TY - JOUR

T1 - Cross-National Complementarity of Technology Push, Demand Pull, and Manufacturing Push Policies

T2 - The Case of Photovoltaics

AU - Hansen, Erik G.

AU - Ludeke-Freund, Florian

AU - Quan, Xiaohong Iris

AU - West, Joel

PY - 2019/8

Y1 - 2019/8

N2 - Researchers have debated the relative importance of technology push and demand pull policies in the adoption of environmental technologies. Here, we examine how internationally distributed technology push and demand pull policies interact to support the diffusion of a renewable energy technology. We analyze 40 years (1974-2013) of solar photovoltaic policies in three countries: USA, Germany, and China. We identify four phases of international policy interactions: in Phase 1 (1974-1990), the USA launched technology push policies; in Phase 2 (1991-2003), Germany pioneered demand pull policies; in Phase 3 (2004-2008), China responded to international market incentive programs with a scaling up of manufacturing; and in Phase 4 (2008-2013), Germany reduced whereas China increased demand policies. Our contributions are threefold: First, we demonstrate the importance of 'manufacturing push' alongside the standard technology push and demand pull factors; second, we show how global adoption was spurred by the complementarity of policy efforts across national boundaries, while considering the tradeoffs in climate change policy between increasing global environmental welfare and improving national economic development; third, we demonstrate three generic patterns of cross-national policy complementarity.

AB - Researchers have debated the relative importance of technology push and demand pull policies in the adoption of environmental technologies. Here, we examine how internationally distributed technology push and demand pull policies interact to support the diffusion of a renewable energy technology. We analyze 40 years (1974-2013) of solar photovoltaic policies in three countries: USA, Germany, and China. We identify four phases of international policy interactions: in Phase 1 (1974-1990), the USA launched technology push policies; in Phase 2 (1991-2003), Germany pioneered demand pull policies; in Phase 3 (2004-2008), China responded to international market incentive programs with a scaling up of manufacturing; and in Phase 4 (2008-2013), Germany reduced whereas China increased demand policies. Our contributions are threefold: First, we demonstrate the importance of 'manufacturing push' alongside the standard technology push and demand pull factors; second, we show how global adoption was spurred by the complementarity of policy efforts across national boundaries, while considering the tradeoffs in climate change policy between increasing global environmental welfare and improving national economic development; third, we demonstrate three generic patterns of cross-national policy complementarity.

KW - Demand pull and technology push

KW - energy policy

KW - energy transition

KW - environmental innovation

KW - Government

KW - Industries

KW - Investment

KW - Manufacturing

KW - Photovoltaic systems

KW - policy instruments

KW - renewable energy

KW - solar photovoltaic

KW - sustainability

KW - Technological innovation

KW - technology diffusion

KW - Energy research

KW - Management studies

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85051008377&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1109/TEM.2018.2833878

DO - 10.1109/TEM.2018.2833878

M3 - Journal articles

AN - SCOPUS:85051008377

VL - 66

SP - 381

EP - 397

JO - IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

JF - IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management

SN - 0018-9391

IS - 3

M1 - 8424882

ER -