The creation of an innovation niche depends on the interaction of three mechanisms involving: converging expectations, networking among the innovation actors, and learning about the novelty through efficient knowledge creation and diffusion. Such mechanisms define the key characteristics of a network affirms (i.e. the innovation niche), and the interaction among them guides the development and diffusion of a new technology. In this paper, we propose an agent-based model to investigate the dynamics characterising such interactions and the role that policy intervention can have in governing the niche development process. Specifically, we consider and assess the impact of two policy actions: (1) increasing actors' expectations towards the new technology by means of information spreading and (2) providing subsidies aimed at stimulating technological switch. Our results confirm the importance of policy intervention and show the dominance of information spreading activities over subsidies. The former policy action, in fact, preserves a broad consensus around the new technology, a fact which turned out to be fundamental in order to promote efficient knowledge diffusion and the effective use of individual and network resources. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The siting of solid biomass energy plants can be conceived as a transaction process talcing place between two specific economic agents, the investor and local community, The investor is interested in obtaining the use rights for local resources (e.g., area for setting; natural resources to feed the process, release of pollutants into the environment) while the community expects an increase in net benefits (e.g.. job opportunities, induced industrial development). This transaction process has been analyzed according to the typical transaction costs theory, where the economic activities are conceived as the result of transactions among economic agents, which are hindered by three main obstacles: i) bounded rationality, ii) opportunism, iii) asset specificity, By applying the New Institutional theory approach, we treat the issue of social acceptance as a transaction cost problem. The aim is to identify the best practices adopted by biomass firms' managers in order to enhance the social acceptance of solid biomass plants at the local community level, In this paper, we conduct a positive analysis where the methodological approach is based on the comparison of six successful study cases, This allowed us to identify twelve measures capable of fostering social acceptance and consequently of reducing the costs related to the investment.

ABSTRACT In this paper we investigate socio-technical transition pathways concentrating our attention on innovation niches formations. Specifically, we present first a methodological conceptualization of innovation niches and suggest an empirical methodology, based on a Social Network Analysis (SNA), aimed at capturing and measuring the internal development status of innovation niches. Further, we propose a taxonomy of various niche development statuses. The proposed empirical methodology is subsequently tested on a specific case study where we assess the development status of the emerging biorefinery niche situated in the province of Foggia (Apulia Region, Italy). Although not exhaustive, we believe this study represents an important step in a much-needed direction, which is the development of a commonly shared empirical methodology for innovation studies dealing with socio-technical transitions.

This chapter is structured in two parts dealing with the very same problem – that is, assessing and modelling stakeholder interplay and policy scenarios forthe development of biorefineries and biodiesel production. They target, however, the problem from two distinct perspectives: micro and macro. The first part of the chapter presents the micro-economic perspective, assessing the methodological approach for policy modelling and policy evaluation. This investigation builds on the multi-level approach (MLA) for the study of technological trajectories. MLA should be conceived as a nested framework formed by linked levels: socio-technical regime, socio-technical landscape and innovation niches. Within such a framework, we focus our attention on the innovation niche and its emerging process. This is done by a three-step methodology. The first step aims at assessing the niche development status and makes use of Social Network Analysis and Fuzzy Cognitive Maps. In the second step we employ agent-based analysis for the development of an archetype model to investigating the key internal dynamics of the niche. The third step focuses on the evaluation of policy actions using a well-known criterion, that is the efficiency of the actions studied by means of the Data Envelopment Analysis. In the second part of this chapter we turn to the macro-perspective, presenting a computable general equilibrium model. Here, we use counterfactual simulations to assess how consumer welfare is affected in the following cases: (1) a change in technology to comply with the European Union commitment to renewable energy use; (2) the implementation of different tax (or subsidy) rates on energy inputs and emissions, at either national or EU level; (3) a change in land-use, if biorefineries and biodiesel are considered as inputs to production. Both the micro- and the macro-economic approaches are designed to respond to two key policy objectives: (1) to develop policy scenarios for biodiesel and biorefinery production through the analysis of social network interactions across stakeholders and consumer welfare; (2) to understand the evolution of various environmental, economic and policy constraints within a sustainable development framework for biofuel and biorefinery energy sectors.

La presente opera scaturisce dall’esigenza di raccogliere note e ricerche relative all’omonimo progetto finanziato dalla Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Puglia. Il volume affronta la tematica innovativa delle bioraffinerie, prestando particolare attenzione alle loro potenzialità di sviluppo, tipicamente affette da una sorta di lock-in interno noto come chicken or egg dilemma: come possono i produttori di biomassa investire per renderne disponibile una quantità appropriata se non vi è un mercato di riferimento? Come i mercati a valle possono svilupparsi senza che vi sia una stabile offerta di biomassa? Il libro presenta alcuni strumenti che possono consentire di gestire e superare tali blocchi iniziali.

The Local Action Groups (LAGs) are supposed to contribute to the local development process through the enhancement of the territorial social capital. Stressing their aggregative role, the objective of this work is twofold: to find empirical evidence that LAGs’ operation can foster the social capital of the local partnerships, and to contribute to the methodological advancement in detecting social capital. The relational computational system here presented detects the contribution of LAGs on logical basis by comparing the relations actually existing and the relations created independently of the LAGs’ operation. The analysis reveals that the LAGs modified the morphology of their networks fostering the connectivity of their members and exalting the role of some actors as bridges among different polarities.