Template-type: ReDIF-Paper 1.0
Author-Name: Sandberg, Mikael
Author-Workplace-Name: United Nations University, Institute for New Technologies
Title: Environmentally Sound Technology: Is Poland Overcoming Soviet-Type Learning Barriers?
Abstract: This paper suggests that specific circumstances provide substantial - and historic
	 - opportunities for Poland as a pioneer of a 'greener post-communism'. These are:
	 the paradoxical effects of membership in the Soviet bloc which present the Polish
	 reformers with important opportunities for environmentally sound modernization and
	 nature conservation; the technological revolution on a global scale concurrent with
	 the Velvet Revolution; and new environmentally sound technologies which are
	 increasingly available for transfers in the form of environmental aid.
	 Approaches to 'technological revolutions', life-cycle timing in 'entry' and
	 introduction of innovations, 'technology assimilation' into the Polish 'system of
	 innovation' and experiences from technology transfers to Poland and the former
	 Eastern bloc, including Russia, suggest that success in capitalizing on these
	 opportunities for environmentally sound modernization will depend on the ability to
	 overcome prevailing barriers to learning and technology assimilation.
	 The paper suggests an assimilation analysis for assessing Polish environmentally
	 sound technological learning; in doing this, the major task is to integrate
	 'technology assimilation' and 'international regime concepts into the approaches of
	 'national systems of innovation', 'longer waves' and technological entry into
	 life-cycle 'phases'. National systems of innovation are suggested to capitalize on
	 the global diffusion of technological waves, systems and singular technologies
	 depending on adaptation (such as integration into the European Union) and
	 accommodation of institutional set-ups (overcoming barriers) in order to improve
	 assimilation (e.g. through technological life-cycle entry policies). At the
	 inter-national systems level, international regimes create specific constraints to
	 the entry or choice through norms, rules and governance. Because national systems
	 are unequally successful in such assimilation, there is an asymmetry at the level
	 of inter-national systems of innovation.
Keywords: Environmental Policy, Technology Policy, National Policy, Poland
Series: Discussion Paper
Creation-Date: 1996
Number: 03
File-URL: http://www.intech.unu.edu/publications/discussion-papers/9603.pdf
File-Format:application/pdf
File-Size:  82.0 Kb
Handle: RePEc:unm:unuint:199603