ABSTRACT

The transition toward more efficient and sustainable energy systems relies on the introduction by firms of innovations aimed at reducing the energy-environmental impact. In this paper, controlling for firms’ technological capabilities and taking into account the role of specific policy instruments, demand-pull factors and firms’ cost-saving needs, we carry out an in-depth analysis of the drivers motivating firms’ decision to engage in two main types of energy innovations, energy-efficient and renewable energy innovations, as compared to other environmental technologies. The empirical evidence, provided by using firm-level data from the Community Innovation Survey for different European countries, highlights the key role of firms’ cost saving needs as a motivation driving the introduction of both types of energy innovations, as well as of governmental subsidies and public procurement though only for renewable energy innovations. The influence of demand-pull factors is instead transversal between energy innovations and other eco-innovations.

摘要

向更高效和更可持续的能源系统的过渡依赖于公司引入旨在减少能源-环境影响的创新。本文在控制企业技术能力的基础上，综合考虑具体政策工具的作用、需求拉动因素和企业成本节约需求，对企业参与决策的驱动因素进行了深入分析。与其他环境技术相比，在两种主要类型的能源创新中，节能和可再生能源创新。通过使用来自不同欧洲国家的社区创新调查的公司层面数据提供的经验证据强调了公司成本节约需求作为推动引入这两种能源创新的动力的关键作用，以及政府补贴和公共采购，但仅限于可再生能源创新。相反，需求拉动因素的影响在能源创新和其他生态创新之间是横向的。