Technology Innovation Drivers
Understanding the drivers of technological innovation is crucial for economic progress and societal welfare. Extensive literature explores the intricate dynamics of what determines the rate and direction of technological change. At SusTec, these questions are explored with an emphasis on combining technology-push factors, which foster the supply of technological innovations, and demand-pull factors, which stimulate market demand for innovations.
In addition, SusTec’s research examines knowledge flows and spillovers as key drivers of innovation. Investigating how knowledge transfer across firms, sectors, and technologies influences technological innovation helps inform more effective policies and corporate strategies.
This research mainly focuses on climate and energy technologies, aiming to understand and enhance the interplay between technological development, knowledge exchange, and innovation diffusion.
Key findings:
- The U.S. Department of Energy's mandate for open-access publication of scientific articles from its National Laboratories led to a 42% increase in the utilization of these articles in patents between 2014 and 2018, promoting technological development without a corresponding increase in academic research citations. The primary beneficiaries of this increased diffusion of scientific knowledge were small firms (DownloadProbst et al., 2023 ).
- Policy mixes combining robust technology-push and demand-pull policies could have helped create more and better jobs in Germany’s photovoltaic industry (DownloadNuñez-Jimenez et al., 2022 ).
- Policymakers should consider sectoral configuration in the balance of technology-push and demand-pull policies over the different stages of the development of a technology innovation system (DownloadStephan et al., 2017 ).
- In battery technologies, the more diverse the knowledge’s origin or the more peripheral knowledge is for the overarching design, the higher the likelihood that it is relevant to other technologies (DownloadBattke et al., 2016 ).
- Investments in R&D and manufacturing equipment are key channels facilitating knowledge spillovers in the photovoltaic sector (DownloadHoppmann et al., 2016 ).
- Demand-pull policies have enhanced patenting activities internationally, contrasting with the more localized impact of technology-push policies (external pagePeters et al., 2012 ).
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