Building Green Growth and Entrepreneurship in the Pacific through Knowledge and Innovation

Abstract

The Pacific Island countries are culturally diverse, politically challenging, extremely vulnerable to climate change and natural disaster impacts, and financially heavily dependent on aid flows. This chapter examines barriers and opportunities for Green growth (GG) to flourish in a country with a practically non-existent real economy and which is currently under the threat of disappearance under water. It draws on a visiting experience and lessons from the literature and tries to investigate the role of innovation and entrepreneurship as poles of re-birth and local creativity. More particularly, I here discuss why a least developed country such as Kiribati might be the perfect location for dynamics of GG to get born and how, Kiribati, a country under threat and fear, can be transformed into a lighthouse of entrepreneurship which can give boost to the implementation of one of the most advanced energy technologies in the world. I also discuss how, ultimately, a “least developed economy” can secure scientific lessons, which are highly significant for the international knowledge society.

Citation

Michalena, E. (2017), "Building Green Growth and Entrepreneurship in the Pacific through Knowledge and Innovation", Sindakis, S. and Theodorou, P. (Ed.) Global Opportunities for Entrepreneurial Growth: Coopetition and Knowledge Dynamics within and across Firms (Advanced Strategies in Entrepreneurship, Education and Ecology), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 475-506. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78714-501-620171027