Policy mixes and policy feedback: Implications for green industrial growth in the Swedish biofuels industry
Journal article, 2023

Policymakers have increasingly voiced an ambition to combine the transition to a climate-neutral society with a “green” domestic industrial agenda. In recent years, innovation systems scholars have advanced the understanding of the evolution of industries around renewable energy technologies as well as the role of policy feedback (and indeed politics) surrounding the development of domestic green industrial development policies. To take a step towards combining these literature streams, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the role of policy mixes and policy feedback in the emergence of domestic green industries. This is achieved in the empirical case of biofuels in Sweden, and the findings show that policy feedback dynamics created difficulties in aligning the national policy mix with the technology and industrial developments in the country. The resulting political uncertainty predominantly hampered the scaling up of domestic production capacity, while R&D and import of biofuels instead could grow strong. Based on this empirical case, a process model is developed to explain the role of policy feedback in the development of domestic industries, thus demonstrating how the growth of domestic industries is driven by the interplay of policy effects and various feedback processes. The findings suggest that future research into the role of policies in “green” domestic industry growth should devote more attention to the dynamics driving the co-evolution of policy, technology and industry structures.

Domestic industry growth

Policy feedback

Innovation system

Industrial policy

Biofuels

Policy mix

Author

Barbara Hedeler

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Environmental Systems Analysis

Hans Hellsmark

Chalmers, Technology Management and Economics, Environmental Systems Analysis

Patrik Söderholm

Luleå University of Technology

Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews

1364-0321 (ISSN) 18790690 (eISSN)

Vol. 173 113098

Driving Forces

Sustainable development

Subject Categories

Economic History

Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

Economic Geography

DOI

10.1016/j.rser.2022.113098

More information

Latest update

12/21/2022