Main Concerns on Innovation in the Blue Economy - A Potential Analytical Framework for Blue Innovations

Abstract

AIM OF THE PAPER

The terms of Sustainable Development and the routes towards its goals have been undergoing through decades of research. One of the newly appearing technology-oriented sustainability concepts is Blue Economy. While Pauli (2010) stresses the radically new character of his concept, the analysis of the theoretical base, the definition and the common attributes, virtues of blue innovations represented by the case studies are missing. In the absence of clear definitions, theoretical foundation and conclusions the identification, promotion and subsidization of blue innovations can hardly be made. The goal of this paper is to identify the connections among Blue Economy and the earlier technology-oriented sustainability theories, and to highlight its unique principles and main concerns regarding innovations. A potential analytical framework for classifying technological innovations as blue ones is also presented.

METHODOLOGY

The paper deals with the identification of the theoretical funds of Blue Economy and blue innovations in the light of the dominant streams of technology-oriented sustainability research - i.e. eco-efficiency, biomimicry, ecomimicry, industrial ecology, natural capitalism and system innovation - based on a descriptive literature review and an analytical framework is proposed according to the methodological recommendations of system innovation literature.

MOST IMPORTANT RESULTS

Blue Economy does not represent a radically new research stream which breaks the logics, principles and assumptions of the earlier technology-oriented research directions, indeed, Blue Economy rethinks and reinterprets the founding principles of the earlier studies and incorporates the insights of system innovation and quasi-evolutionary researches.

RECOMMENDATIONS

The proposed indicative framework for the assessment of relative sustainable advantages and system innovation potentials of blue innovations has the same limitations as technology impact assessment and sustainability analysis methods.