The Influence of Intellectual Capital on Economic Progress and Sustainability

Abstract

Bio-economy is a major area of the strategy that can afford the European Union to achieve growth: (i) smart, through the development of knowledge and innovation; and (ii) sustainable, based on a greener, more efficient economy in resource management. We believe that the progress of bio-economy cannot be achieved without the harnessing of intellectual capital. Our research aimed to emphasize the benefits of the dynamics of the intellectual capital growth on the evolution of the bio-economy. Thus, the information published by Eurostat (European Statistic Institute) during a period spanning seven years (2011-2018) was used to assess the influence exerted by the conduct of the harness of intellectual capital related to sustainability as well as for the reporting of indicators relevant to appreciating an economic progress and sustainability (renewable waste material, share of renewable energy and energy intensity of the economy). The ultimate goal was represented by the generation of a regression model to see what factor influences mostly the progress of the bio-economy at European and Romanian level. Significant dependency relationships were identified. The results remain robust even after the introduction of certain control variables, such as gross domestic product rate, food production, population growth, urbanization growth and inflation. Our paper sets out to contribute to expanding the specialty literature by highlighting the involvement of intellectual capital as a factor in optimizing sustainability growth and, at a methodological level, by using a multiple regression.

Integrating Intellectual Property and Sustainable Business Models: The SBM-IP Canvas

“…Strong IP protection, like patents, offers protection to sustainable inventions and incentivises innovators to recoup R&D cost, but may also induce a monopoly through patenting and restrict scalability, adoption, and diffusion of sustainability-focused technologies, undermining sustainable strategies and business models when exclusivity is maintained [76,83,85]. Alongside patents, trade secrets (e.g., design secrets), copyright (e.g., software), and research data are other relevant forms of IP for green technology developers [81,82,86]. Green technology inventors may maintain trade secrets to pursue commercial development at a later time period or for business advantages [81].…”

“…Along the innovation process, IP rights, particularly patent-related concerns for green technologies, are more common for those green technologies in commercialization stages (e.g., wind energy and hybrid cars) than those in early stages [86]. For technology development, Reichman et al [80] suggested licensing of IP and patent pools for facilitating IP sharing among green technology developers.…”

“…Knowledge and know-how of human capital as a key resource for IP generation refers to employees who are essential within companies, not only to perform R&D activities to generate IP, but also to contribute in the execution of sustainable-related activities [94]. Knowledge and know-how of employees are considered the most relevant resources in many companies [86,116]. Besides employees working in R&D, there is evidence that many common employees working in operations have come up with inventions of machine parts or improved methods for efficiency and better operational performance that contribute to reducing carbon emissions [104].…”