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Some countries rely heavily on exports as an essential component of their economic competitiveness. With the current trends in economic globalization, promoting exports has become a common strategy to boost economic growth. Exports of environmental technologies represent a new window of opportunity for economic growth and a contribution to global sustainability. With this in mind, national governments have designed initiatives that aim to promote exports within this sector. To address their objectives, governments provide initiatives to promote foreign commerce with their environmental technology sector. This article assesses the awareness, participation, and perceived effectiveness of such governmental initiatives to promote exports among Swedish environmental technology firms. An Internet survey was sent to 693 Swedish environmental technology companies, previously identified and classified, with a 25% response rate. The responses show a relatively high export orientation although a majority of the respondents claimed they were unaware of governmental initiatives that fit their particular export needs. The companies that did find appropriate governmental initiatives showed a high level of participation in such initiatives, but only a few of these participants could relate their participation to actual exports. The findings suggest there is a need to design support instruments based on the particular characteristics of the environmental technology sector rather than to offer generic solutions for such export promotion. ; Megatech

Rapid international and widespread diffusion of environmental technologies remains an essential requirement within the framework of sustainable development. Export offers a desired means for technology diffusion due to its strategic flexibility compared to other means such as foreign direct investment and aid. However, the export of environmental technologies is stifled by market failures. Among other reasons and as a response to such market failures, several governments are formulating initiatives to promote the export of environmental technologies. Although diffusion promotion is highlighted as an important research focus, a systematic overview of governmental initiatives that aim to promote environmental technology export is not available in the literature. This gap in the literature makes it difficult to analyse program effectiveness, and identify best practices. Using documentation from export promotion and export credit agencies in eight selected countries across Asia, Europe, and North America, we discuss governmental initiatives that aim to promote the export of environmental technologies. Our synthesis reveals that governmental promotion can be categorised according to alternative promotional services and is applied across target country(ies), environmental technology type(s), firm size(s), and firm involvement in export. In addition, using theories from market failure and diffusion studies, we discuss similarities and differences between country initiatives. Trends indicate a focus on support for small and medium sized environmental technology exporters but interesting differences emerge with the choice of target markets, technologies, and the specific export promotion services. ; Megatech

Some countries have historically relied to a great extent on exports as an important component of theireconomic system. With the current globalization trends and increased competitiveness, promotingexports has therefore become a common strategy in order to boost economic growth. Exports ofenvironmental technologies represent a new window of opportunity for economic growth and acontribution to global sustainability. For this objective, governments provide different initiativesaimed at promoting foreign commerce among firms. The aim of this article is to assess the perceptionof the effectiveness of governmental initiatives for export promotion among Swedish environmentaltechnology firms. In addition, the article addresses firms' internal initiatives to reach potential foreignmarkets through the use of modern communication channels. Data about 728 Swedish environmentaltechnology companies was collected and analyzed by using a combination of desktop research and aweb-based survey. The findings show a relatively high export orientation among the respondentcompanies. However, a majority of the respondents claim not to be aware of governmental initiativesthat fit their particular needs. Those who do show a high level of participation in such initiatives, butmost could not relate this participation to successful businesses abroad. From the firms' perspective,presence on the Internet was considered to be a plausible indicator of their internal initiatives tocapture potential foreign customers. An analysis of the companies' web sites, their languagecustomization options and the information they provide was undertaken. Results show that a largenumber of companies have functional web sites. However, the percentage of web sites with languagecustomization options was relatively low.The findings suggest that governmental initiatives have to consider the particular composition andneeds of the environmental technology sector in order to be more effective. On the other hand,although companies show to be proactive in the use of the Internet for increasing their outreach,language customization must be addressed as an important component when using such a tool. Bothgovernmental and firms' initiatives remain important contributions to export success. In this regard,collaboration and communication between governmental export promotion agencies and firmsrepresents an important first step.