Contenu du sommaire : Sustainable development and innovation

This paper introduces a new concept – economic development through domestication of a geoclimatic zone, enabled by a special adaptation to its unique conditions. Development is thus seen not as a matter of choice. It is induced (or not) by demographic growth when the older zone and its unique economy fail to absorb and feed the growing masses. The paper shows that this new understanding explains many mysteries of development and international trade. Also, it allows for reconciliation of many feuding theories and models, bringing together, under one roof, the neoclassical school (Ricardo to Krugman), institutionalists (Veblen to North) and the long-waves adherents (Schumpeter to Freeman). We show the usefulness of this new concept in forecasting, using as an example China, which doesn't fit any extant model of development.JEL Codes: F02, F2, F4, F47, O11, O12, O13, O14, O15, N1, N2, L0, L1

Examples of anti-sustainability rhetoric are presented, including underlying linkages to the neoclassical economic paradigm. J. M. Keynes called this sort of marriage of ideological fervour with the neoclassical world view, “the political economist's religion”. It is characterised by a mixture of individualism and laissez-faire, displayed particularly in the anti-sustainability rhetoric endorsed and promulgated in the U.S. during the Republican presidency of George W. Bush. Sketches of six strategies or counterarguments to the rhetoric of anti-sustainability are presented. These are Science vs. Sentiment, Deconstructing and Reframing, Pursuing Other Outcomes, Realism, Rhetoric of Reaction, and Academic Salons. A set of clarifying questions is included, also. For instance, one pertains to the interrogation of assumptions, to insure these are presented fully and clearly, especially when mathematical abstractions are employed extensively. Another pertains to the distinction by Karl Popper that an analyst is “doing” science only when one's proposition is capable of being falsified through empirical inquiry.JEL Codes: B4, B5, P1, Q5, Q5

The stakes of globalisation lift up with a great acuity the question of instituting a global governance system to manage efficiently these stakes which seem to exceed the regulating powers of States and market. The purpose of the article is to present several enlightening ideas which show the mitigated efficiency of this governance in promoting sustainable development at a global scale. Indeed, the analysis proves that the current governance system is not that organisational structure which defines and proves the theory. Multiple gaps show that it is recently in crisis of legitimacy and that sustainable development stays a utopian objective. This arouses a pragmatic reflection on the possibilities of improving the efficiency of global governance, principally by a more concrete consideration of environmental and social problems to go out of the profit influence. And to there, a revival of the State's role in promoting sustainable development is unmistakably imperative.JEL Codes: F02, F5, O19, Q01

This paper provides new empirical evidence on delinking / Environmental Kuznets Curves (EKC) for greenhouse gases and other air pollutant emissions in Italy. We analysed a panel dataset based on the Italian NAMEA for 1990-2005 with a specific focus on industry. We integrated the emission-income NAMEA with data on trade openness and R&D expenditures. The highly disaggregated dataset provides a large heterogeneity and can help to overcome the shortcomings of the usual approach to EKC based on cross-country data. We use in this paper CO2, SOx, NOx and PM10 as objects of investigation. We use as empirical models of reference both a standard EKC model and a STIRPAT/IPAT model. Our results show that looking at sector evidence, both decupling and then eventually re-coupling trends could emerge along the path of economic development. The analysis of how stagnation periods affect environmental performances is also of interest.JEL Codes: C230, O400, Q550, Q560

A broad innovation policy framework is developed for ecologically sustainable economic development. This framework is applied to regional economies from an Australian perspective. A completely different economic framework, based on economic activity that is satisficing (under conditions of ecological uncertainty) rather than optimising (under conditions of calculable risk) is required to address the ecological concerns of the future. The “eco-sustainable framework” is based on the work of two heterodox economists, Michał Kalecki and Adolph Lowe. This policy framework sets a path for regional economic development based on consistent and workable public policy tools that encourage and support decentralised and local entrepreneurial innovation that is greenhouse ecologically supportive. Practical regional Australian applications of this framework are outlined using concrete examples of ecological-based strategies.JEL Codes: E11, E12, O31, Q56, Q57, R58

The paper aims at providing specific evidence on the quite unexplored area of SME (Small-Medium Enterprises) strategies concerning environmental and techno-organisational innovations dynamics. The objective is to analyse what innovation drivers, with a particular focus on environmental innovations, are spurring SME labour productivity, the principal source of firm competitiveness. Results show that training and organisational innovations are the main “non environmental” significant drivers, operating effects through various different elements. The role of mere process/product innovation is instead not relevant. Environmental strategies appear to impact positively on firm productivity even with a short lag. Environmental R&D rarely available as a measure in eco-innovation studies- re-integrates into the picture the role of technological innovation inputs. Environmental policy-related costs do not seem to exert any negative effect on performances, as possibly expected. As a whole, comprehensive innovative SME strategies seem to effectively impact on firm performances both through organisational innovation levers and new eco-innovation strategies.JEL Codes: Q2, L60, Q13, O31

In this article, we argue that the concept of innovation capability has not been fully explored. In this way, we address the following research question: what are the nature and logics of the capabilities required to develop innovations within knowledge-intensive sectors? To study the addressed question, we develop a single case study and analyse its major implications for innovation management. Our case study focuses on the One Semi-Automated Forces (OneSAF) Objective System (OOS), a modelling and simulation technology to be used as a training and education system by the U.S. Army and parent services (Parsons and Wittman, 2005). By seeking to economise on resources dedicated to training and education technology, the U.S. Department of Defence have adopted a new strategy for software development, maintenance, updating and renewing (Herz, Lucas and Scott, 2006). Whether this new strategy becomes effective shall depend on the ability of the participants (e.g., user communities, military services, prime contractors, universities) to hold and develop appropriate capabilities.JEL Codes: O30, O31, O32, O39

On the sports goods market, brands permanently seek new means of conquest and strategic positioning in order to be more competitive. For that purpose, they place innovation more and more at the centre of their development. With the Decathlon Group, it is interesting to see how a retailer decided to take a way of “intrapreneurial” expansion consisting in carrying out an upstream vertical integration through the creation of independent and autonomous specialised brands (“passion-brands”). This paper shows how the European leader of the sports goods market set up, on the level of its R&D, an innovation and innovating ideas management system particularly powerful which distinguishes it from the international sports brands. Through two recent examples of innovation, we will see that this company has implemented a dual management in order to create new sports goods, one being part of a rational type process, and the other of a turbulent type process.JEL Codes: M31, M11, L1, O30