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Intersectoral knowledge spaces of emerging technologies and innovation opportunities for established industrial sectors

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Bibliographic Details
Summary:ABSTRACT: The paper investigates how the emergence of new sustainable technologies can induce innovation and change in the industrial sectors that contribute competences and resources to their development. For this, it develops and tests a framework to address knowledge recombination processes at the intersection of diverse sectoral knowledge bases. The paper maps the intersectoral knowledge space formed as part of the emergence of a new sustainable technology, marine renewable energy, and proposes that the position of a sector in that space – in terms of variety of connections and (un)relatedness between the connected sectors – is associated with differentiated opportunities for innovation and engagement in diversification into a new business. This research contributes to the literature on the industrial transformative effects of new technologies by uncovering some of the processes through which intersectoral knowledge relationships generate opportunities for knowledge (re)combination and innovation in firms from existing sectors. The results can inform policies that aim to combine sustainability and industrial development goals.
Main Authors:Sousa, Cristina
Other Authors:Fontes, Margarida; Barbosa, Juliana Pacheco
Subject:Intersectoral relationships Knowledge networks Innovative firm Technology emergence Sustainable energy technologies
Year:2026
Country:Portugal
Document type:article
Access type:open access
Associated institution:Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia, I.P.
Language:English
Origin:Repositório do LNEG
Description
Summary:ABSTRACT: The paper investigates how the emergence of new sustainable technologies can induce innovation and change in the industrial sectors that contribute competences and resources to their development. For this, it develops and tests a framework to address knowledge recombination processes at the intersection of diverse sectoral knowledge bases. The paper maps the intersectoral knowledge space formed as part of the emergence of a new sustainable technology, marine renewable energy, and proposes that the position of a sector in that space – in terms of variety of connections and (un)relatedness between the connected sectors – is associated with differentiated opportunities for innovation and engagement in diversification into a new business. This research contributes to the literature on the industrial transformative effects of new technologies by uncovering some of the processes through which intersectoral knowledge relationships generate opportunities for knowledge (re)combination and innovation in firms from existing sectors. The results can inform policies that aim to combine sustainability and industrial development goals.

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