Overview
My research is primarily concerned with the application of ecodesign, a sustainability oriented design management process, in SMEs (especially micro-SMEs). The focus of this research rests on the institutional and infrastructural issues that enable or hinder ecodesign in these businesses. I am particularly interested in how policy mechanisms can be effectively delivered in the regional context.
Background
There is broad consensus that products and services are a source of considerable environmental and social impact. A number of existing and proposed policy mechanisms are seeking to reduce these impacts across the whole product life-cycle, e.g. the European Integrated Product Policy (IPP). Ecodesign, as a design management process, is concerned with reducing full life-cycle impacts of products and services while delivering direct competitive benefits to business, increasing innovation, improving brand positioning and enhancing business communications.
It is well documented that SMEs face significant barriers to adopting ecodesign thinking and practice. Worldwide, there have been numerous public sector interventions and initiatives to support ecodesign activities in SMEs. While many of these initiatives and programmes produced successful case-studies, there is little evidence of a long-term diffusion or retention of ecodesign practices in SMEs. Reasons for this may include intervention strategies based on linear models of innovation, competing policy rationales, government information asymmetries and low absorptive capacity of SMEs.
Therefore, my research seeks to understand these interventions from a regional innovation systems perspective with a view to informing future strategies of intervention for ecodesign in SMEs.
Some of the research topics that are of interest to me.
Capacity building for ecodesign in SMEs
Capacity building is an iterative process in which a framework of interventions can be made. Often strategies for capacity building are focussed on company level mechanisms and linear models of innovation such as knowledge transfer and method demonstration. If we place capacity building in the IS context we should look to interventions that facilitate the desired change in the direction of innovation, as opposed to focussing on specific models of innovation. Capacity building activities for ecodesign in SMEs should drive processes of network and skills development through shared learning. It is also important to create the platforms on which this shared learning can occur.
Innovation Systems (regional and national)
Innovation Systems (IS) theory is a much debated topic and has been developed in academic circles. More recently the principles are being developed and applied by organisations such as the OECD and European Commission. The IS concept is born out of evolutionary economic theory and as such it sets itself against neoclassical economic theory. As the name suggests, it is concerned with the systemic nature of innovation and focuses on the institutional set-up in which companies operate. The IS approach provides a framework through which the co-evolution of technologies, institutions and organisations can be analysed. Most importantly, the IS approach recognises that innovation is dynamic process born out of interactions between different actors, knowledge flows and market conditions.
Sustainable consumption and production
At the 2002 Johannesburg summit, governments committed themselves to promoting systems of sustainable consumption and production (SCP). It was generally accepted that resource efficiency, economic development and social justice were requisite for SCP. From a regional perspective the SCP policy agenda is cumbersome and poorly defined and to date most activity has focussed on end-of-pipe interventions and incremental process changes. The role of innovation (product, process, institutional and system) is becoming increasingly important in the SCP debate. Much of the discussion and debate on innovation in the SCP context focuses on the role of radical and systems innovation, such as innovation in energy or mobility systems. While much of this debate is essential, the cumulative impact of incremental innovations on long term economic development and social change can be equal to or greater than radical innovations. Because of this I am drawn to the rationale for public sector interventions supporting ecodesign activities in SMEs. I believe that supporting ecodesign thinking and practice is an essential element of any strategy for SCP.
