MARC Record from harvard_bibliographic_metadata

LEADER: 02077namaa2200229Ka 4500
001 013276671-X
005 20121220092605.0
008 120702s2011 maua |||||||eng|d
035 0 $aocn798460543
100 1 $aJones, Geoffrey,$d1952-
245 10 $a"Power from sunshine" :$ba business history of solar energy /$cGeoffrey Jones, Loubna Bouamane.
260 $a[Boston] :$bHarvard Business School,$cc2012.
300 $a86 p. :$bill. ;$c28 cm.
490 1 $aWorking paper / Harvard Business School ;$v12-105
500 $a"May 2012" -- Publisher's website.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references.
520 $aThis working paper provides a longitudinal perspective on the business history of solar energy between the nineteenth century and the present day. Its covers early attempts to develop solar energy, the use of passive solar in architecture before World War 2, and the subsequent growth of the modern photovoltaic industry. It explores the role of entrepreneurial actors, sometimes motivated by broad social and environmental agendas, whose strategies to build viable business models proved crucially dependent on two exogenous factors: the prices of alternative conventional fuels and public policy. Supportive public policies in various geographies facilitated the commercialization of photovoltaic technologies, but they also encouraged rent-seeking and inefficiencies, while policy shifts resulted in a regular boom and bust cycle. The perceived long-term potential of solar energy, combined with the capital-intensity and cyclical nature of the industry, led to large electronics, oil and engineering companies buying entrepreneurial firms in successive generations. These firms became important drivers of innovation and scale, but they also found solar to be an industry in which achieving a viable business model proved a chimera, whilst waves of creative destruction became the norm.
700 1 $aBouamane, Loubna.
710 2 $aHarvard Business School.
830 0 $aWorking paper (Harvard Business School) ;$v12-105.
988 $a20120702
906 $0MH