Incorporação da variavel ambiental na dinamica de inovação

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2004

RESUMO

The chemical sector represents a particularly critical set of problems with regard to its products toxicity and accumulativity, pollutant emission and major accidents. The opportunities and barriers to the incorporation of the environmental variable in this industry’s innovative dynamics are the main topic of this thesis. It begins reviewing the historical evolution of the chemical industry focusing on the main changes in its technological base and the appearance of environmental problems. It recognizes the strengthening of the environmental legislation and the pressure of the civil society at a time when the chemical industry was already losing part of its technological dynamism as a key issue. It highlights the diversity of the current chemical industry as far as products, companies and the technical renovation capacity are concerned and discusses ways to treat this sector as a study object. To better understand the perspectives of generating and adopting environment-friendly innovations, it reviews the literature on the evolutionary/neoschumpeterian economics. Drawing on these theoretical elements, it discusses analysis lines and hypotheses for the case of the chemical sector. Next, it analyzes the concrete case of the CFCs substitution process provoked by the Montreal Protocol (1987). It then assesses the alternative techniques introduced by the chemical industry before the deadline to phase out the production of CFCs in the central countries (January 1st, 1996). Although this analysis clearly shows a technical substitution effected mainly through incremental innovations, it also reveals a complex process that demanded substantial efforts from both users and producers.

ASSUNTO(S)

industria quimica tecnologia industrial inovações tecnologicas meio ambiente

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