Commercial alignment of firms and government agencies advancing climate change technologies

This research investigated the commercialization of emerging climate change technologies by building upon an existing framework for explaining the proportion of profits that accrue to firms from the commercialization of a technical innovation. The first stage of the research developed the operational definitions and a method to clarify the relationships between (i) firms' commercialization strategies for advancing climate change technologies, and (ii) government agencies' criteria for investing in the advancement of climate change technology. The second stage applied the definitions and method to examine the commercialization strategy of 16 firms in the Canadian fuel cell industry and investment criteria of two government agencies. Results suggest: (i) there was diversity in firms' commercialization strategies, while there was uniformity in the agencies' investment criteria, and (ii) the commercialization strategies of 12 of the 16 firms were misaligned with the two agencies' investment criteria.