Strategic management for sustainable innovation: Analysis of renewable energy industry's technology and demand

Abstract

In modern society, the use of centralized fossil fueled energy is the main contributor of global greenhouse gas emissions; subsequently, it causes economic, social, and environmental problems for future generations. Developing and implementing a sustainable energy source such as solar and wind will be a key element of achieving a sustainable innovation in society. However, even though renewable energy is a promising solution for sustainable innovation, a number of diffusion barriers in technology and demand sides still remain. Hence, the goal of this thesis is to understand the characteristics of renewable energy industry and analyze empirical technology and demand data to derive an effective transition strategy. To achieve this goal, the first objective is to reveal insights on how technologies emerge and get devel-oped to achieve a meaningful firm performance, and how firms manage these renewable energy technologies in a turbulent environment. Amongst various forms of renewable energies, the solar photovoltaic industry was empirically analyzed because within recent decades, three generations of solar photovoltaic (PV) technologies have emerged with improved materials and power generation performance. Given the technological turbulence, solar PV firms have had to implement a strategy of risk aversion in their technology development management. This study aims to firstly analyze the general patents activities in the solar PV industry, secondly to trace the changes in technology development strategies (specialization, diversification, and collaboration), and finally to define the effective technology strategy for firm performance under technological turbulence. The patents and financial data over the course of 5 years (Year 2008-2012) from 50 solar PV technology firms have been utilized. As a result of analyzing solar PV patents from 2000 to 2012, the accumulating patents were found to reach approximately 38,000 instances and showed a growth rate of 26 percent...