Saving the Planet from East and West:
Public and Private Efforts to Deploy Renewable Energy
Academy of Management, San Antonio
August 15, 2011 3:00pm

Last Updated August 16, 2011

These pages are about the symposium held during the Academy of Management 2011 meeting in San Antonio, co-sponsored by ONE (Organization and the Natural Environment), TIM (Technology and Innovation Management) and ENT (Entrepreneurship). (See the official program entry)

Participants

The session was organized by Joel West (Keck Graduate Institute) and Xiaohong “Iris” Quan (San José State). It features four empirical papers by

  • Erik G. Hansen (Leuphana U. Lueneburg), Joel West (Keck Graduate Institute), Florian Lüdeke-Freund (Leuphana U. Lueneburg) and Xiaohong Quan (San Jose State U.)
  • Xudong Gao (Tsinghua U.), Yunhuan Tong (Tsinghua U.), Jianghua Zhou (Tsinghua U.), Liping Zhan (Tsinghua U.) and Yangao Xiao (U. Electronic Science and Technology)
  • Desiree F. Pacheco (Portland State U.)
  • Nina Lucia Hampl (U. of St. Gallen), Robert Joseph Wuebker (U. of Utah) and Rolf Wuestenhagen (U. of St. Gallen)

These papers were discussed by Andrew Hargadon (UC Davis).

Schedule

Slides are being posted as they are made available by the speakers.

  • Session Introduction (Joel West) [slides]
  • Presentations:
    • Erik G. Hansen, “Technology Push vs. Demand Pull: The Evolution of Solar Policy in the US, Germany and China“ [slides]
    • Xudong Gao, “Factors Affecting Innovation in the Wind and Solar Industries in China” [slides]
    • Desiree F. Pacheco, “The Quest for Industry Legitimacy: Exploring the Interplay across Multiple Actors in the Emergence of the Solar Energy Sector”
    • Nina Lucia Hampl, “The Value of Market Signals and Social Networks to Certify Venture Investments in Renewable Energy”
  • Discussant: Andrew Hargadon
  • Interactive Discussion

Abstract

Solving the threat of anthropogenic global warming is one of the most daunting challenges of the 21st century. It requires new models of innovation policy that enable rapid deployment of renew able energy innovation at a global scale (Mowery et al, 2010). Transforming the trillion-dollar energy sector will also necessitate systemic innovation and coordination from a wide range of public and private actors. Such a transformation requires reconciling the competing interests of disparate array of stakeholders, including energy equipment manufacturers, utility companies, incumbent energy producers, energy users, nongovernmental organizations, and local, national and supranational governments. In this symposium, we will review the issues facing both society and private enterprise in implementing such a transformation in Europe, North America and Asia.

After summarizing and comparing the economic issues and policy responses from both East and West, we offer papers that examine the entrepreneurial firms that have created renewable energy industries, particularly in solar and wind energy. The papers in this symposium consider the key issues facing those transformation in these nascent industries, including the search for legitimacy (both jointly and individually), the agency problems created by the multi-billion dollar private and public investment with long payback horizons, and innovation paths of the industrial development. Finally, our discussant will integrate the papers from the perspective of environmental entrepreneurship and policy.


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