Strategic technological innovation for sustainable development

Technological innovation can be highly instrumental in achieving sustainable development. How well does technology innovation research address the needs of sustainable development and in what directions does this research need to move to usher in sustainable development? We use co-word analysis in existing research publications to map the intellectual structure of the field of 'strategic technological innovation for sustainable development' during the period 1989-2009. The results suggest a list of 26 different research themes. Certain research themes are considered to be central and represent coherent and well-developed concepts. Other themes have arisen, matured, and then faded as major research concepts. Some other themes seem to be emerging or immature, but they signal the appearance of new research areas that are becoming central. Finally, there are some areas that are peripheral and others that need further development. We propose an integrative framework to study strategic technological innovation for sustainable development.

[1]  S. Hart.  A Natural-Resource-Based View of the Firm , 1995 .

[2]  Marcel Jirina,et al.  Law of cumulative advantages in the evolution of scientific fields , 2006, Scientometrics.

[3]  Muhammed A. Badamas.  Information, knowledge and technology management: national information technology policies for sustainable development , 2009, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[4]  Ron Adner,et al.  Value Creation in Innovation Ecosystems: How the Structure of Technological Interdependence Affects Firm Performance in New Technology Generations , 2009 .

[5]  Emmanuel Hassan,et al.  The evolution of the knowledge structure of fuel cells , 2005, Scientometrics.

[6]  Mads Borup,et al.  The sociology of expectations in science and technology , 2006, Technol. Anal. Strateg. Manag..

[7]  P. Cooke.  Regional innovation systems: Competitive regulation in the new Europe , 1992 .

[8]  S. Hart,et al.  Capitalism at the Crossroads: Next Generation Business Strategies for a Post-Crisis World , 2010 .

[9]  Steve Elliot,et al.  Transdisciplinary Perspectives on Environmental Sustainability: A Resource Base and Framework for IT-Enabled Business Transformation , 2011, MIS Q..

[10]  Kalinga Jagoda,et al.  Canadian oil sands: How innovation and advanced technologies can support sustainable development , 2010 .

[11]  R. Kemp,et al.  Evolutionary approaches for sustainable innovation policies: From niche to paradigm? , 2009 .

[12]  Kevin Zheng Zhou,et al.  How knowledge affects radical innovation: Knowledge base, market knowledge acquisition, and internal knowledge sharing , 2012 .

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

[14]  Cornelius Herstatt,et al.  Firms' transition to green product service system innovators: cases from the mobility sector , 2013, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[15]  B. Carlsson.  Internationalization of innovation systems: A survey of the literature ☆ , 2006 .

[16]  M. Trevor.  Technology Policy and Economic Performance. Lessons from Japan , 1989 .

[17]  Stuart L. Hart,et al.  Innovation, Creative Destruction and Sustainability , 2005 .

[18]  Enno Masurel,et al.  Reverse logistics for waste reduction in cradle-to-cradle-oriented firms: waste management strategies in the Dutch metal industry , 2012, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[19]  Gobinda G. Chowdhury,et al.  Bibliometric cartography of information retrieval research by using co-word analysis , 2001, Inf. Process. Manag..

[20]  Jeremy Hall,et al.  The challenges of innovating for sustainable development , 2003 .

[21]  Staffan Jacobsson,et al.  Innovation system analyses and sustainability transitions: Contributions and suggestions for research , 2011 .

[22]  Chris Hendry,et al.  Developing Radical Technology for Sustainable Energy Markets , 2007 .

[23]  Jean Pierre Courtial,et al.  A coword analysis of scientometrics , 1994, Scientometrics.

[24]  A. Kolk,et al.  Business Responses to Climate Change: Identifying Emergent Strategies , 2005 .

[25]  Henrich R. Greve,et al.  Fast and expensive: the diffusion of a disappointing innovation , 2011 .

[26]  Andrew Savitz,et al.  The Triple Bottom Line: How Today's Best-Run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success -- and How You Can Too , 2006 .

[27]  Tor J. Larsen,et al.  Searching for management information systems: coherence and change in the discipline , 2005, Inf. Syst. J..

[28]  M. Porter,et al.  Toward a New Conception of the Environment-Competitiveness Relationship , 1995 .

[29]  A. Meyer.  Economics Of Climate Change , 1995, Nature.

[30]  Thomas Hutzschenreuter,et al.  Strategy-Process Research: What Have We Learned and What Is Still to Be Explored , 2006 .

[31]  Allam Ahmed.  Managing knowledge and technology for sustainable development in Africa , 2009, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[32]  A. J. Grimes.  Normal Accidents: Living with High Risk Technologies , 1985 .

[33]  A. Kaul,et al.  Technology and Corporate Scope: Firm and Rival Innovation as Antecedents of Corporate Transactions , 2012 .

[34]  Niki Frantzeskaki,et al.  Towards governing infrasystem transitions: Reinforcing lock-in or facilitating change? , 2010 .

[35]  Luca Berchicci,et al.  Postcards from the Edge: A Review of the Business and Environment Literature , 2008 .

[36]  Deborah Leipziger,et al.  Sustainability by design , 2014 .

[37]  Fabio Iraldo,et al.  Achieving sustainability through environmental innovation: the role of SMEs , 2002, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[38]  Bangrae Lee,et al.  Mapping Korea’s national R&D domain of robot technology by using the co-word analysis , 2008, Scientometrics.

[39]  Jean Pierre Courtial,et al.  Co-word analysis as a tool for describing the network of interactions between basic and technological research: The case of polymer chemsitry , 1991, Scientometrics.

[40]  Bart De Moor,et al.  Do material transfer agreements affect the choice of research agendas? The case of biotechnology in Belgium , 2007, Scientometrics.

[41]  Elizabeth A. Corley,et al.  35 years and 160,000 articles: A bibliometric exploration of the evolution of ecology , 2009, Scientometrics.

[42]  Gillian Marcelle,et al.  Ecodesign in South African firms - how feasible? , 2013, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[43]  René Rohrbeck,et al.  Collaborative Business Modelling for Systemic and Sustainability Innovations , 2013, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[44]  Charles H. Noble,et al.  The adoption of radical manufacturing technologies and firm survival , 2008 .

[45]  Woo Hyoung Lee,et al.  How to identify emerging research fields using scientometrics: An example in the field of Information Security , 2008, Scientometrics.

[46]  P. Shrivastava.  Sustainable organisational technology , 2008 .

[47]  Neal S. Coulter,et al.  Software Engineering as Seen through Its Research Literature: A Study in Co-Word Analysis , 1998, J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci..

[48]  Marko P. Hekkert,et al.  A complex systems methodology to transition management , 2009 .

[49]  Christian Sternitzke,et al.  Similarity measures for document mapping: A comparative study on the level of an individual scientist , 2007, Scientometrics.

[50]  Jochen Markard,et al.  Actor-oriented analysis of innovation systems: exploring micro–meso level linkages in the case of stationary fuel cells , 2008, Technol. Anal. Strateg. Manag..

[51]  B. Carlsson,et al.  On the nature, function and composition of technological systems , 1991 .

[52]  F. Geels.  The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions: Responses to seven criticisms , 2011 .

[53]  Petra Wächter.  Transitions to sustainable development – new directions in the study of long term transformative change , 2012 .

[54]  C. Un.  The advantage of foreignness in innovation , 2011 .

[55]  B. Truffer,et al.  Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of research and its prospects , 2012 .

[56]  Mario Richter,et al.  Business model innovation for sustainable energy: how German municipal utilities invest in offshore wind energy , 2013, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

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

[58]  Neal S. Coulter,et al.  An Evolutionary Perspective of Software Engineering Research Through Co-Word Analysis , 1996 .

[59]  Wolfgang Luther,et al.  Nanotechnology in Germany: from forecasting to technological assessment to sustainability studies , 2008 .

[60]  P. Almeida,et al.  Subsidiaries and knowledge creation: the influence of the MNC and host country on innovation , 2004 .

[61]  Ira Monarch,et al.  Ada and the evolution of software engineering , 1995, TRI-Ada '95.

[62]  Marco Frey,et al.  Eco-innovation and competitiveness in industrial clusters , 2012, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[63]  C. Edquist.  Sectoral Innovation Systems: Technological Regimes, Schumpeterian Dynamics, and Spatial Boundaries , 2013 .

[64]  L. Purdoiu.  National systems of innovation - a complex environment for scientific research exploitation policies, comparative analysis. , 2011 .

[65]  F. Malerba.  Sectoral systems of innovation and production , 2002 .

[66]  Marko P. Hekkert,et al.  Understanding the formative stage of technological innovation system development: The case of natural gas as an automotive fuel , 2010 .

[67]  J. D. Margolis,et al.  Misery Loves Companies: Rethinking Social Initiatives by Business , 2003 .

[68]  Tomás Cahlik,et al.  Search for Fundamental Articles in Economics , 2000, Scientometrics.

[69]  S. Ivanaj,et al.  Multinational enterprises and the challenge of sustainable development , 2009 .

[70]  Mohand-Said Oukil.  Enhancing innovation for sustainable growth and competitiveness in North African countries , 2009, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[71]  Staffan Jacobsson,et al.  Analyzing the functional dynamics of technological innovation systems: A scheme of analysis , 2008 .

[72]  Stefan Kuhlmann,et al.  Functions of innovation systems: A new approach for analysing technological change , 2007 .

[73]  Nardia Haigh,et al.  The environmental sustainability of information systems: considering the impact of operational strategies and practices , 2008, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[74]  Staffan Jacobsson,et al.  Transforming the Energy Sector : The evolution of technological systems in renewable energy technology , 2004 .

[75]  J. Fagerberg,et al.  Innovation studies—The emerging structure of a new scientific field , 2009 .

[76]  M. Terziovski.  Innovation practice and its performance implications in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in the manufacturing sector: a resource‐based view , 2010 .

[77]  Hilary Bradbury,et al.  Collaborating for Systemic Change , 2007 .

[78]  Tammy L. Madsen,et al.  Unbundling competitive heterogeneity: incentive structures and capability influences on technological innovation , 2009 .

[79]  Bernhard Truffer,et al.  Prospective analysis of technological innovation systems: Identifying technological and organizational development options for biogas in Switzerland , 2009 .

[80]  Jochen Markard,et al.  Technological innovation systems and the multi-level perspective: Towards an integrated framework , 2008 .