Barriers to Green Innovation: Evidence from SMEs in the Residential Construction Sector

In March 2015, Jos Oosterom graduated at the Faculty of Economics and Business at the University of Groningen. For his thesis, Jos participated in a number of GreenEcoNet activities, such as workshops and holding interviews with SMEs in the construction sector that have chosen to green their business. These SMEs were partly selected from the GreenEcoNet database.

In his research, Jos analysed why, despite the economic and energy benefits or low-energy and climate-friendly investments in the residential sector, the adoption of green innovations in the construction sector has been rather slow. In order to answer this question, a research was performed among fifteen construction SMEs in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. He concluded that the most important barrier to uptake of green innovations in the construction sector is lack of demand from owners or end users of dwellings.

The thesis can be viewed at or downloaded from:  Masterthesis.__Barriers_to_green_innovation_Evidence_from_SMEs_in_the_residential_construction_sector.pdf895.89 KB

For the LinkedIn profile of Jos Oosterom, please go here.