Investment in technology improvement (TI) measures that reduce the consumption rate of input commodities (like fuel, energy, water, etc.) yields significant economic and sustainability benefits. Yet, evidence shows that the so-called holdup problem leads to inefficient levels of investment in TI. The suppliers refrain from investing in TI because they fear that a buyer with greater bargaining power will use TI-related cost reductions to push prices down-in the purchase bargaining process-and thereby further reduce the supplier's profit margin. Conventional wisdom suggests that higher bargaining power on the buyer's side aggravates this problem. In a two-tier supplier-buyer setting, we study the role of relative bargaining power along with technology uncertainty-i.e., the risk associated with investment return-on TI investment levels by the supplier. We challenge conventional wisdom to show that there is an inverse U-shaped relationship between buyer bargaining power and TI investment by the supplier and characterize how technology uncertainty moderates this relationship. We study and rank various contracting arrangements commonly used in industry, including the price commitment and shared investment contracts to remedy the investment inefficiencies resulting from the bargaining process. (C) 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

This paper examines the impact of information on sustainable technology adoption behavior and decisions. Data from a sample of current and potential clients of a large retailer of photovoltaics (PV) systems is used to study how different information sources and different information channels affect both the intention to adopt and the actual purchasing decision of the customers. This research challenges the notion that providing more information always supports the adoption of environmental technologies. Drawing upon innovation diffusion theories and the theory of sustainable consumer behavior change, this analysis indicates that different information types and different channels have different effects. This research also finds that the impact of information changes throughout the adoption process, as potential technology adopters move from being indifferent to developing sustainable attitude, and then from displaying sustainable attitude to actually making an adoption decision. Generic information facilitates the development of sustainable attitude, but it is relatively ineffective in supporting adoption. Likewise, information obtained from commercial channels supports sustainable attitude, but it does not increase the likelihood of displaying sustainable behavior. Only information obtained from unbiased third party sources favors adoption. This research contributes to clarifying the “attitude–behavior gap” in the context of environmental technology adoption; while the findings have critical implications for policymakers and technology providers in optimizing their marketing strategies and information campaigns to promote new environmental technologies.

This study aims to contribute to the long-standing debate on technology-push versus demand-pull mechanisms to support the creation and diffusion of innovations. We argue that in addition to the traditional push–pull dichotomy, technological change drivers must be differentiated by whether they are exogenous or endogenous to the economic system and must be assessed against their contribution to both the creation and the diffusion of innovation. We apply this perspective to study innovation in the renewable energy (RE) industry in 15 European Union countries. We find that public R&D investments, public policies, and per capita income positively affect either innovation creation or diffusion. However, impacts differ depending on the innovation dimension considered. Economic growth is relatively ineffective at stimulating innovation creation. In contrast, it is a strong driver of RE diffusion with a nonlinear, U-shaped impact that has both a direct cause and an indirect cause. Our findings highlight the importance of deploying diverse policy instruments simultaneously to enhance the effectiveness of clean energy policies.

Battery Electric Vehicles are regarded as highly important to reach environmental goals, such as CO2 savings in the transport sector. Despite governments making strong efforts to encourage their adoption and diffusion, sales still remain at a notoriously low level. One of the reasons may be the lack of a deeper understanding of the differences among potential adopters of Battery Electric Vehicles. To close this research gap, the authors segment adopter groups in a new way. They simultaneously use preferences for product attributes and personal characteristics to identify and characterize adopter groups of Battery Electric Vehicles. In this way, adopters can be effectively segmented, uncovering a more precise picture of adopters’ needs. Moreover, the authors introduce a three-step-procedure combining inputs from an adaptive choice-based conjoint experiment with a questionnaire. This approach can be used to segment adopter groups of other eco-innovations, as well. Based on three adopter groups of Battery Electric Vehicles (Utilitarian Savers, Performance Seekers, and Green Technologists), the authors develop tailored measures for decision-makers in policy and management to foster the adoption and diffusion of Battery Electric Vehicles.

2 : this paper examines the diffusion process of PV in southern Europe in the next four decades. Towards this end, it first undertakes a detailed bottom-up analysis of two market segments that are appropriate for PV applications in five European countries. Then it simulates PV penetration under four macroeconomic scenarios. The analysis suggests that already today there are opportunities for PV diffusion in many islands of the Mediterranean region, which may trigger sufficient scale-economies to render the technology competitive in larger markets. The results also show that the diffusion process could be dramatically accelerated through the implementation of carbon-tax policies that support initial penetration. The environmental benefits (net avoided CO2 emissions over the system life cycle) associated with the forecasted penetration are also evaluated.

While IT integration is recognised as an important capability, the mechanisms through which it creates value and the contingencies that delimit its effectiveness are unclear - particularly, in the case of firms that deliver solutions embodying both products and services. We focus on IT vendors to investigate the effectiveness of IT integration capability with respect to three aspects of IT solution offerings: breadth, modularity and customisation. We find a complementarity effect between IT integration capability and management of the IT offer strategy: IT integration is fundamental regardless of whether the firm relies on customisation or a broad set of heterogeneous knowledge bases. However, when IT vendors adopt a modular design strategy, IT integration is made redundant and can be counterproductive.

This study models a multi‐player environment consisting of a grid operator responsible for meeting electricity demands, a photovoltaic (PV) manufacturer, customers who might install (solar) PV systems, and a regulator who must set an optimal feed‐in tariff (FIT). The grid operator must meet exogenous electricity demand and also buy back all electricity (produced by PV systems) at the FIT set by the regulator. Customers decide whether or not to invest in a PV system. Adoption rates affect the manufacturer and operator by (respectively) establishing the demand for PV systems and determining how much PV electricity is fed into the grid. The PV manufacturer’s decision variable is the sales price per PV unit. The decisions of all players in the model are intertwined in a way that clearly affects their respective welfare. We demonstrate in particular how technology and market characteristics—including PV manufacturing cost and market competition—change the optimal decisions of players and thereby influence the effectiveness of FITs, the number of PV adopters, and the cost to provide the social benefit of on‐demand electricity. Our findings confirm the importance of considering technology manufacturers when devising schemes to incentivize the adoption of PV systems.

Production and Operations ManagementVolume 27, Issue 4 p. 798-798 CorrigendumFree Access Corrigendum: Vehicle Procurement Policy for Humanitarian Development Programs This article corrects the following: Vehicle Procurement Policy for Humanitarian Development Programs Mahyar Eftekhar, Andrea Masini, Andreas Robotis, Luk N. Van Wassenhove, Volume 23Issue 6Production and Operations Management pages: 951-964 First Published online: December 5, 2013 Mahyar Eftekhar, Mahyar Eftekhar [email protected] W. P. Carey School of Business, Department of Supply Chain Management, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, 85287-4706 USASearch for more papers by this authorAndrea Masini, Andrea Masini [email protected] HEC Paris, Department of Operations Management and Information Technology, 1, rue de la Liberation, Jouy en Josas Cedex, 78351 FranceSearch for more papers by this authorAndreas Robotis, Andreas Robotis [email protected] ALBA Graduate Business School, Operations Management Area, 6–8 Xenias St., Athens, 11528 GreeceSearch for more papers by this authorLuk N. Van Wassenhove, Luk N. Van Wassenhove [email protected] INSEAD, Technology and Operations Management Area, Boulevard de Constance, Fontainebleau, Cedex, 77305 FranceSearch for more papers by this author Mahyar Eftekhar, Mahyar Eftekhar [email protected] W. P. Carey School of Business, Department of Supply Chain Management, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, 85287-4706 USASearch for more papers by this authorAndrea Masini, Andrea Masini [email protected] HEC Paris, Department of Operations Management and Information Technology, 1, rue de la Liberation, Jouy en Josas Cedex, 78351 FranceSearch for more papers by this authorAndreas Robotis, Andreas Robotis [email protected] ALBA Graduate Business School, Operations Management Area, 6–8 Xenias St., Athens, 11528 GreeceSearch for more papers by this authorLuk N. Van Wassenhove, Luk N. Van Wassenhove [email protected] INSEAD, Technology and Operations Management Area, Boulevard de Constance, Fontainebleau, Cedex, 77305 FranceSearch for more papers by this author First published: 15 April 2018 https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.12865AboutSectionsPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL This Corrigendum contains the supporting information that should have been published with the paper of Eftekhar et al. (2014). Supporting Information Filename Description poms12865-sup-0001-Appendix.pdfPDF document, 137.9 KB Appendix S1: Proofs and Supplemental Materials. poms12865-sup-0002-Appendix.texapplication/x-tex, 22.2 KB Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article. Reference Eftekhar, M., A. Masini, A. Robotis, L. N. Van Wassenhove. 2014. Vehicle procurement policy for humanitarian development programs. Prod. Oper. Manag. 23(6): 951– 964. https://doi.org/10.1111/poms.12108. Volume27, Issue4April 2018Pages 798-798 ReferencesRelatedInformation

We examine empirically how different information types and information channels affect both the intention and the decision to adopt photovoltaic (PV) technology as affected by adoption stage. Analyzing data on a large European utility’s current and potential clients reveals how the effects of various drivers of adoption can change across phases of the adoption process. Our results challenge the common wisdom that information necessarily and homogeneously supports innovation adoption; instead, they strongly support the hypothesis that information types and channels have distinct effects on adoption rates. These results also highlight that, throughout the adoption process, the value of information changes. In addition, we clarify the effects of economic incentives on both the intention to adopt PV technology and actual adoption behavior. Our findings have critical implications for policy makers and for any technology manufacturing company that must optimize its marketing strategy and distribution channels to promote renewable energy systems.

Sustainability rankings are receiving increasing attention by the academic and the policy making communities because of their potential to influence environmental legislation and reshape competitive landscapes. Unfortunately, most of the indicators used to produce these rankings do not take into account economic development and tend to be biased in favor of richer countries. To circumvent this limitation we develop a novel, rigorous and simple metric that ranks countries by their potential environmental performance relative to their wealth; in other words, by the degree of sustainability that a country should achieve, given its level of affluence. We apply our approach to measure the sustainability level of 15 developed economies with respect to the share of renewable energy sources in their electricity generating portfolios. The resulting ranking produces changes in the perceived greenness of certain countries. If adopted, it would allow these countries to increase their bargaining power in international negotiations. It would also alter the pressure faced by their governments to implement or discontinue environmental policies such as feed-in tariffs. Although we applied it at the country level and in the context of renewable energy, the method has far-reaching implications and it can also be used to compare corporate sustainability levels.

This paper aims to contribute to the longstanding technology-push vs. demand-pull debate and to the literature on renewable energy policy assessment. We argue that in addition to the traditional push–pull dichotomy, the drivers of technological change must be differentiated by whether they are exogenous or endogenous to the economic system and must be assessed with respect to their contribution to both the creation and the diffusion of innovation. We apply this perspective to study innovation in the renewable energy (RE) industry in 15 European Union countries from 1990 to 2012. Using different panel data estimators, we find that public R&D investments, policies supporting RE and per capita income all have a positive effect on either innovation creation or diffusion, whereas the variability of policy support has a negative impact on diffusion. However, impacts are heterogeneous and differ depending on the innovation dimension considered. Most importantly, we find that economic growth is a stronger driver of RE diffusion than technology-push or exogenous demand-pull mechanisms, whereas it is relatively ineffective at stimulating innovation creation. The effect of economic growth on RE diffusion exhibits a nonlinear, U-shaped pattern that resonates with the Environmental Kuznets Curve hypothesis. RE penetration remains negligible at low levels of growth whereas it increases sharply only after income per capita has reached a given threshold. This effect has both a direct cause (with increased affluence demand for environmental quality rises) and an indirect cause (with increased affluence expensive RE policies become more affordable and get implemented more extensively). Our findings have implications for policy making. They suggest that for RE diffusion to increase, innovation policies should be carefully balanced. Government action should be directed not only at shielding renewables from competition with fossil fuel technologies, but also at stimulating aggregated demand and economic growth.

This paper models a multi-player environment comprising a grid operator responsible for meeting electricity demands, a photovoltaic (PV) manufacturer, customers who might install PV (solar) systems, and a regulator charged with setting an optimal feed-in tariff (FIT). The grid operator must meet exogenous electricity demand and also buy back all electricity (produced by PV systems) at the FIT set by a regulator, which seeks to minimize grid operator costs. Customers decide whether or not to invest in a PV system. Adoption rates affect the manufacturer and operator by (respectively) establishing the demand for PV and determining how much electricity is fed into the grid. The PV manufacturer's decision variable is the sales price per PV unit. The decisions of all players in the model are intertwined in a way that clearly affects their respective welfare. We demonstrate in particular how technology and market characteristics -- including PV manufacturing cost and market competition -- change the optimal decisions of players and thereby influence the effectiveness of FITs, the number of PV adopters, and the cost to provide the social benefit of on-demand electricity. Our findings confirm the importance of considering technology manufacturers when devising schemes to incentivize adoption of PV systems.

This paper examines the relationship among IT capability, operations strategy decisions and operational performance. Using primary data from a sample of European firms, we test a model of fit between two specific IT capability-building decisions and three competitive priorities, and we analyze the impact of IT capability alignment on several dimensions of process performance. After uncovering three stylized configurations, we note that firms tend to adopt internally coherent IT capability-building decisions but we find only mixed evidence of alignment between IT capability-building decisions and competitive priorities. Interestingly, however, failing to achieve alignment has negative performance consequences but only for firms that develop limited IT capability. Our results suggests that IT plays a central role in the fulfillment of a firm’s operations strategy, not only for firms that pursue differentiation and are interested in improving the effectiveness of their customer-oriented functions, but also for firms seeking efficiency improvements in back-office operations. Although it is, a priori, more expensive, the development of advanced IT capability can support cost leadership strategies more effectively than a frugal approach, as long as IT projects are used to generate operational knowledge and thus improve process efficiency. At the same time, our results cast further doubt on the value of frugal IT capability, even for firms that strive to reduce cost.

Confronted by increasingly tight budgets and a broad range of alternative options, policy makers need empirical methods to evaluate the effectiveness of policies aimed at supporting the diffusion of renewable energy sources (RES). Rigorous empirical studies of renewable energy policy effectiveness have typically relied on panel data models to identify the most effective mechanisms. A common characteristic of some of these studies, which has important econometric implications, is that they assume that the contribution of RES to total electricity generation will be stationary around a mean. This paper reviews such assumptions and rigorously tests the time series properties of the contribution of RES in the energy mix for the presence of a unit root. To that end, we use both individual and panel unit root tests to determine whether the series exhibit non-stationary behavior at the country level as well as for the panel as a whole. The analysis, applied to a panel of 19 OECD countries over the period 1990-2012, provides strong evidence that the time series of the renewable share of electricity output are not stationary in 17 of the 19 countries examined. This finding has important implications for energy policy assessment and energy policy making, which are discussed in the paper.

There is some evidence that manufacturers refrain from investing in energy efficiency (EE) measures which improve their production process and reduce operational costs as a response to retailer's high bargaining power and the possibility of their using it to further push the prices down and seueez manufacturer's profit margin. Additionally, the uncertainty associated with new and environmental friendly EE technologies further discourages the manufacturers to adopt EE technologies. We study these problems by considering a two tier supply chain including a single manufacturer and a retailer and analyse the effect of retailer's relative bargaining power and technology uncertainty on adoption of EE technologies by the upstream manufacturer. We compare multiple contracting arrangement practiced in industry to aleviate the aformentioned problems including price commitment by the retailer and shared investment contracts, and charachterise optimal contracts with respect to different criteria, including supply chain profits and the level of EE investments. We find that shared investment contracts perform better than price commitment contracts based on the EE the level of investment and channel profit criteria, while price commitment contracts yield higher profit for the manufacturer rather than having no EE contract when retailer's bargaining power is relatively high. Furthermore, when the technology uncertainty is high, the retailer's profit is higher when there is no EE contract

Evidence shows that suppliers refrain from investing in energy efficiency (EE) measures because they fear that a buyer with greater bargaining power will use the EE-related cost reductions to push prices down, in the purchase bargaining process, and thereby further reduce the supplier's profit margin. Suppliers are also discouraged from EE investment by the uncertainty associated with new technologies. These issues are studied via our model of the bargaining process, in a two-tier supply chain, between a single supplier and buyer; we analyze how the supplier's EE technology adoption is affected by the buyer's relative bargaining power and also by technology uncertainty. We compare various contracting arrangements commonly used in industry to overcome these obstacles, including price commitment by the buyer and shared investment contracts while characterizing their optimal properties with respect to different criteria - in particular, supply chain profit and the equilibrium level of EE investment. In terms of both criteria, we find that shared investment contracts perform better than price commitment contracts, although the latter increase supplier profit when a buyer's bargaining power is relatively high. We also show that, in a two-player model, the bargaining process between firms moderates how uncertainty affects supplier's investment behavior.

This article aims to identify optimal vehicle procurement policies for organizations engaged in humanitarian development programs and to derive general insights on the characteristics of these policies. Toward that end, we follow an inductive approach. First, we study the operations of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in three representative countries: Sudan, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia. Using a linear programming (LP) model primed with field data provided by the ICRC, we calculate the optimal vehicle fleet size and compare it with the policies actually implemented. Second, drawing from results of the LP model, we develop a stylized quadratic control model and use it to characterize the general structure of the optimal policy under different demand scenarios and operational constraints. After demonstrating that the results of the control model are consistent with those of the LP model in the specific context analyzed, we discuss the optimal policies and the applicability of the former as a practical tool for strategic asset planning.

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Qatar National Research Fund (project n. NPRP 5 - 873 - 5 - 133) It is now widely accepted that investment in renewable energy sources is one of the most effective solutions to amend the emission of greenhouse gasses. By providing emission-free and sustainable energy, these energies are main alternatives to fossil fuels. Yet, notwithstanding the advantages and the fact that they have experienced a substantial growth over the last decade, renewable energy market penetration still remains below the levels judged necessary to effectively curb C02 emissions. Increasing RE penetration requires therefore that concerned actors such as RE companies and policy makers develop a more thorough understanding of the factors that affect the RE diffusion process. To that end, in this study we adopt a new technology diffusion perspective to shed further light on the factors that may hamper or accelerate the diffusion of a specific type of renewable energy: photovoltaic systems (PV). We especially discuss and examine the impact of the following factors: i) the type of PV-related information acquired by individuals before adoption which is either customized (face to face contact, talking, etc.) or non customized information (article readings, ads, etc.); ii) information channel, either commercialized (information from PV suppliers) or non commercialized channels (information from other sources) iii) the total amount of PV-related information acquired by individuals before adoption iv) economic value of PV system v) technological uncertainty and vi) the perceived degree of competition in the PV supply market. We put forth a conceptual model of PV diffusion and we test it using primary data obtained through a survey of the actual clients, prospect and potential customers of a large European utility that also sells PV systems. Both Prospect and Potentials do not have the PV system but prospect asked for the quote. We used a set of logit models to estimate the impact of the above factors on the adoption likelihood for prospect and potential customers, and also to compare clients with prospects and prospect with potentials. The analysis provides interesting insights, particularly with respect to the time value of different information dimensions. The results indicate that the value of information varies over the time. For example customized information has positive effect on the adoption decision, and information coming from commercialized channels has positive effect on becoming a prospect. Second, our results show that, contrary to expectations, increasing the number of market competitors decreases the probability of adoption, possibly because potential adopters defer their adoption decision when the number of available alternatives increases beyond a certain limit. Altogether, our results indicate that - in addition to focusing on improving technological effectiveness and reducing system cost, RE providers should pay a lot of attention to the way they organize their distribution channels and to how they design their marketing campaigns.

Whereas systems integration is recognized as an important organizational capability, the mechanisms through which it creates value as well as the environmental contingencies that delimit its effectiveness remain unclear, particularly when firms deliver integrated solutions embodying products and services. Focusing on IT solution providers, the authors investigate the effectiveness of systems integration with respect to three specific approaches to solution design: breadth, modularity, and customization. They find a complementarity effect between systems integration and solution design approaches: if firms pursue customization or rely on a broad set of heterogeneous knowledge bases, systems integration becomes fundamental. Conversely, if firms adopt a modular design, systems integration is redundant and even counterproductive. The authors also find evidence of complementarity between breadth and customization, but not between breadth and modularity nor between customization and modularity.

Contingency theory suggests that the selection of coherent combinations of organizational capabilities and operational environments has important performance implications. This paper builds upon this perspective to analyse the emergence of a new business model that is modifying the structure of many industries: the provision of integrated solutions. The aim of the paper is to examine the strategic decisions behind the adoption of a business model based on integrated solutions and to understand how internal firm capabilities must be modified to match the external environment. Relying on primary data from 102 European IT firms, the authors discuss the value of specialized capabilities, and we analyze their degree of fit with the operational environment in which they are applied. Results show that solution providers that possess specialized capabilities obtain greater benefits when they operate in homogeneous environments.