Government regulation as an impetus for innovation: Evidence from energy performance regulation in the Dutch residential building sector

The recent implementation of energy performance policy as a way to tackle energy consumption in the building sector in Europe draws attention to the effect it has on the development and diffusion of energy-saving innovations. According to innovation system literature, government regulation through norms and standards is one of the factors stimulating innovation. This paper concentrates on the role of stricter government regulation as an incentive to innovation in the Dutch residential building sector. Innovation in this sector is predominantly a process of applying incremental modifications to comply with new and stricter government regulations and standards. Energy performance policy in its current shape will therefore not contribute to the diffusion of really new innovation in energy techniques for residential buildings in the Netherlands. If diffusion of really new innovation is an explicit aim of energy performance policy then the European wide introduction of this scheme needs reconsideration.

[1]  Jeremy Hall,et al.  Innovation dynamics and environmental technologies: the emergence of fuel cell technology , 2003 .

[2]  Kristina Dahlin,et al.  When is an Invention Really Radical? Defining and Measuring Technological Radicalness , 2005 .

[3]  Robert W. Fri,et al.  The Role of Knowledge: Technological Innovation in the Energy System , 2003 .

[4]  F. Malerba.  Sectoral Systems of Innovation: Concepts, Issues and Analyses of Six Major Sectors in Europe , 2009 .

[5]  J. Roessner.  Government innovation policy : design, implementation, evaluation , 1988 .

[6]  Roy Rothwell,et al.  An Assessment of Government Innovation Policies , 1984 .

[7]  Peter Maskell,et al.  What Qualifies as a Cluster Theory , 2005 .

[8]  Frens Pries,et al.  Innovation in the construction industry: the dominant role of the environment , 1995 .

[9]  Andreas Herrmann,et al.  Determinants of radical product innovations , 2006 .

[10]  Franco Malerba,et al.  Sectoral Systems: Implications for European Innovation Policy , 2004 .

[11]  Klaus Rennings,et al.  Innovation-Oriented Environmental Regulation , 2000 .

[12]  R. Smits,et al.  The rise of systemic instruments in innovation policy , 2004 .

[13]  J. Fagerberg,et al.  The Oxford handbook of innovation , 2006 .

[14]  G. Lumpkin,et al.  Innovation as newness: what is new, how new, and new to whom? , 2001 .

[15]  Ken Green,et al.  A conceptual framework for exploring transitions to decarbonised energy systems in the United Kingdom , 2007 .

[16]  L. Mytelka.  LOCAL SYSTEMS OF INNOVATION IN A GLOBALIZED WORLD ECONOMY , 2000 .

[17]  Keith D. Hampson.  Innovation in the construction industry , 1999 .

[18]  Meric S. Gertler,et al.  The Oxford Handbook of Economic Geography , 2003 .

[19]  L. Schipper,et al.  Residential energy demand in OECD-countries and the role of irreversible efficiency improvements , 1998 .

[20]  Dominic Power,et al.  On the Role of Global Demand in Local Innovation Processes , 2005 .

[21]  Walter J.V. Vermeulen,et al.  Competing explanations for adopting energy innovations for new office buildings , 2006 .

[22]  Chris Harty,et al.  Innovation in construction: a sociology of technology approach , 2005 .

[23]  Hugo Priemus,et al.  Dutch contracting fraud and governance issues , 2004 .

[24]  M. Beerepoot.  Public energy performance policy and the effect on diffusion of solar thermal systems in buildings: A Dutch experience , 2007 .

[25]  Esteve Xavier Rifà Ros,et al.  FIELD, A. (2005). Discovering Statistics Using SPSS. London: SAGE Publications , 2006 .

[26]  R. Kemp,et al.  Technology and Environmental Policy — Innovation effects of past policies and suggestions for improvement , 2022 .

[27]  André G. Dorée,et al.  A century of innovation in the Dutch construction industry , 2005 .

[28]  Margaret R. Taylor,et al.  Effect of government actions on technological innovation for SO2 control. , 2003, Environmental science & technology.

[29]  Björn Asheim,et al.  Clusters and Regional Development: Critical Reflections and Explorations , 2006 .

[30]  Jan van den Ende,et al.  Innovation in project-based firms: The context dependency of success factors , 2006 .

[31]  F. Geels.  From sectoral systems of innovation to socio-technical systems: Insights about dynamics and change from sociology and institutional theory , 2004 .

[32]  M. Porter.  The Competitive Advantage Of Nations , 1990 .

[33]  S. Brooks,et al.  Applied Multivariate Statistics for the Social Sciences , 1993 .

[34]  E. Rogers.  Diffusion of Innovations , 1962 .

[35]  Susan Hanson,et al.  Rethinking Innovation: Context and Gender , 2005 .

[36]  J. Stevens.  Applied Multivariate Statistics for the Social Sciences , 1986 .

[37]  R. Gonzalez.  Applied Multivariate Statistics for the Social Sciences , 2003 .

[38]  A. Field.  Discovering statistics using SPSS for Windows. , 2000 .

[39]  Lars-Erik Gadde,et al.  The construction industry as a loosely coupled system: implications for productivity and innovation , 2002 .

[40]  B. Lundvall.  Dynamics of Industry and Innovation: Organizations, Networks and Systems National Innovation Systems -analytical Concept and Development Tool National Innovation Systems -analytical Concept and Development Tool National Innovation Systems -analytical Concept and Development Tool , 2022 .

[41]  Paul Dewick,et al.  Building competitive advantage: innovation and corporate governance in European construction , 2002 .

[42]  Rosanna Garcia,et al.  A critical look at technological innovation typology and innovativeness terminology: a literature review , 2002 .

[43]  R. Kemp,et al.  Environmental policy and technical change : a comparison of the technological impact of policy instruments , 1995 .

[44]  Naubahar Sharif,et al.  Emergence and development of the National Innovation Systems concept , 2006 .

[45]  P. Shapira,et al.  Rethinking Regional Innovation and Change: Path Dependency or Regional Breakthrough? , 2005 .

[46]  David Gann,et al.  Do regulations encourage innovation? The case of energy efficiency in housing. , 1998 .

[47]  D. Gann,et al.  Innovation in project-based, service-enhanced firms: the construction of complex products and systems , 2000 .