ABSTRACT
This chapter reviews the different factors shaping the behaviour of the firms studied and the interaction between them. It reviews the main drivers of change. Foremost are the direct effects of regulation, coupled with the indirect effects of regulation on corporate policy. However regulation does not necessarily lead to the adoption of particular approaches. Other factors play an important intervening role here, notably process economics and the organizational context. The adoption of cleaner technology approaches thus depends upon the way that firms perceive external environmental pressures, and cost structures, and integrate them into their internal decision-making. Public initiatives to promote flows of information about cleaner technologies and establishment of best practice models could also help counter uncertainty. Both the costs and the risks of clean technology are clearly greatest for first movers in a particular industrial process.
