Green Innovations and Organizational Change: Making Better Use of Environmental Technology

32 Pages Posted: 15 Jul 2012

See all articles by Hanna Hottenrott

Hanna Hottenrott

Technische Universität München (TUM)

Sascha Rexhauser

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research

Reinhilde Veugelers

Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) - Department of Applied Economics; Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

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Date Written: 2012

Abstract

The literature on within-firm organizational change and productivity suggests that firms can make more efficient use of certain technologies if complementary forms of organization are adopted. This issue may be of even greater importance for the case of greenhouse gas (GHG) abatement technologies imposed by public authority as to reduce social costs of climate change while they are not necessarily expected to increase private returns. Previous research, however, has largely neglected this aspect. Using German firm-level data, we find that organizational change increases the returns to the use of CO2 reducing technologies and that joint adoption leads to higher productivity. Without having introduced complementary organizational innovations, the adoption of CO2 reducing technologies is associated with lower productivity.

Keywords: Firm behavior, technical change, innovation, environmental innovation, organizational change, productivity

JEL Classification: D23, O33, O32, Q55, L23, D24

Suggested Citation

Hottenrott, Hanna and Rexhauser, Sascha and Veugelers, Reinhilde, Green Innovations and Organizational Change: Making Better Use of Environmental Technology (2012). ZEW - Centre for European Economic Research Discussion Paper No. 12-043, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2105630 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2105630

Hanna Hottenrott

Technische Universität München (TUM) ( email )

Arcisstrasse 21
Munich, DE 80333
Germany

Sascha Rexhauser (Contact Author)

ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research ( email )

P.O. Box 10 34 43
L 7,1
D-68034 Mannheim, 68034
Germany

Reinhilde Veugelers

Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) - Department of Applied Economics ( email )

Leuven, B-3000
Belgium
+32 16 32 6908 (Phone)
+32 16 32 6732 (Fax)

Centre for Economic Policy Research (CEPR)

London
United Kingdom

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