2nd SEEK Conference

Due to the remarkably high level of interest in the first SEEK Conference in 2011, the ZEW – Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research celebrated the second conference of its research programme "Strengthening Efficiency and Competitiveness in the European Knowledge Economies" (ZEW) 9-10 March 2012. The prime goal of the conference was to elucidate the challenges to pursuing a smart and sustainable growth path in the economies of Europe. Since this issue has been receiving increasing attention in the worlds of politics and academia, a second aim was to bring together policy makers and scientists to discuss the hurdles to developing green innovations within innovation ecosystems. Researchers from various economic and managerial disciplines have thus presented their research on the following topics:

• Generation of knowledge and innovations
• Diffusion and adoption of knowledge and innovations
• Use of knowledge by entrepreneurs and industries
• Impacts of innovations on competiveness, growth and employment
• Role of innovation in tackling societal challenges
• Challenges to and impacts of innovation and environmental policies