Objectif
To assess the effect on company's innovative behaviour of environmental considerations, including environmental regulation and consumers demand for "green products".
The study covers Germany and the Netherlands and examines whether and to what degree environmental considerations have an effect on a company's innovation strategies. The research project consists of three main stages :
i) a survey of the most important environmental regulations currently in force in the two countries. The regulations are then classified according to their effects on specific sectors and specific indicators for the research into the connection between innovation and policy parameters are identified.
ii) the importance of the innovation process is analysed with the help of the data from the Dutch and the German surveys. A statistical analysis identifies to what extent differences exists between specific industries and companies of various sizes with regard to the integration of environmental objectives into their production processes;
iii) in both countries case studies of specific companies and technologies are carried out. In this process it is ascertained wich regulatory measures have the greatest impact on innovation and a further examination is done on the connection between the innovation behaviour and environmental regulation.
Findings are evaluated and various actions are derived for the improvement of the statistical data basis for the analysis of innovative behaviour of companies engendered by environment regulation.