PPGEP-UFPE receives Professors Jeremy Hall and Stelvia Matos, from University of Surrey, England

Innovation has been recognized as key for improving social and environmental conditions, yet limited progress has been made towards more sustainable societies.  To address this problem, we present a framework that initially focused on how key technological, commercial, organization and societal (“TCOS”) hurdles may be overcome, and more recently how sustainable attributes can act as levers for technologies that may otherwise draw limited interest.  Drawing on a number of cases from different industrial settings, we argue that early search processes can help identify opportunities for more sustainable products and services, and avoid downstream costs for more efficient technology diffusion.  It can also help avoid detrimental unintended consequences, what we call “Borlaug’s Paradox” after Nobel Laureate Norman Borlaug, “the man who saved a billion lives.” He pioneering Green Revolution technologies, which vastly improving agricultural output but also led to major environmental impacts and a population explosion.  Such an innovation paradox may hinder the development of more sustainable technologies, especially those coming from publically funded institutes, or from emerging countries.

 Dr. Jeremy Hall is a Chaired Professor and UK Director of the Centre for Social Innovation Management at the University of Surrey.  He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Engineering and Technology Management (JET-M), an Elsevier publication with 2016 impact factor of 2.419. He has been conducting research concerned with sustainable development in the context of innovation, entrepreneurship and supply chains for over 20 years. His work has been published in wide range of journals, including Business Strategy and the Environment, California Management Review, Energy Policy, Entrepreneurship: Theory & Practice, International Journal of Production Research, Journal of Business Ethics, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Cleaner Production, Journal of Operations Management, Greener Management International, MIT Sloan Management Review, Research Policy and Small Business Economics. In addition to being editor-in-chief for JET-M, Jeremy has extensive experience as a reviewer and as a guest editor for special issues on sustainable development-related topics for Environmental Economics, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Cleaner Production and Technovation.

Lecture title (Dr. Stelvia Matos): Innovation and Entrepreneurship for Social Inclusion

The presentation will start with an overview of my research on the complex interactions among social, environmental and economic factors, and how they affect, and/or are affected by innovation dynamics, entrepreneurial behaviour and policy development.  Then I will present my work on how entrepreneurship policies generate different social impacts within poor communities and lead to socially inclusive growth. Drawing on data collected from Brazilian tourism I argue that weak institutions coupled with alert entrepreneurs encourage destructive outcomes, especially if entrepreneurship policies are based solely on economic indicators. Policies addressing both economic and social perspectives may foster more productive entrepreneurial outcomes, albeit at a more constrained economic pace.
Dr. Stelvia Matos is Reader (wich means Professor) in Social Innovation and Sustainability Management at Surrey Business School, University of Surrey, UK. Her research concerns the difficult process of how industry can change their practices in response to social and environmental pressures. Her research interests include sustainable supply chain management, sustainable technological innovation and entrepreneurship for social inclusion. She has published in several journals including Journal of Operations Management, Technovation, California Management Review, Small Business Economics, Small Business Economics, Journal of Cleaner Production and Journal of Management Studies. Stelvia is currently area editor on Sustainable Development Innovation for Technovation.