Innovation dynamics and environmental technologies: the emergence of fuel cell technology

The purpose of this paper is to explore the dynamics of environmental innovation using the case of Ballard Power System’s Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) fuel cell technology. Many have argued that this technology offers considerable environmental benefits and may surpass the internal combustion engine as the dominant vehicular power source. However, more than a century of incremental improvements, government policy and the emergence of complementary industries have made the latter a dominant and difficult to challenge technology. The authors review the difficulties of developing and adopting a radical innovation by analysing the value chain and supporting infrastructure. They also question the environmental implications and the role of government policy with regard to such technologies.

[1]  Lois S. Peters,et al.  Managing Discontinuous Innovation , 1998 .

[2]  C. K. Prahalad,et al.  Chapter 1 – The Core Competence of the Corporation* , 2000 .

[3]  C. Prahalad,et al.  The Core Competence of the Corporation , 1990 .

[4]  J. Schumpeter,et al.  Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy , 1943 .

[5]  M. Tushman,et al.  Technological Discontinuities and Organizational Environments , 1986 .

[6]  J. Schot,et al.  Regime shifts to sustainability through processes of niche formation : the approach of strategic niche management , 1998 .

[7]  Anirudh Dhebar.  Six Chasms in Need of Crossing , 2001 .

[8]  R. Balachandra,et al.  SPOTTING THE CUSTOMER FOR EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES , 1999 .

[9]  William J. Abernathy,et al.  Patterns of Industrial Innovation , 1978 .

[10]  J. Schumpeter.  Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy , 1943 .

[11]  James M. Utterback,et al.  Dominant Designs and the Survival of Firms , 1995 .

[12]  Melissa A. Schilling.  Toward a General Modular Systems Theory and Its Application to Interfirm Product Modularity , 2000 .

[13]  Allan Afuah,et al.  Innovation Management: Strategies, Implementation, and Profits , 1997 .

[14]  Johan Schot,et al.  Credibility and markets as greening forces for the chemical industry , 1992 .

[15]  Kim B. Clark,et al.  Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of , 1990 .

[16]  William R. Moomaw,et al.  Industrial Ecology and Global Change: Contents , 1994 .

[17]  Stuart L. Hart,et al.  Global Sustainability and the Creative Destruction of Industries , 1999 .

[18]  S. Winter,et al.  An evolutionary theory of economic change , 1983 .

[19]  David A. Kirsch.  The electric car and the burden of history: studies in automotive systems rivalry in America, 1890-1996 , 1996 .

[20]  James M. Utterback,et al.  Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation , 1996 .

[21]  D. Teece,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1997 .

[22]  Luc Soete,et al.  The greening of technological progress: an evolutionary perspective , 1992 .

[23]  K. Clark,et al.  Innovation: Mapping the winds of creative destruction☆ , 1993 .

[24]  G. Dosi,et al.  Technical Change and Economic Theory , 1989 .

[25]  William T. Robinson,et al.  Are market pioneers intrinsically stronger than later entrants , 1992 .

[26]  R. V. Wyk.  Innovation: The attacker's advantage : Richard N. Foster 316 pages, £14.95 (London, Macmillan, 1986) , 1987 .

[27]  D. Leonard-Barton.  CORE CAPABILITIES AND CORE RIGIDITIES: A PARADOX IN MANAGING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT , 1992 .

[28]  S. Hart.  Beyond Greening: Strategies for a Sustainable World. , 1997 .

[29]  Jeremy Hall,et al.  Biotechnology: the ultimate cleaner production technology for agriculture? , 1998 .

[30]  S. Winter,et al.  In search of useful theory of innovation , 1993 .

[31]  C. Shapiro,et al.  Network Externalities, Competition, and Compatibility , 1985 .

[32]  K. Green,et al.  Technological trajectories and R&D for environmental innovation in UK firms☆ , 1994 .

[33]  Nicholas A. Ashford,et al.  Understanding Technological Responses of Industrial Firms to Environmental Problems: Implications for Government Policy (chapter) , 1993 .

[34]  Vicki Norberg-Bohm,et al.  The power of incrementalism: environmental regulation and technological change in pulp and paper bleaching in the US , 1998 .

[35]  C. Freeman.  Economics of Industrial Innovation , 1975 .

[36]  Woodrow W. Clark,et al.  COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGIES FOR THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY TOWARDS A NEW MODEL OF TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION , 2001 .