustainability
innovations are, it is necessary not only to distinguish bet-
ween start-ups and established companies, but also with re-
gard to the motives or goals which cause the market pioneers
to develop their environmentally friendly products or service
INTERVIEW
FIRST PROVIDER (PIONEER)
Explicitly «green» or sustainability-oriented
corporate pro?le?
«Green» or sustainability-oriented
goals are secondary
No explicitly «green» or sustainability-
oriented corporate pro?le
Total
Established
company
6
12
32
50
Start-up
company
23
2
13
38
An established
and a start-up
company
8
1
3
12
Total
37
15
48
100
In how many cases (n = 100) was an innovation
introduced to the market by an established or
start-up company with an explicitly «green»
or sustainability-oriented corporate pro?le?
The «green goals» of market pioneers of sustainability innovation
;
innovations. Here, it appears that sustainability innovations
are not at all primarily developed and disseminated by com-
panies with exquisitely «green» or sustainability-oriented
corporate pro?les. Half the 100 sustainability innovations
investigated were introduced by market participants who did
not pursue any explicitly environmental or sustainability-
oriented goals. Here, it can be assumed that it was largely
business or pro?t-oriented motives that played the main
role. In twelve cases, the ?rst providers did have «green» or
sustainability-oriented corporate goals, although these were
clearly secondary for those companies. In somewhat more
than one third of the cases examined, environmentally
friendly products or services were introduced to the market
by «green» pioneers, in other words, by companies for which
environmental protection and sustainability were central
corporate goals.
Prof. Dr. Klaus Fichter: It is notable that start-ups were
to a much larger degree motivated by «green» goals than
were established companies. Considerably more than half the
38 start-up companies which were the ?rst market providers
of sustainability innovations did so in order to make a contri-
bution to a «green»mode of economics. Only one third of the
start-up companies had no explicit sustainability-oriented
goal de?nition. This result is of great signi?cance for start-up
support, since it shows that the bulk of start-ups in the area
of environmental technology, cleantech and other «green»
future-oriented markets are strongly driven by sustainability.
This has implications for the message of «green» start-ups, as
well as for the manner of supporting and ?nancing them.
How are «green» start-ups currently being supported
by government?
Dr. Ralf Weiss: Although the fact that entrepreneurs and
start-ups are the engines of structural change is one that is
known in theory, it has hardly been re?ected at all in subsidy
policies for environmental technologies or «green» lead mar-
kets, or in policy strategies for the transformation to a «green
economy.» The same is true for the support of start-ups. Alt-
hough Germany has an extensive system for supporting
innovative start-ups, the targeted support for start-ups in
«green» lead markets, or the stimulation of innovative start-
ups oriented toward a transformation to a «green economy»
hardly exist at all to date.
PROF. DR. KLAUS FICHTER is the founder and director of the
Borderstep Institute for Innovation and Sustainability. He is a
professor at the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg,
where he holds the Chair for Innovation and Sustainability.
At the center of his research work are theoretical questions
of evolutionary economics and interactive economics, as well
as empirical and application-oriented aspects of innovation
management, the generation of sustainability innovation, as
well as “green” future markets and environmentally oriented
entrepreneurship (eco-entrepreneurship).
DR. RALF WEISS is a senior researcher at the Borderstep
Institute for Innovation and Sustainability. Central to his re-
search are questions of the development of new products
and areas of business for opening up sustainability markets,
as well as sustainable entrepreneurship, sustainable innova-
tion and sustainable venturing.
What is to be done?
On the basis of investigative results, important conclusions and recommendations for action regarding the energy-
policy turnaround and the goals of a«green economy» have been formulated:
Research and innovation support:
;
Targeted support for SME pioneers in «green» lead markets, as a strategy for «upscaling the Davids», and the
evolution of both niche and mass markets
;
Targeted support for «green tech» innovation communities, to support cluster formation in areas of environ-
mental technologies/cleantech, and support for «emerging Davids.»
Start-up support:
;
Lead-market-oriented start-up support: «Multiplying Davids» in green lead markets, such as electro-mobility,
renewable energies, renewable resources, recycling, etc.
;
Making tailored forms of venture capital available for «green» start-ups
;
Establishment of«green» start-up centers, e.g. in the area of cleantech and climate innovation
;
Incorporation of sustainability criteria in business-plan competitions
;
Awarding of sustainability-oriented start-up prizes, e. g., a national climate-protection start-up award.
Diffusion and structural support
;
«Greening Goliaths»: Improved incentives for established companies to enter into «green» future markets (parti-
cipation in or takeover of green start-up companies, etc.), e. g., through binding and long-term framework setting
by government in favor of «green» lead markets
;
Support for effective business association structures in young «green» industries.
Imprint:
Borderstep Institute for Innovation and Sustainability
Clayallee 323
14169 Berlin
Germany
Phone: +49 (0)30 - 306 45 1000
Fax: +49 (0)30 - 306 45 1009
E-Mail: [email protected]
Internet: www.borderstep.de
Sources:
Fichter, K. (2009). »Verantwortung durch schöpferische Zerstörung« [Respon-
sibility through creative destruction]. In Antoni-Komar, I. et al. (ed.), Neue Kon-
zepte der Ökonomik – Unternehmen zwischen Nachhaltigkeit, Kultur und Ethik
[New concepts of economics: Companies between sustainability, culture and
ethics], pp. 143–162, Marburg: Metropolis.
Hockerts, K. & Wüstenhagen, R. (2010). Greening Goliaths versus emerging Da-
vids: Theorizing about the role of incumbents and new entrants in sustainable
entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 25, Issue 5, pp. 481–492.
Schumpeter, J. (1912). Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung (2nd ed., 1926).
München/Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. In English: Schumpeter, J. (1983). The
Theory of Economic Development. New Brunswick NJ: Transaction Publishers.
Schumpeter, J. (1947). The Creative Response in Economic History. Journal of
Economic History, 7, 149–159.
Fichter, K. & Clausen, J. (2013). Erfolg und Scheitern «grüner» Innovationen:
Warum einige Nachhaltigkeitsinnovationen am Markt erfolgreich sind und an-
dere nicht [The success and failure of green innovations: Why some sustaina-
bility innovations are successful on the market and others are not]. Marburg:
Metropolis. Due to appear in early 2013.
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