Patterns of Innovation in Green ICT: A Patent-Based Analysis

In times of economic and ecological crises, green ICTs have the potential to stir greener economic growth and to help decouple this growth from ecological damages. It is therefore paramount to shed light on innovation dynamics in this emerging sector. To do so, this paper investigates the characteristics of the patterns of innovation in the green ICT sector by using granted EPO patents data from 1986 to 2006 related to the green inventory technological classes and ICT technological classes. By way of a network analysis, it identifies existing green ICTs domains and investigates the most innovative ones, examining the degree of concentration of innovative activities as well as the entry of new innovators in the domain and the variety of innovators (e.g. small vs. large firms; private firms vs. universities and public research centres), together with the sources of knowledge. Results indicate first that monitoring and measuring technologies are dominant in this sub-sector, but also that the fields related to liquid crystal displays and solar cells are the fastest growing. Second, the analysis highlights the existence of three different clusters – green fields, emerging fields and established fields – that are defined by different structures of innovative activities and by different technological opportunities.