Economics of the bioeconomy: reflections on conceptual challenges and pathways

The main objective of this chapter is to discuss the future of economic research applied to the bioeconomy in order to identify challenges and potential pathways for conceptual, theoretical, and operational innovation. The paper integrates an original literature review with a collection of insights from discussions and conclusions of the chapters included in this handbook. The starting point is the persistence of the drivers that have pushed the development of the bioeconomy, accompanied by the exponential increase in technology opportunities. A growing role for economic research is justified by the evidence of trade-offs among different sustainable development objectives attached to the bioeconomy and by the need to expand the understanding of social, economic, and management aspects of this meta-sector, even more so when it is interpreted as a major wave of change in human history. Given the comprehensive nature of the bioeconomy, research is needed in a number of diversified directions and adopting a “biodiverse” set of approaches with a strong tendency towards combinations of methods and theories. The interplay between the economic representation of biological and technological features of innovative processes, the better understanding of individual and collective behaviour, and the system vision in a transformation framework are at the core of future research.