Industrial Dynamics and Firm Strategies in the Agrochemical Industry

The Brief explores the relationship between industrial dynamics, business strategies, and environmental regulations in the agrochemical industry. Focusing on contested technologies that continue to be used despite evidence of their hazardous impacts, the book calls for investigating the potential hazards during the inventive phase of companies to anticipate future risks. Combining patent analysis with computational chemistry and toxicology, the author examines the toxicity of chemical inventions and the effectiveness of environmental regulations in curbing harmful products. The result is a comprehensive dataset that combines patent data with chemical structures, which provides valuable insights into firms’ innovation strategies as well as their potential hazards. Underscoring the importance of effective regulation in addressing social and environmental challenges, this Brief will be of interest to researchers and practitioners at the intersection of numerous fields, including economic policy, industrial economics, agribusiness, management, life sciences, and sustainability.

Gianluca Biggi is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Institute of Economics at the Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies in Pisa (Italy). He completed his Ph.D. in Management at the University of Pisa. He was previously a visiting researcher at the European School of Management and Technology (ESMT) Berlin, the Department of Science and Technology Studies at University College London and at the Sloan School of Management at MIT. His research focuses on exploring the nature and dynamics of innovation. During his Ph.D., he contributed to the development of a new methodology that combines the extraction of chemical content from patents with computational chemistry techniques to understand the nature of chemical inventions. Currently, his research examines the interaction between green and digital technologies and their impact on firm performance.