The need to increase the policy relevance of the functional approach to Technological Innovation Systems (TIS)

doi:10.1016/j.eist.2015.07.007

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

Volume 16, September 2015, Pages 73-75

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2015.07.007 Get rights and content

Highlights

•
The functional approach to TIS can increase its policy relevance.
•
Functional approach to TIS papers should better justify their normative choices.
•
Policy recommendations can be substantiated by visiting related literature.

Abstract

In this viewpoint we propose two measures to increase the policy relevance of studies applying the functional approach to Technological Innovation Systems (TIS): (A) justify the policy relevance of the case in detail to address the normative character of the functions approach; and (B) strengthen the links to existing studies outside of the TIS literature.

Introduction

In order to react to pressing societal or environmental issues such as climate change, evaluating different paths of technology innovation is a necessity for today's policy makers. The functional approach to technological innovation system (TIS) provides a tool to ascertain the various factors influencing the innovation and diffusion of individual technologies. The beauty of the analytical framework provided by the functional approach to TIS is that at once it reduces the complexity of technology dynamics while providing a systemic view of it. The functional approach is especially useful to “scan” a TIS and identify systemic weaknesses (Smits and Kuhlmann, 2004), also referred to as bottlenecks (Markard and Truffer, 2008). Jacobsson and Bergek (2011), (p. 42) argue that “the key contribution of innovation system analyses to the study of sustainability transitions is (…) that it provides policy makers with a tool for identifying system weaknesses”. We strongly agree with this view and hence increasing the field's policy relevance is the central issue/topic of this viewpoint. Reviewing existing literature that applies the functional approach to TIS we identified two issues which prevent the TIS literature from tapping its full potential in terms of policy relevance.

Section snippets

Justifying the technology choice

As many empirical TIS studies provide policy recommendations these papers take a normative position: What can policy do to support the innovation and diffusion of one specific technology? In fact, it has been argued, that many studies appear to have strong normative motivations (compare also Markard et al., 2009, Stirling, 2011), as opposed e.g. to the positive tradition often proclaimed in mainstream economics (Friedman, 1953). Taking a normative standpoint is in our view not problematic per

Making more workable policy recommendations

The second issue we identified deals with the goal of formulating workable policy recommendations. As mentioned above the TIS and functions approach is well suited to identify bottlenecks and pinpoint to systemic problems in a TIS, but so far many papers put forward policy recommendations which are rather generic and very broad¹

First page preview

Click to open first page preview

View PDF

References (16)

M.-C. Bélis-Bergouignan et al.
Sharing a common resource in a sustainable development context: The case of a wood innovation system
Technol. Forecasting Soc. Change
(2010)
S. Jacobsson et al.
Innovation system analyses and sustainability transitions: contributions and suggestions for research
Environ. Innov. Soc. Trans.
(2011)
S. Jacobsson et al.
Formation of competences to realize the potential of offshore wind power in the European Union
Energy Policy
(2012)
J. Markard et al.
Prospective analysis of technological innovation systems: Identifying technological and organizational development options for biogas in Switzerland
Res. Policy
(2009)
A. Stirling
Pluralising progress: from integrative transitions to transformative diversity, Environ. Innov
Soc. Trans.
(2011)
K.M. Weber et al.
Legitimizing research, technology and innovation policies for transformative change: combining insights from innovation systems and multi-level perspective in a comprehensive ‘failures’ framework
Res. Policy
(2012)
A. Bergek
Ambiguities and challenges in the functions approach to TIS analysis: a critical literature review
International Conference on Sustainability Transition
(2012)
B. Carlsson et al.
Dynamics of Innovation Systems - Policy-Making in a Complex and Non-deterministic World

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (23)

Functional analysis of technological innovation systems enabling digital transformation: A semi-quantitative multicriteria framework applied in the olive sector
2024, Agricultural Systems
Technological innovation systems (TIS) play a key role in facilitating digital transformation (DT) in various sectors. In agriculture in particular, traditional qualitative assessments of TIS fall short of providing actionable insights. The olive sector in Andalusia, a world leader in olive cultivation, is a case where DT is essential for long-term competitiveness and sustainability.
The objective of this article is twofold: 1) to provide a comprehensive methodological framework for the functional analysis of a TIS, which allows a semi-quantitative assessment of the performance of a TIS at subfunctional, functional and global levels; and 2) to illustrate the application of this framework to the case of the TIS for the DT of the olive sector in Andalusia.
Using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), the framework allows the performance of the TIS for the DT of the olive sector in Andalusia to be measured along different functions, providing a nuanced and actionable assessment. AHP is a multicriteria decision making methodology that allows the decomposition of a discrete decision problem into a hierarchical structure. Expert knowledge was used to evaluate the proposed AHP model of the performance of the TIS for the DT of the olive sector, in particular a panel of 34 experts.
The application of the framework identified the main weaknesses in the functions of knowledge transfer, business activities and resource mobilisation within the TIS for the DT of the olive sector of Andalusia. Conversely, strengths were identified, particularly in the areas of market formation and knowledge development. Policy recommendations are made to address these weaknesses and capitalise on the strengths identified, thereby accelerating the DT of the sector.
This study adds to the TIS literature by providing a semi-quantitative, multicriteria, replicable and adaptable framework for agricultural innovation policy. The framework provides actionable insights for policy makers and stakeholders in the olive sector to foster an environment conducive to DT and thereby steer agriculture towards an innovative, competitive and sustainable trajectory. Insights from the olive case offer lessons for DT in similar contexts.
How to account for the dark sides of social innovation? Transitions directionality in renewable energy prosumerism
2023, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions
Social innovation is gaining attention as a pivotal dimension of socio-technical transitions with renewable energy prosumerism as a prominent example. However, this example also highlights that social innovation evokes concerns about purposes, beneficiaries, normative dilemmas and legitimacy. This paper addresses recent calls to confront the perceived ‘dark sides’ of social innovations. As debates on these dark sides often get stuck in either naive optimism or paralyzing critique, the paper investigates how transitions theory can inform nuanced understandings. The key concept is transitions directionality. The analysis shows how it conceptualizes the dark sides as manifestations of socio-technical path dependence, as disempowering ideological ‘landscape’ factors, as internal contradictions within institutionally complex regimes, as niche-regime dialectics, and as transition phases. Rather than proposing a particular normative position, the paper presents a heuristic that supports well-considered engagement with the dark sides.
Missions and mission-oriented innovation policy for sustainability: A review and critical reflection
2023, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions
The concept of ‘sustainability missions’ has recently received increasing attention in the academic literature. Broadly defined as a collective ambition to strengthen systemic preparedness and adaptive capacity for various policy challenges, the concept of sustainability missions invites critical reflection due to its rise in usage and popularity. In this spirit, we discuss five challenges that limit the ability of the missions concept to guide progress on meaningful change. First, much of the academic literature takes the concept for granted by using it as a descriptor or normative goal, without the skeptical perspective that would challenge the perpetuation of old ways of thinking about societal problems. Second, the concept is policy-centric and thus tends to endorse a top-down approach to complex problems that otherwise elude centralization. Third, scholarly treatment of the concept often undervalues the role of non-government stakeholders like businesses and communities. Fourth, the literature often fails to acknowledge that sustainability missions involve picking industrial ‘winners’ – a strategy with historically mixed results. Finally, scholars frequently neglect the unpredictability of sustainability mission implementation, a risk magnified in the case of totalizing goals like economic or social-systemic transformation. These five limitations, among others, work against the stated goals of sustainability missions and hinder theoretical development. This article describes a way forward for research and practice utilizing the concept.
Contributing to sustainable and just energy systems? The mainstreaming of renewable energy prosumerism within and across institutional logics
2021, Energy Policy
Renewable energy (RE) prosumerism comes with promises and expectations of contributing to sustainable and just energy systems. In its current process of becoming mainstream, numerous challenges and doubts have arisen whether it will live up to these. Building on insights from sustainability transitions research and institutional theory, this article unpacks the mainstreaming by considering the range of institutional arrangements and logics through which these contributions might be secured. Taking a Multi-actor Perspective, it analyses the differences, combinations, and tensions between institutional logics, associated actor roles and power relations. Firstly, it unpacks how mainstreaming occurs through mechanisms of bureaucratisation and standardisation (state logic), marketisation and commodification (market logic), as well as socialisation and communalisation (community logic). Secondly, it highlights the concomitant hybridisation of institutional logics and actor roles. Such hybrid institutional arrangements try to reconcile not only the more known trade-offs and tensions between for-profit/non-profit logics (regarding the distribution of benefits for energy activities and resources), but also between formal/informal logics (gaining recognition) and public/private logics (delineating access). This institutional concreteness moves the scholarly discussion and policy debate beyond idealistic discussions of ethical principles and abstract discussions about power: Simplistic framings of ‘prosumerism vs incumbents’ are dropped in favour of a critical discussion of hybrid institutional arrangements and their capacity to safeguard particular transformative ideals and normative commitments.
A mechanism-based explanation for blocking mechanisms in technological innovation systems
2020, Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions
Citation Excerpt :
For blocking mechanisms, system weaknesses that comprise the “strengthening/adding inducement mechanisms and weakening/removing blocking mechanisms” inform key policy issues (Bergek et al., 2008a:423)8 . Thus, the criticisms of generic or oversimplified policy recommendations (Bening et al., 2015; Kern, 2015) can be understood as consequence of these conceptual limitations. Recently, scholars have been discussing these issues of TIS hindering factors.
Understanding “systemic problems” or “blocking mechanisms” in emerging technologies and industries has been a major issue in Technological Innovation Systems (TIS) research. Despite this literature’s long tradition, we show that a more accurate definition enhances the TIS framework explanatory power for a higher diversity of empirical cases. We posit that conceptual improvement depends on addressing the unclear or incomplete definitions and the lack of explanation of interdependent systemic problems and blocking mechanisms. To this end, we apply a mechanism-based approach to explore these conceptual limitations. As a result, we propose a causal conceptual framework that understands blocking mechanisms as causal pathways linking systemic problems (causes) to poor system functioning (outcomes). We also argue that detailing the causal pathway in activities and respective actors better explains system malfunctioning. Finally, we discuss patterns of interdependencies among systemic problems and blocking mechanisms and implications for methodologies and for informing policy.
Transitions governance with a sense of direction: synchronization challenges in the case of the dutch ‘Driverless Car’ transition
2020, Technological Forecasting and Social Change
Citation Excerpt :
The analysis also brought forward however how the associated preoccupations with breakthrough and the removal of barriers easily obscure basic questions of direction: To what extent are the driverless cars qualifying as ‘niches’? Which socio-technical configuration should be cultivated, and for what purposes (Bening et al. 2015; Schlaile et al. 2017)? Undertaken in a directionality-conscious way, cultivation strategies need to be guided by a well-considered definition of the object of governance: Is it a vehicle, a communication network, or a certain system function that one seeks to stimulate?
Current sustainability challenges call for transitions in locked-in socio-technical systems. The governance of transitions often remains limited to the cultivation of sustainable ‘niche’ innovations, however. This paper explores how to handle transitions directionality, i.e. the diversity of possible socio-technical development paths. It reaches beyond hitherto rather abstract and fragmented insights. STS, political-science and systems-evolutionary angles are combined into an integrative framework. Concrete directionality challenges are identified through the analysis of socio-technical multiplicity, divergent normative appraisals and process dynamics. The driverless car transition provides an exemplar case. As highlighted through qualitative evidence from the Dutch Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) sector, common innovation discourses of a ‘race to automation’ misrepresent the pace and direction of the nascent transition. The transition requires much more than the cultivation of driverless vehicles: Next to the commercial development of vehicle automation, it involves governmental traffic management ambitions and public-private collaboration towards ‘cooperative systems’. Other insights on directionality-conscious transitions governance pertain to the sustained synchronization between institutionally diverse actors, and to the changing material conditions for steering. The overall conclusion is that the framework provides a useful lens to explore the governance of directionality in socio-technical transitions. Future studies should explore its usefulness beyond the ITS domain.

View all citing articles on Scopus

^☆: The present viewpoint is part and parcel of a debate about the challenges of TIS research in the current issue of EIST. See Truffer (2015) for an introduction and overview on the different contributions to the debate.

View full text

The need to increase the policy relevance of the functional approach to Technological Innovation Systems (TIS)☆

Highlights

Introduction

Section snippets

Justifying the technology choice

Making more workable policy recommendations

First page preview

Technol. Forecasting Soc. Change

Environ. Innov. Soc. Trans.

Energy Policy

Res. Policy

Soc. Trans.

Res. Policy

Ambiguities and challenges in the functions approach to TIS analysis: a critical literature review

International Conference on Sustainability Transition

Dynamics of Innovation Systems - Policy-Making in a Complex and Non-deterministic World