andreas p. kopp

Innovation does not occur in isolation. Innovation systems are embedded in a wider political and economic context, which shapes the input into the system, stakeholder preferences and capabilities, and the interdependencies between them. To understand how contextual factors affect innovation outcomes, I rely on an analytic framework that distills the technological, sectoral, geographic, political, and macroeconomic preconditions and assesses their impact on the innovation system as blocking and inducing mechanisms. Combined, understanding the systemic embedding of innovation (systems) allows governments and companies to better design intervention strategies, to grasp and capitalise on spill-over effects, and to estimate unintended consequences. Such context factors are particularly important for socio-technical innovations, for example, to achieve better environmental sustainability and when implementing green innovation policies.

Innovation is a highly complex phenomenon. The more sophisticated socio-technical innovations are, the more stakeholders tend to be involved – across the industry, academia, government, and society. Mission-oriented innovation (policy), i.e. cross-sectoral and cross-jurisdictional approaches to solve a particular problem, often result in so-called multi-technology innovations. These technologies are in themselves complex compilations of multiple sub-components and sub-systems. Examples include smart grids, autonomous vehicles, or smart agriculture technologies. Governing such innovations creates coordination challenges across the innovation network and stakeholders. Understanding how coordination failures can be resolved to accelerate the advancement of the innovation system is the goal of this project. The research focuses on complex mobility solutions and on energy systems.

Innovation policy is the government’s way to shape innovation, tilt the playing field, and define the direction of future socio-technical trajectories. An increasingly employed approach advocates for mission-oriented policies, i.e. policies that focus on a solution rather than a sector or technology to bring about significant socio-economic change. This project extends the initial mission-oriented innovation policy approach and analyses how such policies can be implemented in practice. The state is not a unitary actor and its organisations have different interests, capacities, and capabilities. The ‘TIS+’ framework introduced in this project defines the role of public sector organisations in innovation systems and shows that networked approaches are best apt to adapt to the challenges emanating from complex innovation.

The opportunities - and challenges - inherent to the transformation to a green(er) economy are vast. Large scale-transformations can only succeed if actors collaborate to achieve (partial) goals. Governments and industry leaders have taken different approaches to foster such cooperation through policy, strict laws, voluntary initiatives, market mechanisms, labels, and more. What is the best way to quickly achieve discernible impact to the benefit of everyone, including the environment? Networked transitions towards a green economy are particularly fruitful. This includes interdisciplinary, cross-sector, triple-helix collaboration, i.e. including public and private stakeholders, plus researchers. Intermediaries can coordinate goal-oriented projects and targeted cooperations can foster technological and business innovations systematically. Understanding these dynamics is key to expanding them, and ultimately to 'turn green' more quickly and efficiently.

Connected autonomous vehicles (AVs) are considered a mobility solution of the future that resolves many transport and environmental problems cities face today. At the same time, they are a prime example of a multi-technology innovation that includes several industry sectors, involves countless stakeholders, and affects various policy and regulatory domains. I ask to what extent AVs can satisfy these expectations, whether they can really contribute to a smarter, more efficient, and sustainable mobility system, and how policies or regulations can shape and coordinate the innovation of this technology. Relying on network analyses and a system-based approach, I cross-compare the development and impact of AVs in three highly innovative economies: Singapore, Estonia, and Sweden.

Ensuring the transition towards sustainability without vitiating economic prosperity is a key debate, especially in emerging markets. Achieving large-scale transformations across the economy necessitates new business models and socio-technical innovations. These rely on incentive structures, economic opportunities, available capacities, and policies that regard a large sustainability transition as a long-term and holistic 'mission'. In this project, I focus on renewable energy technologies and the energy transition in emerging economies by analysing the trajectories and trends in the energy market in Brazil. I assess the role of incumbent firms, the potential of newly established start-ups, and the power of existing policies and regulatory frameworks.

The transport sector, in general, and the aviation industry, in particular, are principal sources of greenhouse gas emissions responsible for global climate change. The COVID-19 global pandemic poses an additional, challenging crossroads for the aviation sector. In this project, we investigate to what extent a transition to sustainability is feasible in this sector, whether it is economically viable, and which avenues – politically, economically, and technologically – could be pursued. We employ a systemic approach and focus especially on alternative aviation fuels, on the one hand, and on behavioral changes of operations and companies, on the other. We also discuss why the transition scholarship should pay attention to aviation – a topic thus far under-researched in this field.