Grantee Research Project Results
1997 Progress Report: Regulation, Business, and Sustainable Development: The Management of Environmentally Conscious Technological Innovation Under Alternative Market Conditions
EPA Grant Number: R824748Title: Regulation, Business, and Sustainable Development: The Management of Environmentally Conscious Technological Innovation Under Alternative Market Conditions
Investigators: Sharfman, Mark , Meo, Mark , Ellington, Rex
Institution: University of Oklahoma
EPA Project Officer: Hahn, Intaek
Project Period: October 1, 1995 through September 30, 1997 (Extended to March 31, 1999)
Project Period Covered by this Report: October 1, 1996 through September 30, 1997
Project Amount: $244,955
RFA: Incentives and Impediments to Pollution Prevention (1995) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: Pollution Prevention/Sustainable Development , Sustainable and Healthy Communities
Progress Summary:
During the first two years of the project, project staff concentrated on the completion of four case studies. The first of which, titled "Dupont/Conoco and the Vapor Recovery Project: Using Innovation to Respond to Regulation" is available from the investigators.There are three key findings from the case studies. First, the data from the cases indicates that there are antecedents of environmental technological innovation that show up across business contexts. Secondly, regulation plays an overwhelming role in predicting the conditions under which firms are likely to engage in environmentally friendly technological innovation. The model for innovation under high levels of regulation is quite different from the model under lower or "normal" levels of regulation. Finally, one key role that regulation does to prompt innovation is provide firms with an incentive to innovate. That incentive comes in the form of protecting the firm's autonomy or ability to manage its business the way it wishes to do so. When environmental regulation is perceived to have the potential to interfere with the firm's ability to maintain autonomy in business operations, the business units in our study opted to innovate to remove themselves from the strictures of the regulation.
Future Activities:
In early 1998, the project staff will complete the remaining three cases studies as well as complete a mailed survey to test our revised model of the antecedents of environmentally friendly technology innovation.Journal Articles:
No journal articles submitted with this report: View all 8 publications for this projectSupplemental Keywords:
Sustainable Industry/Business, RFA, Scientific Discipline, Economic, Social, & Behavioral Science Research Program, Economics, Social Science, cleaner production/pollution prevention, Corporate Performance, corporate culture, waste minimization, behavioral effects, alternative market conditions, corporate decision making, environmental performance, industrial ecology, pollution prevention, alternative market condition, green technology, technology research, Dupont, corporate environmental behavior, incentives, sustainable development, Conoco, cleaner production, waste reduction, case studiesRelevant Websites:
http://www.ou.edu/spp Web site of the University of Oklahoma Science and Public Policy Program.Progress and Final Reports:
Original AbstractThe perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.