Title:
Global Obstacles to Disruptive Innovation In Sustainable Agriculture and Energy

dc.contributor.author Bonvillian, William B. en_US
dc.contributor.author Weiss, Charles en_US
dc.contributor.corporatename Georgetown University. School of Foreign Service en_US
dc.contributor.corporatename Massachusetts Institute of Technology en_US
dc.date.accessioned 2012-02-10T20:12:52Z
dc.date.available 2012-02-10T20:12:52Z
dc.date.issued 2011-09-15
dc.description Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy 2011 en_US
dc.description This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder. ©2011 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE. en_US
dc.description.abstract The U.S. national innovation system has a dual structure: part suited to rapid innovation, and part stubbornly resistant to change. The complex established “legacy” sectors (CELS) that resist change share common features that obstruct the market launch of innovations, beyond the “valley of death” and other obstacles that have been the traditional focus of innovation policy. Innovations in CELS must penetrate a well-established and well-defended technological/economic/political/social paradigm that favors existing technology, characterized by (1) “perverse” subsidies and price structures that create a mismatch between the incentives of producers and broader social goals, such as environmental sustainability, public health and safety, and geopolitical security; (2) established infrastructure and institutional architecture that imposes regulatory hurdles or other disadvantages to new entrants (3) market imperfections beyond those faced by other innovations: network economies, lumpiness, economies of scale, split incentives, needs for collective action, and transaction costs (4) politically powerful vested interests, reinforced by public support, that defend the paradigm and resist innovations that threaten their business models (5) public habits and expectations attuned to existing technology and (6) an established knowledge and human resources structure adapted to its needs. We have developed a new, integrative analytic framework for categorizing the obstacles to market launch faced by CELS, and earlier applied this method to energy, health delivery, the long-distance electric grid, building, and air transport. In energy especially, the requirement for innovation is sufficiently urgent that large-scale domestic and collaborative international research should take place even at the cost of possible competitive disadvantage and even if it is some time before the U.S. adopts carbon charges and thereby puts pressure on the prevailing paradigm of fossil fuel use. We now extend this method to sustainable agriculture. American paradigms in agriculture and in energy are exported world-wide, delaying the development and spread of needed innovations that are not consistent with them. Foreign manufacturers wishing to enter U.S. markets must suit their products in these sectors to American paradigms, while American exports of technology may be insufficiently cost-conscious or respectful of environmental sustainability. Developing countries are technology takers and suffer from asymmetric innovative capability. They need to choose sources of technology best suited to their situation. India and China constitute new competitive threats, but also represent “innovative developing countries” that have large domestic markets in which to launch innovations aimed at the needs of poor people. en_US
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/1853/42602
dc.publisher Georgia Institute of Technology en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries ACSIP11. General Papers en_US
dc.subject Technoeconomic paradigm en_US
dc.subject Obstacles to innovation en_US
dc.subject Legacy sectors en_US
dc.subject Perverse subsidies en_US
dc.subject Globalization en_US
dc.subject International collaborative research en_US
dc.subject Asymmetric innovative capacity en_US
dc.subject Market imperfections en_US
dc.subject Collective action en_US
dc.subject Lumpiness en_US
dc.subject Organic agriculture en_US
dc.title Global Obstacles to Disruptive Innovation In Sustainable Agriculture and Energy en_US
dc.title.alternative Complex, Established "Legacy" Sectors: The Technology Revolutions that Do Not Happen en_US
dc.type Text
dc.type.genre Proceedings
dspace.entity.type Publication
local.contributor.corporatename Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts
local.contributor.corporatename School of Public Policy
local.relation.ispartofseries Atlanta Conference on Science and Innovation Policy
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication b1049ff1-5166-442c-9e14-ad804b064e38
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication a3789037-aec2-41bb-9888-1a95104b7f8c
relation.isSeriesOfPublication 8e93dc09-10dd-4fdd-8c5a-77defb1f7f78
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