IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v9y2017i3p406-d92575.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Influence of Local Governance: Effects on the Sustainability of Bioenergy Innovation

Author

Listed:
  • Bianca Cavicchi

    (Norwegian Institute of Bioeconomy Research (NIBIO), 0155 Oslo, Norway)

  • Sergio Palmieri

    (Ex Centro Innovazione Sostenibilità Ambientale (CISA), 40046 Bologna, Italy
    now Agenzia per l’energia e lo Sviluppo Sostenibile (AESS), 41122 Modena, Italy)

  • Marco Odaldi

    (Ex Centro Innovazione Sostenibilità Ambientale (CISA), 40046 Bologna, Italy
    now Agenzia per l’energia e lo Sviluppo Sostenibile (AESS), 41122 Modena, Italy)

Abstract

This paper deals with processes and outcomes of sustainable bioenergy development in Emilia Romagna. It draws on an on-going research project concerning inclusive innovation in forest-based bioenergy and biogas in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Italy. The goal is to explore how local governance impacts on inclusive innovation processes and triple bottom sustainability of bioenergy development in Emilia Romagna and, ultimately, to contribute to the debate on the bioeconomy. It thus compares the case of biogas and forest-based bioenergy production. The study adopts an analytical framework called Grounded Innovation (GRIP) and the local governance approach. The study uses qualitative methods and particularly semi-structured interviews and governance analysis. The key results show different outcomes on both inclusive innovation and triple bottom-line dimensions. Biogas has not fostered inclusiveness and triple bottom line sustainability benefits, contrary to forest-based bioenergy. The findings indicate that the minor role of local actors, particularly municipalities, in favour of industrial and national interests may jeopardise the sustainability of biobased industries. Besides, policies limited to financial incentives may lead to a land-acquisition rush, unforeseen local environmental effects and exacerbate conflicts.

Suggested Citation

  • Bianca Cavicchi & Sergio Palmieri & Marco Odaldi, 2017. "The Influence of Local Governance: Effects on the Sustainability of Bioenergy Innovation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-22, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:3:p:406-:d:92575
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/3/406/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/9/3/406/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. G. Talamo & F. Guarneri, 2016. "A New Phenomenon: Backshoring and the Italian Case," Rivista economica del Mezzogiorno, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 2-3, pages 405-432.
    2. Sippel, Maike & Jenssen, Till, 2009. "What about local climate governance? A review of promise and problems," MPRA Paper 20987, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Carrosio, Giovanni, 2013. "Energy production from biogas in the Italian countryside: Policies and organizational models," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 3-9.
    4. Jensen, Morten Berg & Johnson, Bjorn & Lorenz, Edward & Lundvall, Bengt Ake, 2007. "Forms of knowledge and modes of innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 36(5), pages 680-693, June.
    5. Elinor Ostrom, 2014. "A Polycentric Approach For Coping With Climate Change," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 15(1), pages 97-134, May.
    6. Jerker Moodysson & Elena Zukauskaite, 2014. "Institutional Conditions and Innovation Systems: On the Impact of Regional Policy on Firms in Different Sectors," Regional Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 48(1), pages 127-138, January.
    7. Martensson, Kjell & Westerberg, Karin, 2007. "How to transform local energy systems towards bioenergy? Three strategy models for transformation," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(12), pages 6095-6105, December.
    8. Bengt-Åke Lundvall, 2007. "Innovation System Research – Where it came from and where it might go," Globelics Working Paper Series 2007-01, Globelics - Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems, Aalborg University, Department of Business and Management.
    9. A.F. Leon, 2016. "Francesco Erbani, Pompei, Italia," Economia della Cultura, Società editrice il Mulino, issue 1, pages 217-219.
    10. Cooke, Philip & Gomez Uranga, Mikel & Etxebarria, Goio, 1997. "Regional innovation systems: Institutional and organisational dimensions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4-5), pages 475-491, December.
    11. Geels, Frank W., 2002. "Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(8-9), pages 1257-1274, December.
    12. Parto, Saeed & Doloreux, David, 2004. "Regional Innovation Systems: A Critical Synthesis," UNU-INTECH Discussion Paper Series 2004-17, United Nations University - INTECH.
    13. Thomas Hoppe & Antonia Graf & Beau Warbroek & Imke Lammers & Isabella Lepping, 2015. "Local Governments Supporting Local Energy Initiatives: Lessons from the Best Practices of Saerbeck (Germany) and Lochem (The Netherlands)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 7(2), pages 1-32, February.
    14. Upreti, Bishnu Raj, 2004. "Conflict over biomass energy development in the United Kingdom: some observations and lessons from England and Wales," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(6), pages 785-800, April.
    15. Cavicchi, Bianca & Bryden, John M. & Vittuari, Matteo, 2014. "A comparison of bioenergy policies and institutional frameworks in the rural areas of Emilia Romagna and Norway," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 355-363.
    16. Bluemling, Bettina & Mol, Arthur P.J. & Tu, Qin, 2013. "The social organization of agricultural biogas production and use," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 63(C), pages 10-17.
    17. Bryden, John Marshall & Arandia Miura, Amaia & Johnson, Thomas G., 2008. "Theoretical And Policy Background To The Top-Mard Project (Towards A Policy Model Of Multifunctional Agriculture And Rural Development)," 107th Seminar, January 30-February 1, 2008, Sevilla, Spain 6396, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    18. John Bryden & Stig S. Gezelius, 2017. "Innovation as if people mattered: the ethics of innovation for sustainable development," Innovation and Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 101-118, January.
    19. Lundvall, Bengt-Ake & Johnson, Bjorn & Andersen, Esben Sloth & Dalum, Bent, 2002. "National systems of production, innovation and competence building," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 213-231, February.
    20. Mazzanti, Massimiliano & Pini, Paolo & Tortia, Ermanno, 2006. "Organizational innovations, human resources and firm performance: The Emilia-Romagna food sector," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 123-141, February.
    21. Cooke, Philip, 2001. "Regional Innovation Systems, Clusters, and the Knowledge Economy," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 10(4), pages 945-974, December.
    22. Adams, P.W. & Hammond, G.P. & McManus, M.C. & Mezzullo, W.G., 2011. "Barriers to and drivers for UK bioenergy development," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 15(2), pages 1217-1227, February.
    23. Thornley, Patricia & Upham, Paul & Tomei, Julia, 2009. "Sustainability constraints on UK bioenergy development," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5623-5635, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Emilio Abad-Segura & Ana Batlles-delaFuente & Mariana-Daniela González-Zamar & Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña, 2021. "Implications for Sustainability of the Joint Application of Bioeconomy and Circular Economy: A Worldwide Trend Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-24, June.
    2. Takashi Hayashi & Daisuke Sawauchi & Daisuke Kunii, 2017. "Forest Maintenance Practices and Wood Energy Alternatives to Increase Uses of Forest Resources in a Local Initiative in Nishiwaga, Iwate, Japan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-13, October.
    3. Weiss, Gerhard & Hansen, Eric & Ludvig, Alice & Nybakk, Erlend & Toppinen, Anne, 2021. "Innovation governance in the forest sector: Reviewing concepts, trends and gaps," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 130(C).
    4. Franz Grossauer & Gernot Stoeglehner, 2023. "Bioeconomy—A Systematic Literature Review on Spatial Aspects and a Call for a New Research Agenda," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-22, January.
    5. Di Letizia, Gerardo & De Lucia, Caterina & Pazienza, Pasquale & Cappelletti, Giulio Mario, 2023. "Forest bioeconomy at regional scale: A systematic literature review and future policy perspectives," Forest Policy and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 155(C).
    6. Bartoli, Andrea & Hamelin, Lorie & Rozakis, Stelios & Borzęcka, Magdalena & Brandão, Miguel, 2019. "Coupling economic and GHG emission accounting models to evaluate the sustainability of biogas policies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 133-148.
    7. Techane Bosona & Girma Gebresenbet & Sven-Olof Olsson, 2018. "Traceability System for Improved Utilization of Solid Biofuel from Agricultural Prunings," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(2), pages 1-12, January.
    8. Nirvana Angela Marting Vidaurre & Ricardo Vargas-Carpintero & Moritz Wagner & Jan Lask & Iris Lewandowski, 2020. "Social Aspects in the Assessment of Biobased Value Chains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-27, November.
    9. Jusdin Puluhulawa, 2019. "Management of Employees’ Performance Culture," International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), International Journal of Economics & Business Administration (IJEBA), vol. 0(2), pages 131-138.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Rakas, Marija & Hain, Daniel S., 2019. "The state of innovation system research: What happens beneath the surface?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    2. Havas, Attila, 2016. "Recent economic theorising on innovation: Lessons for analysing social innovation," MPRA Paper 77385, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Terje Grønning & Siw Fosstenløkken, 2015. "The Learning Concept Within Innovation Systems Theorizing: A Narrative Review of Selected Publications on National and Regional Innovation Systems," Journal of the Knowledge Economy, Springer;Portland International Center for Management of Engineering and Technology (PICMET), vol. 6(2), pages 420-436, June.
    4. Dahesh, Mehran Badin & Tabarsa, Gholamali & Zandieh, Mostafa & Hamidizadeh, Mohammadreza, 2020. "Reviewing the intellectual structure and evolution of the innovation systems approach: A social network analysis," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    5. Bischoff, Thore Sören & Hipp, Ann & Runst, Petrik, 2022. "Firm innovation and generalized trust as a regional resource," ifh Working Papers 32/2022, Volkswirtschaftliches Institut für Mittelstand und Handwerk an der Universität Göttingen (ifh).
    6. Fu, Wenying & Revilla Diez, Javier & Schiller, Daniel, 2013. "Interactive learning, informal networks and innovation: Evidence from electronics firm survey in the Pearl River Delta, China," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 635-646.
    7. Trischler, Jakob & Johnson, Mikael & Kristensson, Per, 2020. "A service ecosystem perspective on the diffusion of sustainability-oriented user innovations," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 116(C), pages 552-560.
    8. Yutao Sun & Seamus Grimes, 2016. "The emerging dynamic structure of national innovation studies: a bibliometric analysis," Scientometrics, Springer;Akadémiai Kiadó, vol. 106(1), pages 17-40, January.
    9. Nihad Faissal Bassis & Fabiano Armellini, 2018. "Systems of innovation and innovation ecosystems: a literature review in search of complementarities," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 28(5), pages 1053-1080, December.
    10. Attila Havas & Doris Schartinger & K. Matthias Weber, 2022. "Innovation Studies, Social Innovation, and Sustainability Transitions Research: From mutual ignorance towards an integrative perspective?," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2227, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    11. Azevedo, Isabel & Delarue, Erik & Meeus, Leonardo, 2013. "Mobilizing cities towards a low-carbon future: Tambourines, carrots and sticks," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 894-900.
    12. Bajmócy, Zoltán & Vas, Zsófia, 2012. "Az innovációs rendszerek 25 éve. Szakirodalmi áttekintés evolúciós közgazdaságtani megközelítésben [25 years of innovation systems. A literature review from the angle of evolutionary economics]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(11), pages 1233-1256.
    13. Bengt-Åke Lundvall, 2007. "Innovation System Research – Where it came from and where it might go," Globelics Working Paper Series 2007-01, Globelics - Global Network for Economics of Learning, Innovation, and Competence Building Systems, Aalborg University, Department of Business and Management.
    14. Bischoff, Thore Sören & Hipp, Ann & Runst, Petrik, 2023. "Firm innovation and generalized trust as a regional resource," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 52(8).
    15. Fitjar, Rune Dahl & Rodríguez-Pose, Andrés, 2013. "Firm collaboration and modes of innovation in Norway," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(1), pages 128-138.
    16. van Rijnsoever, Frank J. & van den Berg, Jesse & Koch, Joost & Hekkert, Marko P., 2015. "Smart innovation policy: How network position and project composition affect the diversity of an emerging technology," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 44(5), pages 1094-1107.
    17. Edsand, Hans, 2016. "Technological Innovation Systems and the wider context: A framework for developing countries," MERIT Working Papers 2016-017, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    18. Grillitsch, Markus, 2014. "Institutional Change and Economic Evolution in Regions," Papers in Innovation Studies 2014/1, Lund University, CIRCLE - Centre for Innovation Research.
    19. Markus Grillitsch & Josephine V Rekers, 2016. "How does multi-scalar institutional change affect localized learning processes? A case study of the med-tech sector in Southern Sweden," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(1), pages 154-171, January.
    20. L Carlos Freire-Gibb & Geoff Gregson, 2019. "Innovation systems and entrepreneurial ecosystems: Implications for policy and practice in Latin America," Local Economy, London South Bank University, vol. 34(8), pages 787-806, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:9:y:2017:i:3:p:406-:d:92575. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.