The paradox of sustainable innovation: the ‘Eroom’ effect (Moore’s law backwards)
Innovation has been widely acknowledged as a key mechanism for addressing sustainable development concerns. However, less attention has focused on downstream commercialization challenges such as achieving increasingly complex and stringent regulatory approval. Such challenges may hinder the developm...
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| Format: | Article |
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Elsevier
2018
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47719/ |
| _version_ | 1848797612930498560 |
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| author | Hall, Jeremy Matos, Stelvia Gold, Stefan Severino, Liv S. |
| author_facet | Hall, Jeremy Matos, Stelvia Gold, Stefan Severino, Liv S. |
| author_sort | Hall, Jeremy |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Innovation has been widely acknowledged as a key mechanism for addressing sustainable development concerns. However, less attention has focused on downstream commercialization challenges such as achieving increasingly complex and stringent regulatory approval. Such challenges may hinder the development of more sustainable technologies, especially those coming from smaller or publically funded institutes. As well, they may obstruct the development of applications that could provide societal benefits, but may only have limited commercial viability due to small market niches or applicability to customers with limited financial means. We explore this apparent paradox using the concept of the Eroom effect (Moore’s Law backwards), i.e. where improved price performance due to technological advances are outweighed by increasing costs of regulatory approval and other commercialization costs. We illustrate this phenomenon with two cases of publically funded institutes, one developing transgenic cotton, and the other lignin transformation technology that can replace petroleum-based feedstocks in a number of industrial applications. We discuss the unintended consequences of the Eroom effect and conclude with implications for industry, policy and NGOs. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:06:39Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-47719 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:06:39Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-477192020-05-04T19:27:42Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47719/ The paradox of sustainable innovation: the ‘Eroom’ effect (Moore’s law backwards) Hall, Jeremy Matos, Stelvia Gold, Stefan Severino, Liv S. Innovation has been widely acknowledged as a key mechanism for addressing sustainable development concerns. However, less attention has focused on downstream commercialization challenges such as achieving increasingly complex and stringent regulatory approval. Such challenges may hinder the development of more sustainable technologies, especially those coming from smaller or publically funded institutes. As well, they may obstruct the development of applications that could provide societal benefits, but may only have limited commercial viability due to small market niches or applicability to customers with limited financial means. We explore this apparent paradox using the concept of the Eroom effect (Moore’s Law backwards), i.e. where improved price performance due to technological advances are outweighed by increasing costs of regulatory approval and other commercialization costs. We illustrate this phenomenon with two cases of publically funded institutes, one developing transgenic cotton, and the other lignin transformation technology that can replace petroleum-based feedstocks in a number of industrial applications. We discuss the unintended consequences of the Eroom effect and conclude with implications for industry, policy and NGOs. Elsevier 2018-01-20 Article PeerReviewed Hall, Jeremy, Matos, Stelvia, Gold, Stefan and Severino, Liv S. (2018) The paradox of sustainable innovation: the ‘Eroom’ effect (Moore’s law backwards). Journal of Cleaner Production, 172 . pp. 3487-3497. ISSN 1879-1786 Sustainable development innovation; New technology development; Regulatory approval; Transgenic technology; Lignin transformation technology http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0959652617316104?via%3Dihub doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.07.162 doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.07.162 |
| spellingShingle | Sustainable development innovation; New technology development; Regulatory approval; Transgenic technology; Lignin transformation technology Hall, Jeremy Matos, Stelvia Gold, Stefan Severino, Liv S. The paradox of sustainable innovation: the ‘Eroom’ effect (Moore’s law backwards) |
| title | The paradox of sustainable innovation: the ‘Eroom’ effect (Moore’s law backwards) |
| title_full | The paradox of sustainable innovation: the ‘Eroom’ effect (Moore’s law backwards) |
| title_fullStr | The paradox of sustainable innovation: the ‘Eroom’ effect (Moore’s law backwards) |
| title_full_unstemmed | The paradox of sustainable innovation: the ‘Eroom’ effect (Moore’s law backwards) |
| title_short | The paradox of sustainable innovation: the ‘Eroom’ effect (Moore’s law backwards) |
| title_sort | paradox of sustainable innovation: the ‘eroom’ effect (moore’s law backwards) |
| topic | Sustainable development innovation; New technology development; Regulatory approval; Transgenic technology; Lignin transformation technology |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47719/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47719/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/47719/ |