IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/revepe/v4y2023i1d10.1007_s43253-023-00093-y.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

When is industry ‘sustainable’? The economics of institutional variety in a pandemic

Author

Listed:
  • Smita Srinivas

    (Open University
    Innogen Institute, Open University and University of Edinburgh
    University College London (UCL))

Abstract

Industrialising economies today are characterised by a multi-level heterogeneity of customs, norms, guidelines, standards, regulations and other laws that provide the broad scaffolding and the technical context for industrial activity. This institutional variety (IV) leads to combinatorial challenges about which institutions are mixed and matched as technologies and sectors evolve. Gaps in evolutionary political economy and evolutionary institutional methods should explain when variety is ‘better’ for industrial development. Two health industry cases, oxygen production and Ayurveda, have come into the pandemic spotlight under high demand and high uncertainty, by patients, state, firms, experts and other stakeholders. Both cases reflect markedly different types of institutional variety with implications for manufacturing and services. A debate of sustainable industrial policies (SIPs) thus requires attention to institutional variety (IV) and a future agenda on healthcare.

Suggested Citation

  • Smita Srinivas, 2023. "When is industry ‘sustainable’? The economics of institutional variety in a pandemic," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 75-107, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:revepe:v:4:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s43253-023-00093-y
    DOI: 10.1007/s43253-023-00093-y
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s43253-023-00093-y
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s43253-023-00093-y?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Theo Papaioannou & Smita Srinivas, 2019. "Innovation as a political process of development: are neo-Schumpeterians value neutral?," Innovation and Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 9(1), pages 141-158, January.
    2. Holger Görg & David Greenaway, 2016. "Much Ado about Nothing? Do Domestic Firms Really Benefit from Foreign Direct Investment?," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: MULTINATIONAL ENTERPRISES AND HOST COUNTRY DEVELOPMENT Volume 53: World Scientific Studies in International Economics, chapter 9, pages 163-189, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    3. Courvisanos, Jerry, 2009. "Political aspects of innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 38(7), pages 1117-1124, September.
    4. Robert, Verónica & Yoguel, Gabriel, 2016. "Complexity paths in neo-Schumpeterian evolutionary economics, structural change and development policies," Structural Change and Economic Dynamics, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 3-14.
    5. Rodrigo Arocena & Judith Sutz, 2000. "Looking At National Systems Of Innovation From The South," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 55-75.
    6. Malerba, Franco & Nelson, Richard & Orsenigo, Luigi & Winter, Sidney, 2008. "Public policies and changing boundaries of firms in a "history-friendly" model of the co-evolution of the computer and semiconductor industries," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 67(2), pages 355-380, August.
    7. Achilladelis, Basil & Antonakis, Nicholas, 2001. "The dynamics of technological innovation: the case of the pharmaceutical industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 535-588, April.
    8. Wilfred Dolfsma & Łukasz Mamica, 2020. "Industrial Policy—An Institutional Economic Framework for Assessment," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(2), pages 349-355, April.
    9. Karolina Safarzyńska & Jeroen Bergh, 2010. "Evolutionary models in economics: a survey of methods and building blocks," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 329-373, June.
    10. Srinivas, Smita & Sutz, Judith, 2008. "Developing countries and innovation: Searching for a new analytical approach," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 129-140.
    11. Eric Magnin, 2018. "Varieties of Capitalism and Sustainable Development: Institutional Complementarity Dynamics or Radical Change in the Hierarchy of Institutions?," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 52(4), pages 1143-1158, October.
    12. Smita Srinivas, 2020. "Institutional variety and the future of economics," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 13-35, May.
    13. Wolfram Elsner, 2012. "The Theory of Institutional Change Revisited: The Institutional Dichotomy, Its Dynamic, and Its Policy Implications in a More Formal Analysis," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 46(1), pages 1-44.
    14. Eric Magnin, 2018. "Varieties of Capitalism and Sustainable Development: Institutional Complementarity Dynamics or Radical Change in the Hierarchy of Institutions?," Post-Print hal-03665383, HAL.
    15. Wilfred Dolfsma, 2019. "Institutionalized Communication in Markets and Firms," Journal of Economic Issues, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 53(2), pages 341-348, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ioanna Kastelli & Lukasz Mamica & Keun Lee, 2023. "New perspectives and issues in industrial policy for sustainable development: from developmental and entrepreneurial to environmental state," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-25, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Smita Srinivas, 2023. "India and ‘European’ evolutionary political economy," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 4(2), pages 415-443, July.
    2. Smita Srinivas, 2020. "Institutional variety and the future of economics," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 13-35, May.
    3. Mario Pansera & Fabien Martinez, 2017. "Innovation for development and poverty reduction: an integrative literature review," Post-Print hal-02887777, HAL.
    4. Sanghamitra Chakravarty & Georgina Mercedes Gómez, 2024. "A Development Lens to Frugal Innovation: Bringing Back Production and Technological Capabilities into the Discourse," The European Journal of Development Research, Palgrave Macmillan;European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes (EADI), vol. 36(1), pages 82-101, February.
    5. Heinrich, Torsten, 2015. "Evolution-Based Approaches in Economics and Evolutionary Loss of Information," MPRA Paper 68384, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    6. Henning Schwardt, 2022. "Technology and social rules and norms in neo-Schumpeterian economics and in original institutional economics," PSL Quarterly Review, Economia civile, vol. 75(303), pages 385-401.
    7. Galaso, Pablo & Masi Fadlala, Fernando & Picasso, Santiago & Rodríguez Miranda, Adrián & Servín Belotto, María Belén, 2024. "Organizaciones de apoyo: conectando redes para la innovación empresarial en clústeres de un país en desarrollo," INVESTIGACIONES REGIONALES - Journal of REGIONAL RESEARCH, Asociación Española de Ciencia Regional, issue 59, pages 193-211.
    8. Ramani, Shyama V. & Thutupalli, Ajay & Medovarski, Tamas & Chattopadhyay, Sutapa & Ravichandran, Veena, 2013. "Women entrepreneurs in the informal economy: Is formalization the only solution for business sustainability?," MERIT Working Papers 2013-018, United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT).
    9. Pansera, Mario & Owen, Richard, 2015. "Framing resource-constrained innovation at the ‘bottom of the pyramid’: Insights from an ethnographic case study in rural Bangladesh," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 300-311.
    10. Dirk Schoenmaker & Hans Stegeman, 2023. "Can the Market Economy Deal with Sustainability?," De Economist, Springer, vol. 171(1), pages 25-49, March.
    11. Loewen, Bradley, 2022. "Revitalizing varieties of capitalism for sustainability transitions research: Review, critique and way forward," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    12. Ioanna Kastelli & Lukasz Mamica & Keun Lee, 2023. "New perspectives and issues in industrial policy for sustainable development: from developmental and entrepreneurial to environmental state," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 4(1), pages 1-25, April.
    13. Bournakis, Ioannis & Rizov, Marian & Christopoulos, Dimitris, 2023. "Revisiting the effect of institutions on the economic performance of SSA countries: Do legal origins matter in the context of ethnic heterogeneity?," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 125(C).
    14. Srinivas, Smita, 2006. "Industrial Development and Innovation: Some Lessons from Vaccine Procurement," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 34(10), pages 1742-1764, October.
    15. Theo Papaioannou, 2020. "Reflections on the entrepreneurial state, innovation and social justice," Review of Evolutionary Political Economy, Springer, vol. 1(2), pages 199-220, August.
    16. Chakravarty, Sanghamitra, 2022. "Resource constrained innovation in a technology intensive sector: Frugal medical devices from manufacturing firms in South Africa," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    17. Bournakis, Ioannis & Rizov, Marian & Christopoulos, Dimitris, 2021. "Revisiting the Economic Performance and Institutions Debate in SSA Countries: The Role of Legal Origins in the Context of Ethnic Heterogeneity," MPRA Paper 106557, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Mario Pansera & Soumodip Sarkar, 2016. "Crafting Sustainable Development Solutions: Frugal Innovations of Grassroots Entrepreneurs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(1), pages 1-25, January.
    19. Shyama V. Ramani & Samira Guennif, 2012. "Catching up in the Pharmaceutical Sector: Lessons from Case Studies of India and Brazil," Chapters, in: Franco Malerba & Richard R. Nelson (ed.), Economic Development as a Learning Process, chapter 5, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    20. Jarreau, Joachim & Poncet, Sandra, 2012. "Export sophistication and economic growth: Evidence from China," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 97(2), pages 281-292.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Institutions; Institutional variety; Sustainable development; Health industry; Industrial policy; Technological change;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • B41 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Economic Methodology - - - Economic Methodology
    • B52 - Schools of Economic Thought and Methodology - - Current Heterodox Approaches - - - Historical; Institutional; Evolutionary; Modern Monetary Theory;
    • O25 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Development Planning and Policy - - - Industrial Policy
    • O33 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Innovation; Research and Development; Technological Change; Intellectual Property Rights - - - Technological Change: Choices and Consequences; Diffusion Processes
    • L50 - Industrial Organization - - Regulation and Industrial Policy - - - General
    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:revepe:v:4:y:2023:i:1:d:10.1007_s43253-023-00093-y. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.