Intermediation and the role of intermediaries in innovation

This paper investigates the issue of intermediation and the role of intermediaries in the innovation process. The aim of this paper is three-fold. Firstly, to review and synthesis the literature in this field; from this to develop a typology and framework of the different roles and functions of the intermediation process within innovation; lastly to try and operationalise the typology within the context of UK using case study material.     

Compulsive policy-making—The evolution of the German feed-in tariff system for solar photovoltaic power

In recent years, policy approaches that build upon the notion of innovation systems have enjoyed increasing attention in science, technology and innovation policy. But while the usefulness of systemic thinking in policy-making has been demonstrated in a large number of empirical settings, we still lack a detailed understanding of the dynamics at play when policy makers address systemic problems. In this paper, we show how complex interdependencies and the uncertain nature of technological change shape the process of targeted policy interventions in socio-technical systems. Toward this end we analyzed the evolution of the German feed-in tariff (FIT) system for solar photovoltaic power, a highly effective and widely copied policy instrument targeted at fostering the diffusion and development of renewable energy technologies. We find that the policy has been subject to a considerable amount of changes, many of which are the result of policy makers addressing specific system issues and bottlenecks. Interestingly, however, often these issues themselves were driven by unforeseen technological developments induced by previous policy interventions. We argue that the pattern of policy serving as both a solution to and a driver of technological bottlenecks shows strong similarities with what Rosenberg (1969) called ‘compulsive sequences’ in the development of technical systems. By shedding more light on how the characteristics of socio-technical systems affect policy interventions, our framework represents a first step toward more closely integrating the literature on innovation systems with the work on policy learning.     

Ontologies, socio-technical transitions (to sustainability), and the multi-level perspective

Using recent criticisms and suggestions regarding the multi-level perspective as stepping stones, the article aims to enhance the reflexivity in transition debates regarding social theories. To that end, the article discusses seven social science ontologies (rational choice, evolution theory, structuralism, interpretivism, functionalism, conflict and power struggle, relationism), their assumptions on agency and causal mechanisms, and their views on socio-technical transitions and environmental sustainability. The second goal is to position the multi-level perspective on transitions with regard to these ontologies and to identify directions for theoretical extensions. The MLP is characterized not as a grand or unifying theory, but as a middle range theory that makes crossovers to some ontologies and not to others.     

Legitimizing research, technology and innovation policies for transformative change: Combining insights from innovation systems and multi-level perspective in a comprehensive ‘failures’ framework

The recent policy debates about orientating research, technology and innovation policy towards societal challenges, rather than economic growth objectives only, call for new lines of argumentation to systematically legitimize policy interventions. While the multi-level perspective on long-term transitions has attracted quite some interest over the past years as a framework for dealing with long-term processes of transformative change, but the innovation systems approach is still the dominant perspective for devising innovation policy. Innovation systems approaches stress the importance of improving innovation capabilities of firms and the institutional settings to support them, but they are less suited for dealing with the strategic challenges of transforming systems of innovation, production and consumption, and thus with long-term challenges such as climate change or resource depletion. It is therefore suggested to consider insights from transition studies more prominently in a policy framework that is based on the innovation systems approach and the associated notion of ‘failures’. We propose a comprehensive framework that allows legitimizing and devising policies for transformative change that draws on a combination of market failures, structural system failures and transformational system failures.     

Intermediation in public procurement of innovation: How Amsterdam’s startup-in-residence programme connects startups to urban challenges

This paper analyses Amsterdam’s Startup-in-Residence (SiR) programme as new type of policy to engage startups in the development of urban innovation through a challenge-based public procurement of innovation (PPI) process. The programme is being mimicked by other cities and government agencies, but so far there has not been a rigorous, theoretically-informed analysis of the approach. In this paper, we specify and focus on the role of city-based, public-affiliated intermediaries as initiators, moderators and influencers of conversations between startups and the local government. The main contribution of SiR as a PPI intermediation programme has been to launch new types of fruitful conversations on several levels, that lead to institutional innovations rather than direct solutions for urban problems or startup development. In this sense, SiR fulfils a role inquiring and ascribing urban challenges with values and notions of “worth” that preceded and shaped innovation directions. We also suggest that engaging startups is effective for only a limited bandwidth urban challenges; different types of intermediation are required to foster collaborative innovation in more complex settings.     

Metatheoretical perspectives on sustainability journeys: Evolutionary, relational and durational

Journeys to a sustainable future have become important to industry, government and research. In this paper, we examine evolutionary, relational and durational perspectives on sustainability journeys. Each perspective emphasizes different facets of sustainability - shifts in selection environments, reconfigurations of emergent networks, and intertemporal comparisons and contrasts. Drawing on our analysis, we discuss implications for sustainability policy, strategy and research.     

Policies,actors and sustainability transition pathways: A study of the EU’s energy policy mix

Policies and politics are crucial elements of sustainability transitions. Transition pathways unfold as a result of continuous struggles of actors over policy goals and instruments. Taking a policy mix perspective, we study policies and policy preferences of key industry actors in the ongoing energy transition at the level of the European Union. We introduce two central analytical dimensions for transition pathways: the degree of sustainability (here: renewable energy ambition) and the degree of disruption (here: whether to pursue centralized or decentralized energy system configurations). We find that the current EU energy policy mix is heterogeneous with respect to the issue of (de-)centralization, whereas most policies and actors express high or moderate ambitions for renewable energy. Our paper makes three contributions. It demonstrates how actors and policy preferences can be explicitly included in the study of policy mixes. To the literature on transition pathways, we introduce sustainability as another key dimension in addition to disruption. Lastly, we propose a novel methodology for analyzing the politics of transition pathways.     

Integrating structural tensions into technological innovation systems analysis: Application to the case of transmission interconnections and renewable electricity in Nova Scotia,Canada

This paper augments the technological innovation systems (TIS) framework to provide policy guidance on how to manage interactions between a core technology and its larger sectoral context. A TIS development cycle is presented that combines the TIS framework’s ability to clearly illuminate policy gaps with Erik Dahmén’s idea that technological diffusion creates structural tensions that introduce transformation pressure. This pressure can result in stagnation and unrealized development potential or spur sectoral complementarities and the evolution of a TIS into a larger “development block” of interlinked technological systems. Integrating structural tensions into TIS analysis highlights how the evolution of a focal technology induces technological complementarities and creates a need to continuously re-design policies. This underscores the continued benefit of a technology system perspective, even as a technology matures.The revised TIS framework is applied to a case study of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia that explores how variable renewable electricity diffusion introduces structural tensions with existing electricity grids, requiring the use of complementary technologies that add storage and flexibility. Nova Scotia aggressively developed wind energy and built a high-voltage direct-current transmission line to import hydroelectricity that could back-up variable renewable energy sources like wind.     

The Jatropha biofuels sector in Tanzania 2005-2009: Evolution towards sustainability?

Biofuel production has recently attracted much attention. Some anticipate substantial social and environmental benefits, while at the same time expecting sound profitability for investors. Others are doubtful, envisaging large trade-offs between the pursuit of social, environmental and economic objectives, particularly in poor countries in the tropics. The paper explores these issues in Tanzania, which has been an African forerunner in the cultivation of a bio-oil shrub called Jatropha curcas L. We trace how isolated Jatropha biofuel experiments developed since early 2005 towards a sectoral production and innovation system, and we investigate to what extent that system has been capable of developing and maintaining sustainable practices and producing sustainable outcomes. The application of evolutionary innovation theory allows us to view the developments in the sector as a result of evolutionary variation and selection on the one hand, and revolutionary contestation between different coalitions of stakeholders on the other. Both these processes constitute significant engines of change. While variation and selection are driven predominantly by localised technical and agronomic learning, the conflict-driven dynamics are highly globalised and occur primarily as a result of reflexive learning about problematic sustainability impacts. The sector is found to have moved some way towards a full sectoral innovation and production system, but it is impossible to predict whether a viable sector with a strong “triple bottom line” orientation will ultimate emerge, since many issues surrounding the social, environmental and financial sustainability still remain unresolved, especially relating to local and global governance.