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With the emergence of knowledge-based economies, the performance evaluation of state budget in the field of Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) through a comprehensive approach has become essential. However, the existence of a wide range of influential dimensions, including different types of scientific fields, stakeholders, organisations receiving the budget, and more importantly, the necessity of attention to the whole innovation process, has made the STI evaluation process difficult. This paper aims at breaking down the mentioned dimensions and integrating them in a comprehensive evaluation dashboard in order to evaluate STI process. Therefore, the proposed evaluation dashboard considers efficiency, effectiveness, relevance, utility, sustainability, and different stakeholders' opinions, applies required indicators for five main scientific fields, and pays attention to the differences between the different types of state organisations. To this end, design science was used as the research methodology. Through interview and questionnaire, viable indicators were extracted and refined from indicators pool. Finally, STI evaluation dashboard including five radar charts of each scientific field for three types of state organisations was provided. Based on this, efficiency, effectiveness, and utility coefficients of each organisation for the state STI budget spent in each scientific field which includes a set of indicators were calculated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes the case for analysing the role of Industry 4.0 in mitigating the intertemporal tensions of balancing the short-term and long-term sustainability objectives rife in sustainable manufacturing. It is argued here that Industry 4.0 has the unique potential to unlock juxtaposition of the short and long-term dimensions of sustainable manufacturing without restricting manufacturing organisations growth potential. In this context, successful mitigation of intertemporal tensions relies on understanding the role played by five different mechanisms that manufacturing organisations need to well practice and manage when adopting Industry 4.0-associated technologies. Since this is the first study of its kind, this paper presents a novel conceptual model enhancing the application of mechanisms that may mitigate intertemporal tensions in manufacturing organisations using Industry 4.0. The model also suggests five different research propositions that call for future research agenda to further investigate this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability transitions require that sustainable innovations develop and scale-up. Two promising approaches contribute to this purpose. Design thinking (DT) focuses on the creative development of sustainable innovations to achieve desirable, feasible and viable products. Strategic niche management (SNM) addresses how sustainable innovations should be deployed to the market. At first sight, these concepts seem to pursue a complementary mission, yet, academic literature has not explicitly addressed their complementary nature. Therefore, this paper addresses this gap by reviewing, proposing and empirically exploring the merits of SNM and how these can be used in DT through a workshop to increase successful market implementation of sustainable innovations. The study finds that SNM potentially helps the DT design process to (1) change market preconditions for the design, (2) create a protected niche for development, (3) establish a (long term) commercial viability, and (4) create an innovation development plan through definition of a set of testable propositions. The paper concludes that the inclusion of SNM into DT substantially increases the preparedness of an innovation team for a successful market implementation of sustainable innovations and coins the term 'Design to Market Thinking' for the integrated use of SNM in DT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ethnobotany genomics is gaining popularity, and there is a renewed interest in traditional medicine around the world. Ethnobotany genomics is proving useful not only for the conservation of biodiversity and agricultural productivity but also for drug discovery. In terms of traditional medicine and biodiversity, India is one of the world's richest countries. However, as industrialisation, population pressures, migrations, and urbanisation have increased, socio-environmental changes have become more dynamic and complex. This has raised concerns about sustainable production and consumption, as well as governance. As a result, the current paper is an attempt to map the emerging innovation system in Indian ethnobotany genomics. The paper examines the actors', agencies', and institutions' responses to the emerging innovation system's requirements. Finally, this paper provides new insights into the opportunities and challenges of developing Indian ethnobotany genomics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is growing attention in theories and practices to achieve sustainable business models (SBMs). However, achieving SBMs for incumbents is an arduous and challenging process. Based on the literature on SBMs and managerial cognition, we explore how managers use their cognitive processes to adapt business models to environmental changes. Based on the study of a Chinese incumbent, this paper reveals the evolution process of incumbents' SBMs in the manufacturing sector and indicates managers' effective cognitive processes under different environmental conditions. This study attempts to open the black box of the link between cognitive processes and SBMs, reveal the role of cognitive heuristics, and provide practice guidance for incumbent firms to achieve sustainable development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper draws from two case studies of tech hubs in Nigeria and Kenya to investigate the importance of business models to the hubs' viability and sustainability as economic and social agents. Adopting the triple-layered business model of economic, social and environmental value creation, the study finds that the advanced, and growing, technological capabilities of the hubs are not matched with enough attention on innovative business models that can enable them to better capture value, expand the domestic markets, and compete at the international stage. We argue that a triple-layered orientation can be a win-win, integrated and mutually reinforcing model in which the hubs' social and environmental impact can enable them to better capture economic value through the development and deployment of advanced technological capabilities and innovative business models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disruptive innovations are perceived necessary for accelerating sustainability transitions. However, it is not always clear what exactly is meant by it, what is to be disrupted, and by whom. Socio-technical transition research on pays too much attention at the technological niche-innovations in the production, and overlooks business model innovation and user practices in the consumption, whilst management literature on disruptive innovation falls short in the scale and scope of disruption in terms of systemic outcome. Thus, the first aim of the paper is to synthesise the extant literature and put forward a general practice-based view on disruptive sustainable innovation. The second aim of the paper is to use empirical data to elaborate the theoretical framework in the Finnish food system context. Four firm-level cases provide empirical scrutiny to each type of disruptive sustainable innovation in the food system and shed light on the interlinked practices of producer-entrepreneurs and citizen-consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The energy sector needs to transform towards sustainability. The multi-level perspective on sociotechnical transitions is embracing an enactment perspective, which focuses on the agency of various actors in shifting transitions pathways but has yet to study local urban experiments from such an enactment perspective. Our empirical research examines an innovation intermediary’s work in destabilising the regime rules in relation to the local energy incumbent company in Helsinki, Finland. Our paper seeks answers to the questions: How does the collaboration of the intermediary and the local energy company unfold? What are the impacts of the intermediary work on the local energy company in terms of enactment of transition pathways and what are the mechanisms causing the impact? Our research shows that the intermediary contributes to the transition by disturbing existing rules, structures, practices and networks by convening innovation champions from different constituencies, renegotiating regime rules and disrupting existing R&D alliances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transformation of socio-technical systems to more sustainable states is more policy induced than market driven. Reflecting this, the potential for governments to direct system transformation has been widely debated. However, this debate concentrates on supply side policies and under analyses the potential for public buyers to steer system innovation. This paper draws from ideas on system innovation, transition management and public procurement to explore how a major public buyer was able to do just this. The paper describes the transformation of the Greater Manchester (UK) waste system from a relatively simple landfill model to a highly complex, multi-technology solution of intensive recycling, composting and energy production. The paper draws three main conclusions: (1) it is possible to orchestrate system innovation through public procurement in certain circumstances; (2) this involves developing the required interdependencies between technologies, institutions and practices; (3) system transformation can be orchestrated from within the incumbent regime. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite almost two decades of research, authors have disagreed about the concept of smart cities. In this article, we provide a systematic review and a meta-synthesis analysis of smart cities. We find a convergence in the literature on the following primary characteristics of smart cities: (a) advanced ICT Technology, (b) sustainability, (c) innovative and high-skilled society, (d) high-tech governance and citizen participation, and (e) knowledge-based economy. Based on these findings, we suggest a new notion: A smart city engenders an innovative and qualified society, oriented towards the development of the knowledge economy, which makes advanced ICT technologies aimed at promoting sustainability and participatory urban governance. Our study robustly offers an understanding of smart cities and presents a creative perception encompassing these five principal characteristics worthy of further investigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vast numbers of people in rapidly growing cities throughout the developing world depend on informal transport services for their mobility needs. Thus far the field of transition studies has addressed the dynamics of socio-technical change in situations where regimes of automobility and sanctioned public transport constitute the dominant order, but not in contexts of cities in the developing world, where informal transit thrives. In this paper we enquire about stability and prospects for change in these kinds of socio-technical systems. To this end, we trace the evolution of Bangkok's motorcycle taxi industry including recent efforts to introduce a potentially radical innovation: an information and communications technology (ICT) platform used as a taximeter. The paper concludes that innovations in informal urban transport are opening up alternative mobility pathways for the developing world, which might even spread far beyond their original confines into the West; and that the persistence of informal transport systems and the proliferation of innovations within those systems in developing countries prove to be relevant phenomena for defining prominent topics on the agenda of (sustainability) transitions research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community action for sustainability is a promising site of socio-technical innovation. Here we test the applicability of co-evolutionary niche theories of innovation diffusion (strategic niche management, SNM) to the context of ‘grassroots innovations’ (GIs). We present new empirical findings from an international study of 12 community currency niches (such as Local Exchange Trading Schemes, time banks, and local currencies). These are parallel systems of exchange, designed to operate alongside mainstream money, meeting additional sustainability needs. Our findings confirm SNM predictions that niche-level activity correlates with diffusion success, but we highlight additional or confounding factors, and how niche theories might be adapted to better fit civil society innovations. In so doing, we develop a model of GI niche diffusion which extends existing work and tailors it to this specific context. The paper concludes with a series of theoretically informed recommendations for practitioners and policy-makers to support the development and potential of GIs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports an innovative foresighting study which constructed a set of hydrogen futures and pathways to them, in order to inform the transition to a sustainable hydrogen economy. Combining backcasting and multi-criteria appraisal the authors developed a participatory expert stakeholder-led methodology to build and appraise a set of visions, which sought to acknowledge the diversity of possible hydrogen futures and contested claims as to their sustainability. A set of transition scenarios were then developed exploring the dynamics and governance of the large-scale socio-technical changes that would be required for the emergence of the different visions. While aspects of this project have been reported elsewhere, this paper seeks to: (1) locate the work with respect to broader developments in the fields of foresight, expectations and socio-technical transitions to sustainability; (2) provide a description of the UKSHEC sustainable futures methodology; and (3) reflect on key insights for research and practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper makes three contributions to the field of transition research. First, it sheds light on how the concept of translation can contribute to a better understanding of agency in niche development. Second, it articulates how the local–global distinction in the strategic niche management (SNM) approach relates to the levels in the multi-level perspective. Third, the article is empirically novel by presenting a radical sustainable innovation in Dutch water management (‘New Rivers’). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This empirical study presents a combination of insights from corporate sustainability practices, supply chain management, and innovation literature, and a case study to discover new understandings on factors influencing firms to incorporate sustainable innovation initiatives into their supply chain practices. There is an apparent lack of literature in this field due to its modernity and evolving nature. Also, there is a lack of insights into how firms could translate sustainable innovation initiatives into practice. This study addresses this gap by examining a successful glass recycling company through the lenses of sustainable innovation context and the Global Reporting Initiative G3 Guideline framework. Primary data are collected through observations and in-depth interview before it is coded and analysed using nVivo. The findings show that sustainable innovation practices are mainly directed at improving the technological processes, resource sharing, and reduction of production cost among supply chain partners. A conceptual sustainable innovation framework is also proposed. This study contributes to sustainable innovation literature by providing insights into the evaluation of a firm's innovative sustainability efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Compared to large-scale renewable energy systems, distributed systems have diffused relatively slowly in recent years, particularly in developing countries. In this study, we analysed the barriers to the diffusion of distributed photovoltaics in South Africa by applying the technological innovation system framework. More specifically, we carried out an interview-based structural-functional analysis to identify underlying systemic problems, reveal their patterns of interaction, and analyse the implications of these patterns for the relationship among the key processes within the innovation system, the so-called system functions. We identified a variety of interlinked problems, shed light on the specific roles of different, mal-performing, system functions, and revealed constellations where specific functions blocked each other and, thereby, created lock-in situations. Although the findings reveal the complexity of the problems that are associated with the implementation of distributed energy technologies, they also indicate that these problems may be addressed successfully. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Strategic niche management (SNM) is a recently developed approach that could help induce a broad socio-technical transition towards more sustainable development. It is designed to facilitate the introduction and diffusion of new sustainable technologies through protected societal experiments in fields such wind energy, biogas, public transport systems, electric vehicle transport and eco-friendly food production. A major challenge in SNM concerns the processes by which such experiments can evolve into viable market niches and ultimately contribute to a broader shift towards sustainable development. This paper sheds more light on this issue by systematically consolidating the main SNM studies, and by bringing in new insights from the literature that is in some sense complementary to SNM. These are studies on the development and commercialisation of radical innovations in large companies, and literature about infant industry protection and broader industrialisation processes in developing countries. A number of suggestions for implementing SNM are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An integrated framework for the analysis of sustainable innovation policy was developed, based on a combination of the transition management (TM) framework, the strategic niche management approach, and policy recommendations, resulting from technological innovation system (TIS) studies. In the framework, the multi-level view from TM has been integrated with the functions approach from the TIS literature. The integrated policy framework shows that specific policy goals and measures can be found at the specific points of intervention related to (the interfaces between) landscape, regime, TIS and niches. The integrated framework suggests that stimulation of a TIS only makes sense when this action is well aligned with landscape and regime developments. The framework should be used in empirical studies for further testing and refinement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

eParticipation tools aim to facilitate intrinsic engagement from communities of stakeholders and citizens to develop more effective, bottom-up and inclusive policies, raising the potential to become an efficient engagement tool. It is argued that eParticipation tools such as the Electronic Town Meeting (eTM) have the potential to efficiently engage communities of sought-after ‘lead users’ to leverage economically valuable ‘sticky knowledge’. While the lead user method has been demonstrated to be very effective, challenges remain around the sustainability of such an approach, particularly on a large-scale. A possible mediating tool that might be able to efficiently leverage communities of lead users is the eTM eParticipation tool. Findings from eight case studies show that the eTM has had a positive effect on appropriation and engagement of lead users as well as providing users benefits such as enhanced peer learning, and there is potential to extrapolate to innovation activities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The overarching question raised in this special issue is whether societies can, do or indeed should steer new and emergent science and technological development and its management on to trajectories construed as more or less 'desirable'. It therefore sits at the interface of two arenas. These are governance: processes of shaping/steering emergent technologies and markets; and sustainability: normative agendas incorporating a range of potentially competing conjectures and internally inconsistent desires such as to facilitate rather than stifle innovation, to enable economic development, to anticipate or deploy strategies to cope with risk and uncertainty, and to encourage technological developments that benefit rather than harm humans, their quality of life and the natural environment. Despite the potential for apparent empirical inconsistencies and contradictions that manifest as outcomes of the negotiation of these aims, there is (pace Karl Polanyi) a normative entry point to all of the articles and the material they draw upon, which is the idea that markets and technologies should be the handmaiden of societies, not vice versa. It is now widely recognized that 'nanotechnology' is a diverse set of feasible procedures emerging from scientific possibilities to enable the production of artefacts at the nanoscale creating new products, processes and services. Attention has to be paid to the desirability of these artefacts, which involve social, economic, ecologic, political and ethical matters that surround their emergence. The purpose of this special issue is to set out the current and future prospects for the widespread use (or innovation) of technological convergence at the nanoscale to create nano-artefacts, and the needs for governance and regulation that will accompany these innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Increased environmental and social responsibility awareness, while producing unique opportunities for sustainability-oriented innovations, has generated important challenges for companies. The path to sustainability requires corporate strategies that guarantee profitability, managing simultaneously environmental and social responsibilities. An attempt is made to provide an understanding of sustainable development thinking in business, discussing how the combination of the transition management, adaptive planning and sociotechnical approaches can contribute towards an effective implementation of sustainability-oriented innovations in business context. The article proposes a conceptual model, which incorporates this contribution, developed through a four-year action-research project carried out within a large Brazilian energy company – Petrobras. The authors argue that the adoption of the proposed model by other large firms operating in different societal sectors might trigger organisational changes related to current corporate practices of technological innovation management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Despite repeated calls for novel forms of innovation and governance, including responsible innovation, anticipatory governance, and sustainability-oriented governance, nanotechnology continues to be mainly innovated following conventional schemes – with persistent shortcomings and negative impacts. Shifting these schemes towards sustainable and responsible innovation and fully utilising the benefits of sustainable nanotechnologies will necessitate difficult changes across all stages of and actors in the innovation process. We outline an agenda for intervention research in support of such changes. The article synthesises insights from four years of research on nanotechnology innovation, anticipatory governance, and sustainability in urban environments, with a focus on Phoenix, Arizona. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many national energy policies envisage residual and renewable heat sources with district heating (DH) as a component of sustainable energy systems. There is however limited empirical evidence about facilitation of development in the context of liberalised markets and diminished local government control over direct service provision. Recent attempts to stimulate DH have had variable outcomes in different countries. Using five case studies, we ask why heat network development in the UK takes a relatively piecemeal and fragmented form in comparison with the Netherlands and Norway, countries whose heating sectors are comparable with the UK and where DH provision is limited. We argue that energy market liberalisation has been enacted differentially, resulting in different political and economic governance structures: in comparison with the UK liberal market economy, the more coordinated market economies of the Netherlands and Norway retain greater capacity for collaboration between energy utilities, localities and states, resulting in stronger foundations for district energy. Implications for UK governance are considered. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The US Renewable Fuel Standard contains a policy bias that undermines the three-broad policy goals of rural development, energy security, and greenhouse gas reductions. This policy bias, wherein a narrow range of options is expected to address broad societal objectives, contributes to a persistence of first-generation biofuels and limits technical variation. Renewable fuel content requirements have helped to expand the use of ethanol and biodiesel in the short term. However, long-term changes will require greater technological variation to stimulate innovation for the development of sustainable renewable fuel pathways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current persistent sustainability challenges are widely understood to require transitions and system innovations. As these systemic changes typically emerge from multiple co-evolving innovations, Schot and Geels [2008. Strategic niche management and sustainable innovation journeys; theory, findings, research agenda, and policy.Technology Analysis and Strategic Management20, no. 5: 537–54] urge to study the interactions between innovation journeys. Their call for multiplicity has been met through several studies. Yet considering that these analyses still leave the attendant navigational challenges underexposed, this article demonstrates the usefulness of nested-case methodologies. Focusing on the ‘intersections’ between interpenetrating case histories, in-depth investigation is combined with broader attention to next-order changes. The relevance and implications of these intersections are illustrated through four innovation journeys in the Dutch traffic management field: unfolding largely in parallel, but sometimes intersecting, they yield a mixed picture of trajectory formation and fragmentation. The phenomenon of emergent incoherence is identified as a key strategic challenge in system innovation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the significance of final consumption processes for understandings of prospective transitions towards more sustainable societies. It argues that most existing conceptualisations either place too much emphasis on technology or on ‘consumer behaviour’, ignoring the deeply intertwined relationships between the two. After briefly reviewing recent contributions to the technology-oriented multi-level perspective (MLP) and to social scientific explanations of ‘behavioural change’, we outline a practice-based approach to understanding final consumption and sustainability. Practice-based approaches reveal processes of reproduction (stasis) and change in forms of consumption, which we argue present conceptual insights into sustainability transitions. By examining the tensions and crossovers between the MLP and practice-based approaches to consumption, three specific forms of interaction are identified for further conceptual and empirical exploration: the social relations of consumption; co-dependent changes in production and consumption; and, technologies, practices and consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A shift in international climate policy discourse toward a new shared narrative on the need for a ‘transition’ to a low-carbon society and green economy is outlined and assessed in terms of its implications for innovation policy. It is seen as recognition of the limits of incrementalism and the need for pervasive transformative innovation. Key passage points are identified in the early 2000s through which new ideas about transition moved from academic discussion into policy practice. Transitions thinking expresses a new synthesis of evolutionary and associational approaches in science, technology and innovation studies. It introduces concepts of sociotechnical networks and configurations which fulfil core societal functions of consumption and end use. The agenda for innovation shifts from the traditional macroeconomic or microorganisational level, to a new focus on a range of situated sociotechnical transitions at the mesoregime level. The real world of contemporary innovation policy is assessed in terms of the new policy measures for the transformative innovation implied by this different perspective. A contradictory picture is found of new challenge led, demand oriented, systemic initiatives muddled with a legacy of technology driven, supply side, singular approaches. Evidence is given of how new computer based visualisation analysis of the global energy system reveals that its overall complexity may be addressed through a small number of fundamental end-use or consumption categories. It is argued that these offer the opportunity for a fundamental reframing of innovation policy for the experiments and arenas needed for sociotechnical transitions which are not predetermined by technology-driven choices. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article discusses empirical findings and conceptual elaborations of the last 10 years in strategic niche management research (SNM). The SNM approach suggests that sustainable innovation journeys can be facilitated by creating technological niches, i.e. protected spaces that allow the experimentation with the co-evolution of technology, user practices, and regulatory structures. The assumption was that if such niches were constructed appropriately, they would act as building blocks for broader societal changes towards sustainable development. The article shows how concepts and ideas have evolved over time and new complexities were introduced. Research focused on the role of various niche-internal processes such as learning, networking, visioning and the relationship between local projects and global rule sets that guide actor behaviour. The empirical findings showed that the analysis of these niche-internal dimensions needed to be complemented with attention to niche external processes. In this respect, the multi-level perspective proved useful for contextualising SNM. This contextualisation led to modifications in claims about the dynamics of sustainable innovation journeys. Niches are to be perceived as crucial for bringing about regime shifts, but they cannot do this on their own. Linkages with ongoing external processes are also important. Although substantial insights have been gained, the SNM approach is still an unfinished research programme. We identify various promising research directions, as well as policy implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]