The dynamics of sustainable innovation journeys

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Acknowledgements

The papers in this special issue were presented and discussed at a workshop in Utrecht, in October 2006. We are very grateful not only to the participants, but also to the sponsors, VINNOVA and KSI (Knowledge network on System Innovation), for making this workshop a success.

Notes

1. The term ‘innovation journey’ has been defined by van de Ven et al. (1999, 6–7) as ‘new ideas that are developed and implemented to achieve desired outcomes by people who engage in transactions (relationships) with others in changing institutional and organizational contexts’ (italics in original).Where van de Ven et al. (1999) focused on innovation journeys within organisations, we will focus on sustainable innovation journeys at the level of societies, sectors and nations.

2. Because of its focus on relatively early phases, SNM is less explicit about further diffusion. More attention could be given to the subsequent ‘take-off’ phase. As the stock of a particular technology increases 100 or even 500 times, we may need to know more about the mobilisation of resources (money, competencies). This might require more understanding of the capital market and adjustments in the educational system to ‘produce’ the required skills. Also the entry of new organisations seems an important process for take-off, because of its influence on resource mobilisation, division of labour (specialised suppliers), scale economies, etc. In our view, SNM might benefit from insights in industrial economics, where a rich literature has addressed these kinds of issues (e.g. Smith, Marx, Marshall, Young, Rosenberg).

3. Because of different disciplinary backgrounds, ‘functions in innovation systems’ has a more economics/ entrepreneurial flavour and SNM a more socio-cognitive one.

4. Hillman et al. (2008) uses seven functions, where some differ from those used by Bergek, Jacobsson, and Sandén (2008).