19th Annual SPRU
DPhil Day
30th April and 1st May 2013
University of Sussex,
Brighton, UK
Incorporating DSkills day
and dinner.
Closing event in partnership
with the SPRU series
Dialogue on Inclusive
Growth, Innovation and
Technology
Acknowledgements
The DPhil Day organising committee would like to thank SPRU (Science and Technology Policy
Research), BMEc (School of Business, Management and Economics) and DIG-IT (Dialogue on
Inclusive Growth, Innovation and Technology) for providing financial and practical support.
We are extremely grateful for the contributions of knowledge, time and intellectual
challenge provided by our honoured guests and contributors: Richard Nelson, Gordon MacKerron,
Ed Steinmueller, Andy Stirling, Mariana Mazzucato, Matthias Kollatz, Luc Soete, Frances
Stewart, Joe Bull, Yvan Biot, Alex Hunt, Adrian Smith, Adrian Ely, Elena Dennison and Ben
Martin.
We greatly appreciate the time and support of Tommaso Ciarli and Mariana Mazzucato in assisting
the organisation of the evening event in partnership with DIG-IT.
In addition, we would like to thank our esteemed session chairs: Puay Tang, Tommasso Ciarli,
Florian Kern, Jim Sumberg, Patrick Llerena and Daniele Rotolo
Finally, we would like to thank the following for their assistance, without whom
DPhil Day 2013 would be a nascent innovation without hope of takeoff: Janet French,
Joy Blake, Gordon MacKerron, Ian Davidson, all our volunteers, and our DPhil Day organising
colleagues from years past.
- The 2013 organising committee
Day 1: DSkills Day, Tuesday 30th of April
All sessions will be held in the Jubilee Building, Room 144
Registration, tea, coffee and lunch breaks will be held in the Jubilee Building, Room 155
9:00 – 9:30
Registration and welcome tea/coffee
9:30 – 9:45
Opening Remarks
Professor Gordon MacKerron (Director of SPRU)
9:45 – 10:30
Thinking about (Sustainability) Transitions at SPRU
Dr Adrian Smith (SPRU, Sussex Energy Group)
10:40 – 11:30
Overseas Fieldwork: Logistics, Ethics and Antibiotics
Dr Adrian Ely (SPRU, STEPS)
11:30 – 11:50
Tea/coffee break
11:50 – 12:40
Preparing a Proposal and the UK Funding Environment
Elena Dennison (School of Business, Management and Economics)
12:40 – 13:40
Lunch Break
13:40 – 15:00
Science, Technology and Innovation Outside of Academia
Panel Session with:
Joe Bull – EDF Energy
Alex Hunt – Brighton Green Homes
Yvan Biot – UK Department for International Development
15:00 – 15:50
Engaging with Policy-makers
Professor Andy Stirling (SPRU)
15:50 – 16:10
Tea/coffee break
16:10 – 17:00
20 Challenges for the Future of Innovation
Professor Ben Martin
17:00
Close for the day
18:30
Conference Dinner
The conference dinner will be held at Greco on King’s Road in Brighton, to which all delegates,
speakers and chairs are invited. Drinks will be available from 18:30 with the meal beginning at
19:00.
DPhil Day – Wednesday 1st of May
9:00 – 9:30
Registration and welcome tea/coffee
Room 155
9:30 – 9:45
Opening Remarks
Professor Andy Stirling (Research Director of SPRU)
Room 144
9:45 – 11:00
Session 1a: Innovation and Technology
Chair: Dr Tommaso Ciarli (SPRU)
Room 115
Session 1b: Energy Systems
Chair: Dr Florian Kern (SPRU)
Room 116
11:00 – 11:20
Tea/coffee break
Room 155
11:20 – 12:35
Session 2a: Energy
Chair: Professor Mariana Mazzucato (SPRU)
Room 115
Session 2b: Energy and Development
Chair: Professor Gordon Mackerron (SPRU)
Room 116
Session 2c: Development, Agriculture and Resilience
Chair: Dr Jim Sumberg (IDS)
Room 117
12:35 – 13:35
Lunch break
Room 155
13:35 – 14:50
Session 3a: Technology, medicine and biodiversity
Chair: Dr Daniele Rotolo (SPRU)
Room 115
Session 3b: Innovation and Economics
Chair: Professor Richard Nelson (Columbia University)
Room 116
14:55 – 16:10
Session 4a: Innovation Networks
Chair: Dr Puay Tang (SPRU)
Room 115
Session 4b: Innovation for Sustainability
Chair: Professor Patrick Llerena (University of Strasbourg)
Room 116
16:10 – 16:30
Tea/coffee break
16:30 – 17:00
Closing Remarks
Professor Ed Steinmueller (SPRU)
Room 144
17:30 – 19:30
Evening Event
“Inclusive Growth and Innovation: Contradictions vs Opportunities”
Roundtable event in partnership with the SPRU series Dialogue on
Inclusive Growth, Innovation and Technology
Panellists: Professor Dick Nelson, Professor Mariana Mazzucato, Dr.
Matthias Kollatz, Professor Luc Soete, Professor Frances Stewart, and
Professor Andy Stirling
Jubilee Lecture Theatre (ground floor)
Followed by a buffet and wine reception
DPhil Day Presentation Timetable
Jubilee Building Room:
Time
155
9:009:30
144
115
116
Session 1a:
Innovation &
Technology
Session 1b: Energy
Systems
Virginie Maghe
Nicolette Fox
Myra Mohnen
Daniel S. Hain
Muhamed Kudic
Claire Carter
117
Lecture
Theatre
Welcome
Opening
Remarks
9:309:45
9:4511:00
Paul Brockway
Tobias Møller Ruby
11:0011:20
Break
Session 2a: Energy
11:2012:35
Session 2b: Energy and
Development
Session 2c: Development,
Agriculture and Resilience
Emily Cox
Tomás Saieg
Rachael Taylor
Matt Gross
Lorenz Gollwitzer
Ruth Segal
Sandra Pointel
Aditya Bahadur
Mike Fell
Xinfang Wang
12:3513:35
Lunch
13:3514:50
14:5516:10
16:1016:30
16:3017:00
17:0017:30
17:3019:30
Stephen Whitfield
Session 3a:
Technology,
Medicine, &
Biodiversity
Session 3b: Innovation
& Economics
Edwin Cristancho
Elsie Onsongo
Mickael Pero
Philippa Crane
Victoria Blessing
Jing Xiao
Session 4a:
Innovation Networks
Jose Miguel Natera
Serena Masino
Session 4b: Innovation
for Sustainability
Diego Chavarro
Fabio Staude
Jose Christian
Jose Opazo
Rachael Durrant
Marton Fabok
Saoud H Al Shoaili
Roman Jurowetzki
Break
Closing
Remarks
Evening
event
DSkills Day: Session Overviews
Session 1: Adrian Smith, “Thinking about (Sustainability) Transitions at SPRU”
09:45 - 10:30, Room 144
The aim of this session is to discuss the variety of ways that researchers in SPRU frame and
conceive processes of socio-technical transformation. Different analytical approaches will be
introduced, including long-waves, multi-level perspectives, technology systems, pathways, and
practices. In addition, the presentation will mention different methods for appraising
transformations-in-the-making used in SPRU research. Discussion will then consider relations
between problem definition and analytical framing, possible linkages or complementarities
between approaches, as well as tensions and incompatibilities.
Session 2: Adrian Ely, “Overseas Fieldwork: Logistics, Ethics and Antibiotics”
10:40 – 11:30, Room 144
Many doctoral projects involve (sometimes prolonged) periods of overseas fieldwork, the success
of which is vital to the research process. This session will outline the main steps in preparation
for overseas fieldwork – academic and logistical. It will also discuss some of the ethical issues
involved, often culturally-specific and unfamiliar to the early-career researcher. Lastly, the
session will cover some of the preparation required for remote (rural) fieldwork when the
researcher is isolated from medical and other services that might be the norm in their home
country. The speaker will draw on fieldwork experiences in science policy research across Europe,
the USA, East and South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Session 3: Elena Dennison, “Preparing a Proposal and the UK Funding Environment”
11:50 – 12:40, Room 144
During this session Elena will talk about the current funding environment and the key elements to
consider when preparing a proposal for funding. She will also give an overview of the main
funders and funding schemes suitable for Early Career Researchers and information about where
to get support when preparing your proposal.
Session 4: Panel workshop, “Science Technology and Innovation outside of academia”
13:40 - 15:00, Room 144
One career choice for postgraduate students of science and technology policy issues and related
areas once they get their degree is to stay in academia and engage in teaching, research and other
academic activities. But that is not their only career opportunity. In this panel session three
speakers who have gone through postgraduate studies - Joe Bull from EDF, Alex Hunt from Bright
Green Homes and Yvan Biot from the UK Department for International Development - will tell
us about their professional experiences outside academia, touching on issues such as the specific
tasks involved in their work, what they find most interesting and challenging about their roles,
how useful they have found their academic skills in their activities, which skills a university
education does not usually provide and where they believe academic skills are most needed outside
academia. Each speaker will give a 15-minute presentation, after which there will be a Q&A
session.
Speakers
Alex Hunt is a Partner in Brighton Green Homes, an eco-renovation
specialist company operating in Brighton since 2008. A Director of the
Green Building Partnership, a not for profit cooperative of eco renovation
specialists and also Operations Director of Brighton and Hove Energy
Services Company (BHESCo), a new community energy company based in
Brighton & Hove. Alex sits on the advisory committee for the Eco
Technology Show and the Sustainable Energy Working Group for BHCC.
Joe Bull is a ‘Smart Innovation Manager’ at EDF, one of the ‘Big 6’ energy
utilities. He is working on the development of EDF’s new Smart Meters
programme, which seeks to put customers at the heart of energy innovation
that will improve energy efficiency and revolutionise consumer
relationships. Prior to this, he studied at SPRU, graduating with an MSc
(distinction) in Climate Change and Policy. He also worked as a lead
researcher and analyst for the Brighton Energy Co-op.
Yvan Biot is a senior scientist in the office of DFID’s Chief Scientific
Advisor. Prior to this role, he headed DFID’s Climate Change and
Environment research team. From 2008-09 Yvan was a member of the Board
of the Adaptation Fund. He joined the home civil service in 2004 after a +20
yrs overseas career in soils, land use and forestry and is a Corresponding
Member of the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences, Belgium.
Session 5: Andy Stirling, “Engaging with policy-makers”
15:00 – 15:50, Room 144
As reflected in its listing as a globally leading ‘thinktank’, policy engagement has always been
central to SPRU’s academic research. Many SPRU researchers have given high-level policy
advice to government bodies in the UK and overseas on topics like science and innovation policy,
uncertainty and participation, technology assessment and foresight. Andy Stirling has done a share
of this, including for the European Commission on Energy Policy and Science in Society Advisory
and in the UK on toxic substances, environment policy, GM foods and risk governance. This
session will introduce some opportunities and challenges involved in meeting and engaging with
policy-makers in science and technology policy.
Session 6: Ben Martin, “20 Challenges for the Future of Innovation”
16:10 – 17:00, Room 144
The field of innovation studies is now approximately half a century old. The occasion has been
marked by several studies looking back to identify the main contributions and advances that have
been made. In this paper, starting from a list of 20 major advances over the field’s history, I
propose 20 challenges for the coming decades. In 1900, David Hilbert compiled a list of 23
unsolved mathematical problems that had a profound influence on mathematicians over the 20th
Century. The intention here is to prompt a debate among the innovation studies community on
what are, or should be, the key challenges for us, and on what sort of field we aspire to be.
DPhil Day Presentations: Abstracts
Session 1a: Innovation and Technology
Chaired by Dr Tommasso Ciarli. Jubilee Building Room 115
Institutional set-up of innovation policies: a systemic point of view (Belgian case study)
Virginie Maghe, iCite – Dulbea – Université Libre de Bruxelles
This paper aims to develop an integrated framework for the analysis of the institutional set-up of
innovation policies based on the innovation system context. To do so, a classification of national
innovation policies described in the Erawatch database is realized, according to three aspects of the
system: the objectives pursued, the instruments used and the organizations targeted by each examined
policy measure. Taxonomy of those three dimensions is built from theoretical and empirical
considerations and leads to the construction of functional matrices that shows the global distribution of all
the national policy measures among objectives, instruments and organizations. The implementation of
this model to classify Belgian policy measures permits a more global view of the interdependency
between the three dimensions, shedding the light on the innovation system’s components targeted by
public authorities.
Knowledge Spillovers from Clean Technologies: A Patent Citation Analysis
Myra Mohnen, UCL and Grantham Institute at LSE
Can policies encouraging clean innovation lead to growth in the short run in addition to helping the
environment? If firms choose research areas according to private profit maximizing criteria, such growth
effects can only arise if non-internalized knowledge spillovers from innovation are larger for clean
technologies than for the technologies they replace; i.e. ``dirty'' technologies. This paper uses patent citation
data to investigate the relative intensity of knowledge spillovers in clean and dirty technologies in four
technological fields: cars, fuel, energy production and lighting. We find that clean patents receive between
30% and 70% more citations than dirty patents in the same technological field. Clean patents are also 80%
more likely to be a 'breakthrough' technology, defined as a patent falling into the top 1% of the citation
distribution. Moreover, clean technological knowledge is more likely to flow outside of its originating
technological field, suggesting it has more general applications. These results hold for all four technological
fields. Comparing clean patents to other emerging technology fields such as nanotechnologies, biotechs or
IT , we find a more mixed picture ,with some fields exhibiting higher and others lower spillovers than clean
technologies. This suggests that the clean advantage could be a feature of the relative novelty of the field.
Analyzing the dynamics of innovation networks in the German laser industry – what does really
matter, cognitive or geographical proximity?
Daniel S. Hain Muhamed Kudic, DRUID, Aalborg University IWH
Over the past years, the analysis of antecedents and consequences of innovation networks have attracted
great attention in the literature. Since the seminal contributions of Boschma (2005), at the very latest, we
know that various dimensions of proximity affect tie creation processes in the network space and the
resulting innovative performance alike. Empirical research confirms these theoretical considerations and
shows that combined proximity effect can be complementary, substitutional or independent in nature
(Whittington et al., 2009).
Additionally, studies focusing on the structural dimension of interorganizational innovation networks have
enhanced our understanding of how and why network patterns affect innovation performance on aggregated
(Fleming et al., 2007) as well as on firm level (Schilling & Phelps 2007, Kudic 2013), and to what extend
a firm’s strategic positioning within these complex organizational structures may affect its innovative
performance (Baum et al., 2000). A further fundamental insight is that networks are by no means static but
rather continuously changing in their structural configuration (Doreian & Stokman, 2005). Consequently,
an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms driving the evolution of innovation networks is a necessary
prerequisite for analyzing of the collective nature of innovation processes. Despite all advances made so
far we still face some widely unexplored but essential questions. While former research has produced some
notable insights how network structures affect their actors’ characteristics, and vice versa, most studies
neglect that both endogenous as well as exogenous determinants may affect the evolution of innovation
networks over time. Moreover, we still do not exactly know whether potential interdependencies among
some selected proximity dimensions may determine cooperation decisions and, thus, tie-formation and tie
termination processes in the network space. Consequently, the aim of this study is to analyze as to what
extend endogenous (i.e. cognitive proximity) and/or the exogenous (i.e. geographical proximity) – and
potential interdependencies between these dimensions – affect the structural evolution of
interorganizational innovation network in the German laser industry.
From a theoretical point of view we draw upon a Neo-Schumpeterian perspective (Hanusch & Pyka, 2007).
We consider innovation networks as an integral part of a spatial and sectoral bounded innovation system
(Cooke, 2001; Malerba, 2002) which provides the basis of interorganizational knowledge transfer and
learning processes and lays the ground for collective innovation processes (Pyka, 2002). The German laser
industry provides an ideal setting to study the dynamics of innovation networks due to the science-based
nature of the industry and pronounced cooperation propensities among the organizations involved (Kudic
et al., 2012). From a methodological point of view, we pursue new paths by utilizing a stochastic actorbased approach (Snijders et al. 2010) – a novel but powerful technique – allowing us to analyze endogenous
and exogenous determinants and mechanisms that force innovation network to change over time. A major
merit of this kind of model is that it allows us to model the co-evolution of actors’ characteristics and
behavior with the overall network structure. We make use of a unique longitudinal dataset encompassing
the entire population of 233 German laser source manufacturers between 1990 and 2010 (cf. Buenstorf
2007; Kudic 2013). We draw upon two official archive data sources to gather data on publicly funded R&D
cooperation projects and construct annual innovation networks: (I) The Foerderkatalog database provided
by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF); (II) the CORDIS databases provided
by the European Community Research and Development Information Service. We use patent data to
construct cognitive proximity measures and we use address and geo-coding data to account for the firms’
location in geographical space. By doing so we attempt to enrich the body of knowledge on the evolution
of innovation network with a more nuanced understanding on the interplay between mutually
interdependent – and partially time-variant – proximity dimensions.
Session 1b: Energy Systems
Chaired by Dr Florian Kern. Jubilee Building Room 116
Domestic routines and energy consumption within the kitchen
Nicolette Fox: Sussex Energy Group, SPRU
My PhD is part of a wider research consortium looking at a future autonomic power network that places
the active participation of households at its core. One approach to this is to look at the evolution of energy
intensive domestic routines, or ‘social practices’, such as cooking and cleaning, rather than just focusing
on the behaviour of individuals. Social practice theory can lead to an understanding of how such domestic
routines have evolved and the impact on energy consumption of both macro and micro influences, for
example new products, technologies and lifestyles.
This project will be based on a 12-month longitudinal panel study with a group of 12 households. The
research will look at the micro level of family dynamics and how this impacts on social practices within
the kitchen and energy consumption. It will also look at the macro impact on social practices when you
introduce a new technology into the home in the form of a smart meter, as well as a new time of use energy
pricing structure.
Sample selection will be based on the different social practices undertaken in the kitchen, as well as
household compositions. The sample will be divided into two groups of households. The first group of six
will have a smart meter installed with an in-house display; the second group will be given a time of use
tariff which will offer different energy prices for different times of day.
There will be three opportunities to gather information from household members over the 12 month period.
The first will set the benchmark of practices and energy use that is currently used in the home before any
external interventions. The other two will see what happens to social practices and energy consumption
following the introduction of a smart meter and time of use tariff.
The research will produce a set of narratives based on social practices in the kitchen in the form of
interviews and other materials. For example, I am currently looking at the practicality of using video diaries
and photographs taken by household members, as well as videoing reenactments of social practices. In
addition, electricity data will be collected during the year documenting energy use within the home.
Net energy availability to the economy due to changes in global energy supply systems: a scenariobased investigation
Claire Carter, SPRU, University of Sussex
Net energy analysis or energy return on energy investment, is the study of the energy surplus provided by
energy systems i.e. the energy supply in excess of the energy inputs (i.e. extraction and logistics,
transformation capital equipment and machinery, infrastructure, operation and maintenance). Net energy
or energy surplus in energy systems that is in excess of that required for basic human needs facilitates wider
economic activity. Increased energy surplus provides greater opportunities for economic activity. Therefore
a change in net energy has implications for both the economy and society.
There is recent evidence that net energy has declined for conventional fossil fuel energy sources. At the
same time countries are under pressure to increase the proportion of renewable energy sources in the energy
supply mix in order to mitigate dangerous climate change.
Changes in net energy can occur for the following reasons: change in the flow rate from the energy source,
change in input energy required for the same level of energy output, or both can happen at the same time.
It is not only the size of the input and output energy flows but also the timing of these flows that becomes
particularly important in the transition to a lower carbon economy.
Net energy analysis is a tool that can provide information about resource scarcity that economic metrics do
not capture. Incorporating the time dimension is necessary to capture the interdependencies and
complexities in such a transition.
System dynamics modeling is a technique that lends itself well to investigating how complex systems
behave over time. It is therefore ideal for considering the implications in the transition of the energy supply
system. This research will therefore construct a system dynamics model to simulate how the global energy
supply will behave over the period to 2050 under different scenarios.
While many energy models consider a period to 2100, the period to 2050 has been selected to capture the
period of most intense transition in energy supply systems and likely effects on energy flows.
The scenarios that will be applied will be taken from IEA’s “World Energy Outlook” annual report.
Peak exergy’ and the ‘exergy multiplier effect’: results and implications of 1900-2010 exergy
conversion efficiency studies for the UK, US and Japan
Paul Brockway, Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds
My presentation examines the conversion of exergy (available energy) into useful work (actual energy
used) and the implications on future energy demands and emissions reduction strategies. It therefore fits
best into the SPRU DPhil day theme of Energy systems and energy policy. The ‘research gap’ I am
seeking to address is as follows. Previous work by Ayres and Warr suggested Japan’s exergy conversion
efficiency peaked c. 1980, due to a phenomenon termed ‘efficiency dilution’ (the greater use of less
exergy-efficient technologies). However, though the UK and US conversion efficiencies had slowed
down since 1980 it was unclear if ‘peaking’ had occurred.
Thus my presentation’s central question is: “has exergy conversion efficiency peaked in the UK and US,
and if so what are the reasons and implications?” After presenting the methodology used to calculate the
2001-2010 extension to Ayres and Warr’s 1900-2000 dataset, two key results are proposed. First, ‘peak
exergy’ has occurred in the UK (1994) and the US (1999), and each has declined thereafter. I suggest this
is due to ‘dilution’ effects in combination with fossil fuel technologies reaching practical efficiency
limits. Second, a 3-4 fold increase in exergy efficiency (described as an ‘exergy multiplier’) is observed
for the UK, US and Japan over the twentieth century, but then the multiplier reduces below 1.00 for the
decade 2000-2010.
My ‘peak exergy’ and ‘exergy multiplier’ findings if valid have several key implications. First, future
energy consumption is underestimated as end energy (useful work) increases would come directly from
exergy without an ‘exergy multiplier’. Second, larger non-efficiency CO2 reduction ‘wedges’ such as
renewables and breakthrough technologies are needed to compensate for lower exergy efficiency. Third,
‘peak exergy’ may slow down Ayres and Warr’s economic ‘growth engine’. As the suggested implications
are significant, further work to test these findings are proposed.
Characteristics of networks in energy efficiency research, development and demonstration – a
comparison of actors, technological domains and network structure in seven research areas
Tobias Møller Ruby, Technical University of Denmark – Management Engineering
There is clearly a need for more energy efficient products and solutions in order to meet today’s energy
and environmental issues. Research, development and demonstration (RD&D) is one way of supporting
technological development and knowledge diffusion - but there is no such thing as “just” RD&D in energy
efficiency as it encompasses a multitude of different sub-areas, institutions, actors, markets etc.
Through the use of network analysis on unique RD&D project data from Denmark the study provides new
insights into knowledge and inter-organisational networks in applied energy efficiency research and
development. The study enriches the understanding of RD&D in energy efficiency with a new view on the
knowledge and innovation dynamics in seven sub-areas.
Session 2a: Energy
Chaired by Prof. Mariana Mazzucato. Jubilee Building Room 115
Assessing the electricity security of the UK in a transition to a low-carbon economy
Emily Cox, Sussex Energy Group. SPRU, University of Sussex
This project assesses the future electricity security of the UK in the context of a transition to a low-carbon
energy system. A new 10-indicator framework for security of both supply and demand is developed and
applied to an existing set of low-carbon transition pathways for the UK electricity system from now until
2050. Recognising that concepts of ‘security’ and ‘risk’ are inherently contingent and multivalent, the
framework rejects the reductionist-aggregative approaches commonly adopted by previous studies, and
instead utilises a mixed-method approach with an emphasis on assessing both short-term ‘shocks’ and longterm ‘stresses’ to the electricity system. It is imperative that multiple uncertainties, assumptions and
subjectivities involved in measuring security and risk are taken into account; therefore the results from the
assessment are discussed and debated with key energy stakeholders and experts, who give their input on
the validity of the framework and their preferred options and weightings of the various aspects. The project
seeks to understand from these discussions why certain framings and perceptions of electricity security
become dominant in policy-making, and how these then translate into the ‘real world’ of policy
recommendations.
How can residential electricity load shifting in the UK be maximised under time-of-use tariffs?
Matt Gross, SPRU, University of Sussex.
The need to modernise the UK electricity system is widely recognised. Key drivers for change include
increased integration of renewable energy, the expectation of greater electrical loads from electric vehicles
and heat pumps, and the risk of supply shortages due to insufficient generation capacity. Demand-side
management, which aims to reduce energy consumption and shift electricity use off-peak, will play a
crucial role in this transformation.
Under most electricity tariffs in the UK, customers pay the same price for a unit of electricity regardless of
when they use it. However, this pricing model does not reflect the wholesale cost of electricity at different
times of the day. Utilities can incentivise load shifting by offering cheaper electricity at off-peak times.
Time-of-use tariffs are thus one way in which demand might be harmonised more closely with supply.
This research examines how best to promote load shifting by residential customers in the UK. Two central
issues are explored. First, it considers how the adoption of time-of-use tariffs might be maximised, by
examining how customers can be encouraged to participate and how utilities can frame their offerings to
increase take-up. Second, it explores whether ambient energy monitors which provide 'glanceable'
information about tariff costs could assist customers in shifting a greater proportion of their electricity
usage to off-peak periods.
The Fogg Behaviour Model (FBM) - a conceptual framework developed in the marketing sphere - is applied
to demonstrate how the notions of motivation, simplicity and triggering can be harnessed to promote the
adoption of time-of-use tariffs and optimise load shifting. This theory is extended through an analysis of
how loss aversion serves to hinder load shifting, with a view to identifying policy options that would reduce
the impact of this potential 'game stopper'.
How does perceived personal control affect consumers’ acceptance of residential energy demand
side management programmes?
Mike Fell, UCL Energy Institute
Residential energy demand side management (DSM) programmes aim to influence when energy is used in
people’s homes, the better to balance it with supply. In the UK, this is important in permitting anticipated
increases in electricity use that growth in electric heating and vehicles will bring, as well as greater
penetration of intermittent (low-carbon) forms of supply such as wind energy. Demand can be managed by
alerting consumers to periods of high demand (through price signals or other means) in the hope that they
will shift their demand to other times, or by directly controlling services such as heating/cooling and
appliances such as fridges in people’s homes. However, research has indicated that people have concerns
about the possible reductions in their personal control that they perceive such approaches could entail. It is
not, however, clear:
- what precisely they are worried about losing control over,
- why they perceive this as a problem,
- which aspects or antecedents of control (e.g. trust, choice, knowledge, usability, etc.) in
particular are leading them to be concerned (and why),
- if and how this differs significantly between demographics (and why), and
- what could be done to lessen their concern, or give them less reason to be concerned in the first
place.
Improving our understanding in these areas should make it possible to design and present DSM
programmes in such a way as to minimize people’s fears about any perceived reduction in control, and
therefore maximize the likelihood of participation (at least in respect of control). Currently at the literature
review stage, my presentation will expand on the above issues, summarize existing research in the area and
outline my own proposed work.
Exploration of High-emitting Households in the UK
Xinfang Wang, Sustainable Consumption Institution, Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research,
University of Manchester
Policies for addressing climate change have been economy wide, little attention has been paid to ‘tailoring’
policies towards the particular high impact groups within society, which may provide for a more effective,
efficient and equitable delivery of a low carbon society. With a new angle of separating the high-emitting
groups from the general households in the UK in order to promote more reasonable and realistic policies
focusing on household emission reductions, this paper concentrated on exploring the key reasons that
caused the significant different levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions between the high-emitting
households and the general ones. Basing on the consumption-based approach, the paper estimated
household emissions by linking their expenditure and corresponding emission intensities. The estimation
uses secondary data that are collected from the Economic and Social Data Service in the UK.
Further, the distributions of UK household emissions are presented by Lorenz curves. After that, four
important household socioeconomic factors including household income, household owned number of cars,
house size and household size are investigated on their influence of household emissions from key emitting
categories through linear regression analyses. It is found that emissions from transport are more related to
household owned number of cars because of its high influence on transport fuel. Emissions from electricity
and gas used at home are more related to house size. In addition, household sizes have much less influence
on emissions from food and non-alcoholic drink among high emitters comparing to all households.
Moreover, among high emitters, households prefer more driving and less use of other transport tools with
the increase of household size. The analyses further support the standpoint of treating the high-emitting
groups differently from the general households as an implication for policies projected on GHG emission
reduction from the UK households.
Session 2b: Energy and Development
Chaired by Prof. Gordon MacKerron, Jubilee Building Room 116
The Incentive Structures of Nonprofit Public Utilities
Tomás Saieg, SPRU, University of Sussex
Back in the first half of the 20th century, the Chilean government started a program of rural electrification
so that electricity would reach not only big cities but also more remote areas. Some 20 of the cooperatives
set up under the program survive to this day. Though none of them are very large (the largest has some
11500 members), six of the largest nine among (those with more than 1000 members) have surprisingly
followed a similar pattern of development: they have been turned into holdings which are now engaged in
activities sometimes completely unrelated to their original purpose, such as retail commerce, internet
provision, car selling and so on.
It is known that cooperatives have different incentive structures than other kinds of companies, though it
has also been shown how ownership structures are just one of the many factors that affect the way an
organization develops. By looking at explanations for the trajectories of development that Chilean
cooperatives have followed, and in particular by looking for ways of explaining the recurrent 'holding'
trajectory, I hope to discover how ownership structure interacts with other factors to influence the
development of organizations, with a view to informing the broader issue of what role non-profit ownership
structures can play in a low carbon future.
Community-based Rural Electrification in East Africa – An Opportunity for Collective Action?
Lorenz Gollwitzer, SPRU, University of Sussex
Without doubt access to reliable and affordable electricity is a critical precondition for economic
development. Yet, over 1.3 billion people worldwide, according to recent International Energy Agency
estimates, still lack access to this fundamental commodity. Electrification rates in East Africa in particular
can be as low as 9% overall, dropping to well below 5% in rural areas. Given the lack of access to grid
electricity and the low levels of reliability of these grids even in urban areas, rural areas with very low
population densities have very little hope of being connected to a national electricity grid in the foreseeable
future. As a result distributed off-grid electricity generation in village-scale mini-grids using renewable
energy sources must be scaled up to significant levels.
My research will study what assumptions need to be made and what conclusions can be drawn from treating
the electricity in such isolated mini-grids as a common pool resource (CPR), as well as what opportunities
these assumptions leave for community-level collective action. I will then adapt theoretical enabling
conditions for CPR management in the context of natural resources to apply to the case of a man-made
resource system in the form of an electricity mini-grid. Based on this theoretical framework I will then
develop appropriate institutional design principles for rural electricity cooperatives in East Africa, drawing
on experiences in community-based natural resource management as well as agricultural cooperatives in
the area.
Governance of decentralised energy systems
Sandra Pointel, SPRU, University of Sussex
Decentralised renewable energy technologies (DETs) can play a key role in reconciling two major global
challenges: climate change mitigation and energy access. Yet despite their promising environmental and
social benefits, their deployment and diffusion have remained limited. The new international agenda to
provide “sustainable energy for all” by 2030 has revived previous expectations for DETs to contribute to
low carbon development and help developing countries to “leapfrog” dirty stages of development
experienced in industrialised countries.
But leapfrogging is far from a straightforward process. Initiatives to promote energy access, involving
various actors, have taken place at national and local level for several decades with variable results.
Measures to increase energy supply, based largely on grid expansion, have often by-passed poor and rural
communities, while projects targeted specifically at increasing energy access for the poor have not taken
full advantage of renewable energy technologies. In Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, many people remain
without electricity and rely on traditional biomass, despite numerous interventions and abundant renewable
energy sources.
Previous DETs projects and programmes or “sustainability experiments”, however, provide rich empirical
insights into transition challenges in countries where traditional and modern energy systems coexist. A
broader approach to energy and development through the lens of a transition framework allows for a more
systemic approach to barriers and opportunities in building decentralised energy systems. This includes not
only a focus on learning processes involved in the experiments but also a specific attention to political
drivers fostering or impeding the development of these embryonic niches and their relation with policy
making.
Session 2c: Development, Agriculture and Resilience
Chaired by Dr Jim Sumberg. Jubilee Building Room 117
Creating resilience through social innovation: Comparing approaches to participation in
agricultural development projects in Ghana
Rachael Taylor, SPRU, University of Sussex
The concept of bottom-up, farmer-first initiatives moved to the forefront of development rhetoric in the
1980s. This required scientists and development practitioners to learn from rural farmers, allowing the
transfer of knowledge to flow in multiple directions rather than the stereotypical north-to-south. Despite 30
years of discourse and practice, many projects described as participatory are defined as induced, or
prescribed, rather than allowing communities to determine the management and activities of such
initiatives. Many natural resource management (NRM) projects do not consider livelihoods of local
communities, resulting in negative opinions of such projects locally. Disregard of NRM practices lowers
the resilience of positive outcomes from project activities, particularly in cases where active
implementation of the project is only funded for a limited time period. Studies have shown that greater
involvement of local communities from the outset and strong local leadership increase the likelihood of
beneficial outcomes and lasting impacts of the project.
This research questions whether the type of participation, direction of knowledge flows, and the level of
social innovation increase the resilience of positive outcomes for social-ecological systems. This research
views agriculture and NRM through a co-evolutionary, complex adaptive social-ecological systems
framework. Applying a resilience approach to social-ecological systems, this research aims to identify how
social innovation impacts the resilience of project outcomes identified as positive for the beneficiaries and
local natural environment.
Using qualitative methods, this research compares two participatory agricultural and NRM projects in
Northern Ghana. One is implemented by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid
Tropics and is designed to provide research outcomes for broader application in West Africa and the semiarid tropics. The second is implemented by an NGO and aims to develop socio-economic conditions for
project beneficiaries by supporting sustainable livelihoods.
Contested framings of ‘agricultural research for development’
Ruth Segal, SPRU, University of Sussex
Since the 2008-9 global food price crisis, there has been a renewed interest in the functioning of the global
agri-food system, in particular how to ensure that a growing global population can be fed sustainably and
equitably. However, understandings of ‘sustainability’ are debated, and the policy, development and
technology approaches needed to create a ‘sustainable’ system are contested between different groups.
What constitutes a sustainable food system? Sustaining what, producing what and for whom? And how do
different answers to these questions affect policy and technology choices which shape the global agri-food
system?
As part of this debate, there has been an increased focus on the role, direction and effectiveness of
international public agricultural research in helping to reduce hunger and increase food production
‘sustainably’ and ‘equitably’.
This research aims to increase understandings of how different ways of framing debates about the global
agri-food system have affected decisions on the direction of public agricultural research. It will examine
whether – and how – changing pressures on the food system are leading to new framings of the debate that
might challenge, or reinforce, the mainstream ‘productionist’ paradigm.
It will do this through an examination of current and historical attempts to reform agricultural research
institutions, specifically the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research), and ask
how CGIAR has responded to changing pressures and new challenges; how – or whether – innovations are
taken up institutionally; and how diverse voices have – or have not – influenced institutional change.
The research aims to examine this process in order to shed light on the dynamics of the debate in food and
agriculture research, in particular how dominant development models maintain their dominance or are
challenged by alternative approaches.
The Policy Climate for Climate Policy: Examining the politics of building climate change resilience
Aditya Bahadur, IDS, University of Sussex
This paper seeks to examine the manner in which urban policy contexts and initiatives to build climate
change resilience interact. For analysis, the urban ‘policy context’ is broken into its three constituent
parts-actors, spaces and discourses. This permits a clear understanding of how discourses attached to
urban resilience are dissonant with those prevailing in ossified urban policy environments; the influence
of actor networks, epistemic communities and policy entrepreneurs in helping climate change resilience
gain traction in urban settings; and the dynamic interaction of interest, agendas and power in decision
making that accompanies resilience building processes.
This analysis takes place by employing a case study of a major, international urban climate change
resilience initiative unfolding in two Indian cities. Using data gathered through a variety of rigorous
qualitative research methods employed over 14 months of empirical inquiry; the paper provides an insight
into the politics of an urban climate change resilience policy initiative aimed at helping some of the world’s
most vulnerable communities deal with the exigencies of a changing climate.
Findings from this study can inform urban development policy in urbanising countries across the globe and
will allow resilience project planners to calibrate their efforts to better suit urban policy environments. The
paper also highlights issues of politics and power and argues that they are more significant determinants of
processes to deal with climate impacts than conventional, science-led analyses would suggest. In essence,
the paper seeks to critically evaluate the usefulness of ‘resilience’ (a recent, innovative policy response to
engaging with climate impacts) in helping those on the frontlines of the battle against climate change.
Weighing up the Risks: An Assessment of the Transgenic ‘Water Efficient Maize’ Pathway in
Kenyan Agriculture
Stephen Whitfield, Institute of Development Studies)
Across Sub Saharan Africa, a growing number of donor-funded initiatives and public-private partnerships
are developing genetically modified crops and heralding them as a solution to the ‘threats’ faced by
smallholder farmers. Changing climates, market challenges, and food insecurity all enter the narratives of
African agriculture within which these technocratic solutions are advanced. However, whilst uncertainties
about future change undoubtedly present risks to the smallholder farmer, many see such a technological
‘solution’ as bringing risks of its own. Uncertainties about health and environmental impacts and fears of
corporate takeover inevitably characterise debates about GMOs at all levels, from international trade
negotiations and national biosafety policy making to community barazas and household discussions. Risk-
benefit arguments are often polarised and, in spite of what may be claimed, are inevitably based on different
combinations of evidence, assumption, experience, values, and trust.
The Water Efficient Maize for Africa (WEMA) initiative in Kenya – a public-private initiative (involving
CIMMYT, Monsanto and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) that seeks to develop and disseminate
genetically-engineered drought-tolerant maize to smallholder farmers – provides an interesting case study
through which to critically consider the viability of a biotechnology pathway in African agriculture.
The research being presented is based on 12 months of Kenya-based fieldwork, completed in December
2012, which looked at how different stakeholders in the future of Kenyan maize farming envisage
uncertainty, interpret incomplete knowledge, and weigh up risks. With reference to the research findings,
the technocratic narrative advanced by WEMA, and the assumptions and evidence on which it is based, is
compared and contrasted with those of smallholder maize farmers and Kenyan biosafety regulators.
The overall argument made is that open and inclusive dialogue between stakeholders about the nature of
knowledge and uncertainty and the collective identification and negotiation of assumptions (rather than
their denial within discourses of ‘evidence’-based policy) must be the basis for intervention.
Session 3a: Technology, medicine and biodiversity
Chaired by Dr Daniele Rotolo Jubilee Building Room 115
Public goods associated with even distribution of benefits arising from biodiversity
Edwin Cristancho, SPRU, University of Sussex
The research proposal analyses differences between biodiverse and non-biodiverse countries (developing
and developed) in generating and using public goods for a more even and fair distribution of benefits arising
from biodiversity. Public goods (i.e. botanical gardens or scientific research about biodiversity) define
conditions “in which genetic resources are accessed, and how the benefits of their use are shared, can create
incentives for their conservation and sustainable use, and can contribute to the creation of a fairer and more
equitable economy to support sustainable development” (CBD, 2011). Exploring differences between
public goods characteristics of developed and developing countries can inspire policy issues for creating,
maintaining or using public goods by developing (biodiverse) countries. The hypothesis is that pure public
goods promote conditions for a more even distribution of benefits. The case studies will involve processes
of access and benefit-sharing in two main categories: developed (United Kingdom) and developing
(Colombia or Peru) countries and, different links into a value-chain will be studied. Information will be
collected by interviews and from secondary sources.
Identifying Emerging Technologies: An Application to Nanotechnology
Mickael Pero, Fraunhofer ISI (Germany); Bocconi University (Italy)
Research and inventive activities represent core elements of science-based companies’ comparative
advantage. In a competitive environment, this requires methods to identify at an early stage the most
promising technologies within the scope of the companies’ business model. Generally, they frame their
technological strategies on personal expertise, intuition or gut feelings but this intangible decision process
faces possible adverse effects like imperfect information or tunnel vision. The technology scanning
literature usually tackles this limitation by analyzing patent trends in absolute terms. However, this
approach disregards both the relative nature of technology emergence, as well as the scientific dynamics
behind technologies. This paper proposes an alternative decision support tool which identifies technologies
with relative emerging patterns based on science and technology data, and connected by adequate –and
expert reviewed- keyword strategies. Emerging technologies are identified from Sharpe ratios in a two
dimensional S&T framework. An empirical test is conducted in the field of nanotechnology where
emerging technologies are found to belong to diverse material types, although the largest dynamic is
observed for carbon based technologies. This method appears as adequate to support the decision process
regarding companies’ technological choices by providing insightful information on ongoing emerging
technologies.
Why do some drug projects succeed in development and others fail? An exploration into the
conditions influencing the success and failure of drug projects aimed at rare cancers in the UK
using Qualitative Comparative Analysis
Philippa Crane, SPRU, University of Sussex
The research project summarised here will inform both policy and industry by identifying socio-technical
conditions that lead to successful drug innovation. Motivation for this research stems from the question of
why drugs for certain diseases are developed while other potential projects are not advanced, the answer to
which is commonly perceived to be market failure. By focusing on the development of drugs for rare
cancers, this research will also contribute towards the understanding of dynamics of innovation in the
emerging field of personalised medicine, where drugs are developed for small populations of patients (Boon
and Moors, 2008). The research questions to be addressed are: 1) Why do some drug projects succeed in
development, and others fail? 2) Assuming a complex web of interactions exists, what combinations of
these causal conditions contribute towards successful drug innovation in rare cancers? 3) How do these
combinations of causal conditions interact to determine success?
The research combines contributions from both the evolutionary economics and sociology (science and
technology studies) literature, to formulate a framework for identifying factors that influence drug
innovation. This framework is used in the context of a Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) to build
a picture of the dynamics surrounding particular drug innovation projects. QCA allows for a number
(typically between 10 and 200) of case studies to be compare in line with their membership into sets
(determined by the theoretical framework). The method, using set theory and Boolean algebra to compare
cases, produces an overall picture of the necessary and sufficient conditions contributing towards an
outcome (in this case successful production of therapeutic drugs). This methodology will allow the present
research to provide a new perspective on the conditions influencing the drug development process and
therefore provide an insight into ways in which these conditions can be manipulated to facilitate innovation
in different directions.
Use and changes through use of lower limb prostheses in two orthopaedic centres in Malawi
Victoria Blessing, SPRU
The provision of healthcare in many developing countries remains unsatisfactory at present. The reasons
for this situation are manifold, but one problem seems to be the limited use of medical technologies (WHO
2000, p.10; Malkin 2007, p.760). Medical technologies could, however, help to significantly improve the
lives of certain patients, such as those with missing limbs. The limited use of these technologies is partly
attributed to the need to import them from outside a country or even a continent. This means that they were
developed in and for very different circumstances to the ones they are actually used in (Bonair et al. 1989,
p.769; Free 2004, p.S4; Malkin 2007, pp.760-761). In such cases, a further local development of the
technology in question could greatly enhance its suitability for the local conditions and therefore also its
use.
This study therefore investigates how medical technologies are changed during their use, as this is an
important part of a possible further local development and could ultimately show how this development
could be fostered.
The specific technology which will be analysed are lower limb prostheses in Malawi. I focus on qualitative
data, and have collected data in two orthopaedic centres in the form of participant observations of the
making of prostheses and semi-structured interviews with technicians and patients. To understand the
context of lower limb prostheses in Malawi I have also interviewed various experts. This data together
gives a detailed picture of the current use of lower limb prostheses and some of the changes made to them.
In the presentation for the DPhil Day at SPRU, I would like to present this data and the current state of
analysis at that time.
Session 3b: Innovation and Economics
Chaired by Professor Richard Nelson. Jubilee Building Room 116
Market Demand and Radical Innovation: The Case of M-pesa
Elsie Khakasa Onsongo, The Economics of Innovative Change (GSBC EIC) Friedrich Schiller University
and Max Planck Institute of Economics, Jena, Germany
Joseph Schumpeter in his analysis of patterns of innovative activities introduced the concept of ‘creative
destruction’, a process that is initiated by technological innovations referred to as ‘radical innovations’ in
literature. Giovanni Dosi discusses the emergence of new technological paradigms and trajectories out of
radical innovations. He attributes new technological paradigms to scientific breakthroughs. Other scholars
have attributed radical innovations to chance, and even serendipity. Therefore, in spite of strong pathdependencies, the future course of technological development is unpredictable. This argument underlies
the technological-push theories that explain radical innovation.
We present an opposing view that justifies the potential for radical innovations to emerge from market
demand. We use the case of M-pesa, a mobile money transfer innovation that has had far-reaching effects
on the banking and payments system in Kenya to discuss how demand-pull theories are exemplified in
radical innovations. We discuss the market environment that stimulated the invention of M-pesa as an
alternative remittance system, the effort of developing and diffusing the technology, and the disruptive
effect the innovation continues to have on the financial services industry in Kenya. We examine the
resulting ‘mobile-money’ technological regime and predict the directions in which several technological
trajectories are likely to develop. Mpesa being a radical innovation at the early stages of its lifecycle
provides an excellent opportunity for a conceptual analysis of how radical innovations emerge, and how a
technological paradigm forms.
Technological Performance of Acquired Entrepreneurial Firms: Do Acquisition Motives Matter?
Jing Xiao; CIRCLE (Centre for Innovation, Research and Competence in the Learning Economy) and
Department of Economic History, Lund University, Sweden
Merger and acquisition (M&A) has become an increasingly important strategy for both incumbent firms
and new entrepreneurial firms in high-tech industries. There are two main groups of studies in existing
literature. The first group concerns the motives of M&A decisions, such as the trade-off between R&D and
M&A, absorptive ability, innovative capacity and so on (Blonigen and Taylor 2000; Desyllas and Hughes
2008; Cefis and Marsili 2011). The other group of research pays much attention to the post acquisition
performance mainly focusing on acquiring firms, such as post-acquisition integration and innovative
performance etc. (Ahuja and Katila 2001; Zollo and Singh 2004). But few studies are devoted to exploring
the post-acquisition performance of target firms. Especially, even fewer efforts can be found to link the
motives of M&A to post-acquisition technological performance of target firms. The main aim of this paper
is to fill this gap and disentangle whether M&A motives affect technological performance of acquired firms
after acquisition. By linking the databases of Firm and Establishment Dynamics, R&D statistics, employeremployee register from Statistics Sweden and new Swedish inventor database launched by the researchers
from CIRCLE together, all entrepreneurial firms founded in 1995 and 1996 in knowledge-intensive sectors
in Sweden are identified and followed for a subsequent 5 years. The sample firms are based on these firms
which experience an acquisition by incumbent firms belonging to business groups and will be followed for
another 5 years after acquisition. Following the method used in the study of Ruckman (2005) which
matched R&D intensity of acquiring firms with technological capacity of acquired firms before acquisition,
two types of motives will be distinguished: technology sourcing (low R&D intensity vs. high technological
capacity) and synergy (high R&D intensity vs. high technological capacity). It is expected that the postacquisition technological performance of synergy group will be superior to the group with the motive of
technology sourcing. Based on previous literature, there are three main supporting theoretical arguments:
the first is that the proximity of knowledge base matters to the post-acquisition technological performance;
the second is that higher absorptive capacity will ease the post-acquisition integration process; the third is
that high R&D intensity of acquiring firms can provide superior technology embeddedness to acquired
firms (Ahuja and Katila 2001; Andersson et al. 2001; Hussinger 2012). The Poisson model will be
employed as the econometric tool. Patent productivity and share of employees of scientist and engineers
will be used as proxies of technological performance. The independent variables include the lagged
variables of acquisition events and other control variables. As this paper is still in its preliminary stage, the
results will be provided in the later draft. The main contributions of this paper are: firstly, by following
acquired firms instead of acquiring firms, better understanding will be obtained about the impact of
acquisition on the technological performance of the entrepreneurial firms; secondly, even more information
can be found by comparing with a reference group which was founded in the same years but didn’t
experience an acquisition during the observation period; thirdly, it is to link the motives of acquisition on
the post-acquisition performance which is less studied in previous literature.
Innovation, Absorptive Capacity and Long-run Causality: Development Paths in Latin America
1970–2010
Fulvio Castellacci, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), Oslo, Norway.
Jose Miguel Natera, University Complutense, Madrid, Spain.
This paper investigates how innovative capabilities and absorptive capacities coevolve and shape the
growth paths of different developing economies, by adopting a time series econometric approach. We focus
on the case of Latin America and study the long-run evolution of national economies in this region over
the period 1970–2010. The objective of the paper is twofold: first, for each country, we estimate the longrun causal relationships (based on Johansen’s cointegration method) linking absorptive capacity and
innovation, on the one hand, to GDP per capita growth, on the other. Secondly, we provide a meta-analysis
of these time series results in order to identify different development paths in the region. The model
specification investigates the dynamic relationships between the growth of GDP per capita and a set of
explanatory variables representing innovation (patents) and absorptive capacity (FDI, industrial structure,
specialization patterns, institutions).
The empirical results lead to two main conclusions. The first is that there exists a substantial variety of
development paths in the Latin American region. For some of the less developed economies, growth is
driven only by either FDI-based imitation activities or the dynamics of industrial structure and
specialization patterns. For other countries, though, the catching up process is not only linked to imitation
activities but it is also driven by domestic efforts to improve the innovation capabilities of the business
sector of the economy. Furthermore, when we look at the development process, we found evidence of high
heterogeneity in the imitation activities. Secondly, we point out a clear correspondence between these
different development paths and the growth performance experienced by national economies in the region.
Only those countries that have combined imitation activities and innovative efforts have been able to
achieve a dynamic economic performance over this long-run period and thus undertake a catch up process.
Macro-institutional instability and the incentive to innovate
Serena Masino, University of Manchester and CGBCR
The paper seeks to analyse the impact that macroeconomic and political instability has on the level of
aggregate private innovative investment in a panel of 44 countries, representing all levels of development.
The reason for considering such a perspective is related to the inherently high risk content of R&D
investment, which is due to both its longer than average maturity horizon and to its high budget
requirements (Katz, 1987). The empirical analysis presents evidence uncovering a negative impact of real,
monetary and political instability on private R&D spending, for the country panel considered.
This paper represents a contribution to the existing literature on volatility and innovation in a few respects.
Firstly, the literature surrounding this topic (Rafferty and Funk, 2008; Bohva-Padilla et al, 2009, Aghion
et al, 2010) concentrates on the first moment of the business cycle and in particular on the relationship
between uncertainty surrounding recession expectations and firms’ innovative behavior. This study,
instead, extends the focus to the second moment of aggregate economies’ fluctuations, that is, to overall
volatility. Secondly, all the previously cited studies take up a microeconometric empirical approach and
use firm-level data, most often on OECD-based firms only. This is typically due to the scarcity of
developing countries’ aggregate data on innovation (Goel and Ram, 1999; Agénor and Neanidis, 2011).
The present study adopts, instead, a macroeconometric approach and analyses cross-country variations at
the level of national private R&D. This is done in an attempt to uncover aggregate response patterns to
macro-institutional instability which go beyond individual productive sectors’ reactions.
A final contribution is represented by the estimation of separate impacts for various sub-components
forming aggregate volatility. This makes it possible to disentangle a number of contemporaneous yet
different dimensions co-existing in unstable macro-institutional environments. Specifically, my
econometric findings suggest three ways in which instability negatively affects business R&D spending,
that is, political, real and monetary volatility. Such impacts will be shown to exhibit non-linearities and to
be larger for higher values of the real and monetary volatility dimensions. In addition, the negative effect
of monetary instability appears to be mitigated during expansionary phases of the cycle, in the sample
considered. Finally, the evidence surrounding both financial and international volatility is inconclusive.
Session 4a: Innovation Networks
Chaired by Dr Puay Tang. Jubilee Building Room 115
Hegemonic and alternative Journal Indexing Systems in Latin America: their role in research
evaluation and academic publishing practices
Diego Chavarro, SPRU - University of Sussex
In this thesis I examine the emergence of communication systems in science, specifically Journal Indexing
Systems (JIS). JIS are services that offer valuable bibliographic information on a core of journals selected
through certain quality criteria. This study is about the development of regional JIS (called alternative JIS
in this research) in an international context that has been dominated by a JIS that claims to offer a global
coverage of the most prestigious scientific journals. It has two parts: in the first I investigate the factors that
have driven the development of alternative JIS in a context dominated by a well-established and dominant
JIS, testing empirically plausible explanations found in the literature; in the second part I seek to gain
insights into the perceptions and responses of researchers to alternative JIS, based on their opinions and
publication patterns. After all, the valuation of and response to alternative JIS by researchers is what is
going to determine the development pathways of these systems. In the remainder of this introduction I give
an overview of the research.
Although JIS were not built originally with the aim of supporting policy decisions at the governmental
level, national and international assessment bodies now create indicators of scientific excellence from their
databases and some of them have been incorporated into ranking systems for rewarding academic
performance. The increasing importance of and reference to JIS as a means of reflecting the scientific
excellence of a country is evidenced, importantly, by research evaluation exercises, which are being
adopted worldwide.
The Web of Science (WoS) is the most accredited of available JIS (Guédon, 2001), covering more than
12,000 journals worldwide and providing citation analysis and indicators through its journal citation reports
(JCR) and other products. As noted above, the widely adopted research evaluation systems by countries
has elevated its importance for the academic community and policy makers because it is used as a
benchmark for ranking the scientific production of researchers worldwide. Publishing in journals indexed
by WoS has come to be a synonym for international quality standards (Lillis and Curry, 2010, p. 137).
However, the extent to which WoS can be used as a comprehensive database for different disciplines and
territories is not clear. Researchers have pointed out linguistic, geographical and disciplinary biases
(explained below) that presumably might render this JIS as unsuitable to assess the whole science
communication system. Despite the concerns with the universal applicability of WoS as the key reference
for scientific quality, it continues to be perceived by the academic and policy communities as an “authority”
with the “power” to differentiate between what is science and what is not.
The dominance of WoS occurs in a context in which “the changing governance of the public sciences…
has been accompanied by a rapid increase in the types and numbers of formal organisations involved in the
production, coordination and evaluation of public scientific knowledge” (Whitley and Glasser, 2012). WoS
has acquired a formal authority over research assessment, given mainly by research evaluation systems that
regard papers in journals covered by it as high quality papers for ranking purposes.
Yet there is an emergence of regional JIS, which are gaining recognition by national research evaluation
systems. Specifically, in Latin America there are three big initiatives: Latindex, RedALyC and Scielo.
These are multidisciplinary JIS that cover journals produced in Latin America, the Caribbean, Portugal,
Spain and even other territories such as South Africa. In China there is the Chinese Citation Index, and in
some countries, such as Japan, India and Russia there are new developments to create bibliographic and
citation indexes too. What may explain the development of these alternative JIS to WoS? This thesis aims
to uncover the reasons for this through two research questions:
1. Why are alternative JIS developing in a context dominated by WoS?
2. How do researchers respond in terms of publications to available Journal Indexing Systems?
Approaches to Coordination in Open Source User Organisations
Jose Christian, CENTRIM, University of Brighton
The current literature on the social structure of open source projects makes three broad assumptions. First,
that project members contribute through one common practice. Second, that all members interact in a
singular virtual location. Finally, that all members are active in the same social group, where they are
subject to a common set of tools and practices. This view, while being applicable to smaller projects, does
not fully take into account complex projects were members can contribute through a number of different
practices such as documentation and user-to-user assistance. The objective of this research is therefore to
understand how coordination can be achieved in projects that have a number of social groups contributing
to it through a number of practices. The research follows a mixed-method single case-study approach, using
affiliation networks and semi-structured interviews to gain a deeper understanding of the coordination
practices used in the CyanogenMod open source project.
This presentation will focus on observations made of two of CyanogenMod’s largest communities,
programmers and documenters. Initial results show that both communities display different structures in
terms of work distribution and size, as well as behaviour from its key members. While the unevenness in
work distribution increased as the group of programmers became larger, the opposite was observed for the
community of documenters. These results raise further questions on the current assumptions about the
core/periphery structure which is typically applied to all virtual communities.
Civil society in transitions towards sustainable food systems: Exploring the roles played by civil
society organisations and multi-actor associations in the reorientation of incumbent regimes
Rachael Durrant, SPRU, University of Sussex
Scholars from the tradition of science, technology and innovation studies have developed frameworks for
understanding the different processes involved in large scale and long-ranging shifts (or ‘transitions’) in
patterns of food production and consumption towards sustainability. Although these frameworks tend to
focus on the involvements of state and market actors, recent attempts have been made to understand the
roles played by organised groups within civil society. In this presentation I will relate empirical findings
from three UK case studies to these emerging ideas about the roles of civil society organisations (CSOs)
within transitions.
The three cases being presented are examples of individual CSOs and the networks of other CSOs that they
associate with in their attempts to drive change towards sustainability. They centre on the following
organisations: 1) Tablehurst and Plaw Hatch Community Farm, a co-operatively governed biodynamic
farm located in East Sussex; 2) The Fife Diet, a citizens’ network based in Fife (Scotland) that encourages
people to grow their own food and eat more sustainable diets; and 3) The Soil Association, the UK’s largest
organic certification body and a membership charity. I will compare and contrast the three cases,
concurrently and over time, bringing together different theoretical concepts in my interpretation (i.e.
relating to grassroots innovations, green niches, social movements and regime destabilisation/reorientation). In doing so I will reveal relationships between these different roles and the multi-actor
associations formed by the organisations that perform them. I will also raise broader questions about
structure and agency, and challenge some entrenched dichotomies that frequently crop up in discussions
about mechanisms and directionalities of transition (e.g. bottom-up/top-down, from within/from without).
Technological Learning Through Technology Transfer Intermediaries: The Perspectives of User of
Technology.
Saoud H Al Shoaili, University of Sussex- SPRU
The focus of this paper is to explore the role of technology transfer intermediaries as a technological tutor
for a user of technologies who has low R&D resources and a weak scientific and technical infrastructure.
Building on the technology transfer and technological learning theories, this study will examine for
intermediaries two characteristics of suppliers of technologies as a technological tutor; absorptive capacity
and technology transfer capacity. Previous studies on technology transfer and technological learning have
assumed implicitly that the supplier of technologies is the producer with whom the user directly interacts
and learns. Accordingly, these capacities have been examined for the suppliers as a technological tutor for
users. When the supplier is a technology transfer intermediary, technological learning with the user remains
an answered question.
Through a case-based research built on the experiences of users of technologies, this study examined the
tutoring role of intermediaries by gathering qualitative data on absorptive capacity and technology transfer
capacity. The study concluded that, intermediaries do not possess these capacities and thus cannot play the
role of technological tutoring.
Session 4b: Innovation for Sustainability
Chaired by Professor Patrick Llerena. Jubilee Building Room 116
Collaborative innovation and knowledge creation in networks: opportunities and challenges for the
nuclear safety and security regulation in Brazil
Fabio Staude, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil / (SPRU Visiting Student)
This study aims to examine the role played by collaborative networks in improving nuclear regulatory
activities in Brazil. It specifically focuses on the connections and interactions which occur in these networks
and on their learning mechanisms. In this context, the research assumes that Brazilian regulatory body’
units with high levels of interactions and with intensive participation in communities of practice within
nuclear safety and security area, could have better conditions to improve its absorptive capability (Cohen
and Levinthal, 1990), in order to take advantage of the skills of others participating in inter-organisational
networks through which knowledge is transferred. There is a broad assumption that increased knowledge
sharing contributes to enhancing nationals regulatory bodies’ activities, by exchanging experiences and by
improving their capabilities to control hazards, to prevent accidents, to respond to emergencies and to
mitigate any harmful consequences. In this sense, it is expected that notable differences will be found
between practices observed in Brazilian regulatory body’ units, attesting that accessing knowledge
developed within networks established by national and international collaborations is critical for the
improvement of safety standards and procedures utilized by the Brazilian regulatory body, and that
improving safety and security levels is essentially associated with progressive learning processes which
incorporate different actors and agents in the nuclear industry.
Technological Niche Creation: a Strategic Niche Management analysis of renewable energy in off
grid rural electrification in Chile
Jose Opazo, Sussex Energy Group (SEG), SPRU-University of Sussex
This paper studies the reasons underlying success or failure in the diffusion of radical innovations. To that
end, the study uses the Strategic Niche Management (SNM) approach to transitions to sustainability to
study whether it can explain the diffusion and adoption of Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) in offgrid rural electrification in the context of access to energy in Chile.
SNM scholars have focused on internal processes that work at the niche level, which articulate dynamics
that enhance transformation and adaptation of new technologies which can find spaces in markets and
influence regime shift. It is suggested that these processes are successful when: a) expectations are shared
by many actors and are based on tangible results; b) social networks are broad, deep and there is regular
interaction between actors; and c) learning processes are both broad and reflexive (Raven, 2005; Schot and
Geels, 2008).
Recent contributions to theory highlight how niches grow from the aggregation of local experiments (Geels
and Raven, 2006; Schot and Geels, 2007), leading to co-ordination and structuring of new rules, practices
and configurations. However it is not clear the extent to which niche mechanisms allow for replication,
scaling up and translation of niche experiments into regime practice, that is, how niches and regimes are
linked and interact dynamically, particularly in specific contexts (Smith 2007).
This research looks at off-grid PV and wind projects implemented in the framework of rural electrification
policies in Chile from 1994 to 2010, where rural electrification rates have increased from 53% to 95%.
RETs account for nearly 10% of the increase and the study aims to understand the process of niche creation
and its influence on wider regime change. The paper concludes that niche processes are relevant to
understanding niche creation from the aggregation of rural electrification projects in the Chilean context,
but they need to be further unpacked to account for socio-political contexts and that incumbent actors play
a crucial role in the dynamic interaction between emergent niche dynamics and traditional and dominant
ways of improving electricity access.
Nuclear power futures: Towards an understanding of agency
Marton Fabok, University of Liverpool, Department of Geography and Planning
Research on long-term energy futures has mainly concentrated on certain predictive outcomes or scenarios.
Processes have often been envisioned as linear, unidirectional and continuous (Craig et. al 2002).
Alternatively, recent work in transition studies, and particularly in the multi-level perspective (MLP),
approach change in a more historically informed structured sociotechnical framework (Foxon 2010,
Verbong and Geels 2010). This ongoing PhD research resonates with some of the claims of the transition
literature, but it also aims to blur its often hierarchically structured framework by focusing on the multiactor processes of future-making. The future of nuclear power is shaped by nuclear engineers, energy
company managers, policy-makers, industry workers, local residents, anti-nuclear campaigners, various
alternative energy protagonists, electric car developers, electricity users, and so on. These actors not only
project futures through visions, construction plans, technology designs or economic calculations, but also
enact these through specific practices, technologies, or discourses. The central focus of the research project
is the agency of future-making. In this paper, an early stage version will be presented on how to address
agency and future-in-the-making through an ethnographically informed methodology of researching a
diverse set of organisations. The theoretical framework draws on literature in transition studies, science
and technology studies (STS), and assemblage theory.
Nichehunting: Exploring the influence of incumbents on niche dynamics in transitions to
sustainability ?
Roman Jurowetzki, Aalborg University, Department of Business and Management, IKE / DRUID
Literature on sustainability transitions outlines the significance of niches for the protection and
development of path-breaking technologies in early stages [e.g. Hoogma et al., 2004, Geels, 2005]. The
notion of niches entails three functional features: (1) Shielding against selection pressure, (2) nurturing of
networks and learning, and (3) empowerment of technologies for competition [Smith and Raven, 2012].
Raven [2007] distinguishes two niche innovation patterns, hybridisation and niche accumulation. While
the hybridisation pattern aims at linking new technology to the existing structure without threatening it,
niche accumulation might result in episodes of creative destruction. Although the engagement of large
incumbent actors in sustainability projects is generally positively perceived, their involvement might alter
niche dynamics, making technology outcomes more incremental and adapted to the current unsustainable
socio-technical regime. The purpose of the present paper is to study the interaction patterns between
incumbent actors and technology newcomers, located in protective niches and the effects, which this
interaction has on the functional properties of the niches. As empirical base the paper explores the evolution
of three broader technology areas within the electricity grid-infrastructure in Denmark. Preliminary results:
The dominant role of incumbents in the arrangement of research and deployment projects, the selection of
participants and technologies create doubts about the extent, to which these projects can be seen as
protective, nurturing and empowering spaces for the development of radically new solutions. Niche
hybridization strategy prevails in the development of the electricity grid infrastructure, while niche
accumulation paths appear difficult to realize. The advantage of the dominant hybridization strategy is an
easier fit to the existing regime, which however has the downside of getting stuck in the existing grid
infrastructure without achieving radical transformation towards sustainability.