By focusing on a sufficiently developed green niche, namely the biofuel industry, we investigate whether the ongoing worldwide economic crisis is contributing towards a more sustainable regime. To do this, we adopt a social network strategy based on a comparison between the current status quo of the Italian biofuel industry to that before the crisis. Results suggest that, although biofuel actors have reacted to the crisis by increasing their extent of knowledge exchange, their expectations about the future development of the niche have decreased. More critically, expectations are low for those agents occupying central positions in the network, which might eventually jeopardize the niche development process.
The Economic Crisis and Sociotechnical Transitions: The Case of the Italian Biofuel Industry
SICA, EDGARDO CRISTIANO;
2014-01-01
Abstract
By focusing on a sufficiently developed green niche, namely the biofuel industry, we investigate whether the ongoing worldwide economic crisis is contributing towards a more sustainable regime. To do this, we adopt a social network strategy based on a comparison between the current status quo of the Italian biofuel industry to that before the crisis. Results suggest that, although biofuel actors have reacted to the crisis by increasing their extent of knowledge exchange, their expectations about the future development of the niche have decreased. More critically, expectations are low for those agents occupying central positions in the network, which might eventually jeopardize the niche development process.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
