Entrepreneurial Value Creation, Business Water Risk, and Corporate Innovation Strategies

Welcome to the CleanTech Innovation Research and Entrepreneurship group at the University of Michigan!

Sustainability is becoming a differentiator for corporations and global economic development.  The investment and financial services community are recognizing the innovation opportunities and hidden corporate and project liabilities.  Moreover, the NGO community is taking a leading role in corporate climate risk characterization and data disclosure projects towards investors.  This is driving a wide range of risk mitigation strategies, including CleanTech products and services. 

Yet, product development alone is insufficient to drive innovation - it has to be coupled with business development and monetization strategies to capture value.

The importance of innovation to economic competitiveness, and the role of entrepreneurship in this process is starting to impact academic research and education in the engineering and business realms.  Witness statements of the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the National Academy of Management and Entrepreneurship (NAME) arguing for breadth and depth in knowledge and talent management for innovation strategies.

In few sectors does this need demonstrate itself as urgently as in energy and water, because of their impact on addressing resource constraints and economic value creation.  Leveraging a wide range of clean technologies, our students and collaborators explore how CleanTech business models and the adoption of sustainable industrial practices are influenced by Value-at-Risk (VaR) metrics and financing sources to capture value in the green economy (Research and Teaching).