The role of pilot and demonstration plants in technological development: synthesis and directions for future research

Abstract

Pilot and demonstration plants (PDPs) play important roles in technological development. They represent bridges between basic knowledge generation and technological breakthroughs on the one hand, and industrial application and commercial adoption on the other. The objectives of this article are to synthesise and categorise existing research on PDPs, as well as to suggest an agenda for future research. We review the PDP phenomena in three literature streams: engineering and natural science research, technology and innovation management, and innovation systems. The analysis highlights clear differences in e.g. conceptions of system boundaries and what the literature streams seeks to accomplish, but also similarities such as the key ideas of using PDPs for technology scale-up and uncertainty reduction.

Keywords:

• pilot plant
• demonstration plant
• R&D management
• innovation policy

Notes on contributors

Johan Frishammar is a professor at Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, and heads the Centre for Management of Innovation and Technology in Process Industry (http://promote.ltu.se). Prior publications by him have appeared in journals such as California Management Review, Journal of Product Innovation Management, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Technovation, and Technology Analysis & Strategic Management.

Patrik Söderholm is a professor at the Economics Unit at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. Söderholm has been a research fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA). His research is focused on environmental, energy and resource economics, including substantive work on technology learning and policy.

Kristoffer Bäckström is a PhD candidate and part-time teacher at the Economics Unit at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden. He holds an MSc in economics and his research interests are environmental and energy economics with an emphasis on renewable energy policies and their effects on innovation.

Hans Hellsmark is a researcher at SP Technical Institute of Sweden and a visiting scholar at Zhejiang University, China. His research concerns industrialisation processes related to bioeconomy and focuses on the utilisation of academic knowledge, the role and interaction of universities, institutes, and public/private demonstration projects in the commercialisation process, and technology policy for promoting new industries.

Håkan Ylinenpää is a professor at Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Luleå University of Technology, Sweden, and Research Director for the national excellence centre in innovation system research CiiR (Centre for Inter-organisational Innovation Research). His research focuses on collaborative innovation and entrepreneurial innovation systems.