Multilevel Relations and The Sustainable Innovation: The Itaipu Brasil Electric Vehicle Program

Andréa Torres Barros Batinga de Mendonça, Sieglinde Kindl da Cunha, Thiago Cavalcante Nascimento
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21529/RECADM.2018013

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the multilevel relationships and the transition for the eco-innovation from the case of the Itaipu Brasil Electric Vehicle Program. We argue that the process of socio-technical transition is influenced by coevolutionary relations at the micro, meso and macro levels. This theme is already recurrent in international research, but it has been noticed that in Brazil it is not very much known. Due to the complexity of the relationship between the themes and the longitudinal nature of this research, we opted for a qualitative and exploratory-descriptive approach with a case study in which the data were collected from observation, and used in-depth interviews and documental research. The main results highlight the importance of large organizations as "entrepreneurial" agents and the formation of partnerships in technological niches as factors that influence the creation of eco-innovations and that they begin to modify the shared values and institutions of meso-level agents in a process of bottom-up influence. In addition, this changes at the macro level exerted pressure on the meso and micro levels in a process of top-down influence.


Keywords

multilevel; transition; eco-innovation; sustainability

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