2012/01/01 by Christoph Höglinger, Höglinger, Christoph, Sinozic, Tanja +2
Engineering · Social Sciences · #Regional Development and Policy #Sustainable Industrial Ecology
paper · doi:10.57938/debd9e1c-8937-4e4a-8f0c-38b70975dd1c
openalex publication_date 2012/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
The environmental technology industry is considered to be a growing industry driven by <br/>urging climate-, energy- and waste problems and environmental regulation, among others. It <br/>seems, however, that not all locations and regions have the same preconditions for its <br/>emergence and growth. Based on regional economic, geographic and cluster theories it may <br/>be argued that particular factor- and demand conditions, regional industry structures and <br/>institutional configurations should play a role, but so far little is known on these aspects. This <br/>paper focuses on a region in Austria that appears to have a highly developed environmental <br/>technology industry and studies its characteristics and growth. We investigate the region of <br/>Upper Austria, where the environmental technology industry has evolved since the beginning <br/>of 1970s with roots in engineering, machinery, and instruments firms. The aim is to improve <br/>our understanding of the development of the environmental industry in the region and the <br/>factors and conditions affecting it. Characteristic changes of the cluster in relation to national <br/>level industry are addressed. The paper uses findings from national survey data (1993-2007) <br/>and exploratory interviews with local industry experts and stakeholders. <br/>The preliminary findings from our analyses suggest that Upper Austria´s environmental <br/>technology industry is characterized by higher growth relative to the national level. The <br/>region is also the dominant location in Austria in terms of number of firms and employees in <br/>this sector. The sector seems to benefit from existing industries and engineering competences <br/>in the region and is also supported by a number of organizations. Possible factors and <br/>conditions for understanding localized changes are explored underpinning these cluster life <br/>cycle changes. (author's abstract)