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Driving the circular economy through public environmental and energy R&D: Evidence from SMEs in the European Union
[journal article]
Abstract Governments at the EU and the member state level are placing increased emphasis on public research and development (R&D) for energy and the environment to advance a circular economy (CE). To achieve CE goals, it is critical to engage SMEs as they represent the vast majority of enterprises in the EU.... view more
Governments at the EU and the member state level are placing increased emphasis on public research and development (R&D) for energy and the environment to advance a circular economy (CE). To achieve CE goals, it is critical to engage SMEs as they represent the vast majority of enterprises in the EU. To date, there is a lack of evidence regarding the impact of these public R&D investments on SMEs' CE activities. We address this gap by analysing the impact of public environmental and energy R&D on CE implementation and investment by SMEs. The study draws from a multi-level database of 10,618 SMEs across 28 EU member states for the period 2013–2015 from the Flash Eurobarometer 441 survey and country-level data from other EU sources. Employing a mixed-level probit regression, we find that the knowledge generated by public environmental and energy R&D, defined as country-level investments in this activity from 2004 to 2015, positively affects SMEs' implementation of CE activities. Additionally, the study finds that public environmental and energy R&D affects the level of SMEs' investment in CE activities negatively, suggesting that more public R&D can substitute for the financial efforts that SMEs have to take when implementing CE activities.... view less
Keywords
EU; recycling management; Eurobarometer; small business; medium-sized firm; environmental research; research and development; public investment
Classification
Ecology, Environment
Special areas of Departmental Policy
Free Keywords
environmental and energy R&D; multilevel modelling; Flash Eurobarometer 441 (European SMEs and the Circular Economy) (ZA6779 v1.0.0)
Document language
English
Publication Year
2021
Page/Pages
p. 1-11
Journal
Ecological Economics, 182 (2021)
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2020.106884
ISSN
0921-8009
Status
Published Version; peer reviewed