Overview of INTRANSIT publications

Unpacking normativity in transformative change: A comparative analysis of directionality in Norwegian and Dutch agri-food policy (1945–2023)
Authors: Sabine de Graaff, Iris Wanzenböck, Koen Frenken
Description: Sustainability transitions are inherently political and normative - yet transition research has rarely engaged explicitly with the values that shape policy directions. This paper compares nearly eight decades of Dutch and Norwegian agri-food policy, tracing how problem frames, policy solutions, and underlying values produced different pathways while sharing a persistent dominance of economic values over social and ecological concerns.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

How do multi-purpose technological innovation systems expand? Insights from carbon capture technology
Authors: Jørgen Finstad, Allan Dahl Andersen
Description: Reaching net-zero will require multi-purpose technologies like carbon capture, batteries, and hydrogen to spread across many different sectors at once — but how does that sectoral expansion actually unfold? This paper conceptualizes markets as cross-sectoral interfaces built through institutional, organizational, and technological couplings, and traces how Norway's carbon capture innovation system shifted from oil and gas toward new user sectors like cement and waste incineration.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

‘Lumpy’ technological innovation systems and net-zero transitions: The impact of technology characteristics on the carbon capture innovation system in Norway
Authors: Amber Nordholm, Jørgen Finstad, Allan Dahl Andersen
Description: Some net-zero technologies are small, modular, and quick to scale - others, like carbon capture and nuclear, are large, complex, and notoriously slow to diffuse. This paper integrates technology characteristics into the technological innovation systems framework to develop a 'lumpy' TIS approach, using Norway's carbon capture sector to show how size, complexity, and customization shape system dynamics - and how actors actively work to make lumpy technologies more granular.
Journal: Technological Forecasting and Social Change

Multi-scalar legitimation dynamics in sectoral reconfigurations – The case of aquaculture in Norway
Authors: Sofia Aalbu, Markus Steen, Teis Hansen, Christian Binz
Description: Why do some sectors stay stuck on incremental paths even as pressure to transform mounts? This paper examines Norwegian salmon farming from 2014 to 2023, tracing how environmental, economic, and social narratives are mobilised across local, national, and global scales to legitimise some production technologies while de-legitimising others — and what this multi-scalar contest means for the pace and direction of sectoral change.
Journal: Geoforum

Making sense of wickedness: Directionality heuristics for challenge-led innovation policy
Authors: Matthias Mueller, Michael P. Schlaile, Stephanie Lang, Matthijs J. Janssen, Iris Wanzenböck, Kristina Bogner, Jana Zscheischler, Michael Schramm, Andreas Pyka
Description: The 'wickedness' of societal problems is often treated as an objective feature — but much of it lies in how policymakers perceive and interpret those problems. This paper introduces 'directionality heuristics' as a lens for understanding how actors make sense of the complexity and uncertainty of challenge-led innovation policy, illustrating the idea through the Dutch Mission-oriented Topsector and Innovation Policy.
Journal: Research Policy

Unpacking lock-ins in transition pathways: Lessons from the Dutch circular plastic packaging mission
Authors: Sanne A.M.J.V. Bours, Iris Wanzenböck, Vivian S.C. Tunn, Marko Hekkert
Description: Missions are meant to stay open to many possible solutions — but what happens when one pathway is already deeply locked in? Through a case study of the Dutch circular plastic packaging mission, this paper identifies three types of lock-in — infrastructural and technological, institutional, and behavioural — that entrench recycling over reuse and refuse, showing why active mission governance is needed to keep less dominant pathways alive.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

Conceptualizing the relationship between industrial transformation and accelerating sustainability transitions: A multi-sectoral perspective
Authors: Allan Dahl Andersen, Tuukka Mäkitie, Markus Steen, Iris Wanzenböck
Description: How does industrial transformation — the reshaping of the sectors that produce and support low-carbon technologies — shape the pace and direction of sustainability transitions? Building on evolutionary economics and a systematic review of 80 studies, this paper integrates the multi-level perspective and technological innovation systems approaches into a multi-sectoral framework, identifying nine key processes that drive inter-sectoral dynamics in accelerating transitions.
Journal: Energy Research & Social Science

What are transformative missions, really? Three dimensions for one shared understanding
Authors: Tom B.J. Coenen, Martijn Wiarda, Iris Wanzenböck, Matthijs J. Janssen, Caetano C.R. Penna
Description: As missions have become central to innovation policy, so too has the claim that they are 'transformative' — but what does that actually mean? This perspective paper proposes three dimensions along which missions can be transformative — intentions, processes, and effects — and derives seven mission types, arguing that transformative character must be situational rather than assumed.
Journal: Science and Public Policy

Exploring the Economic Geographies of Sustainability Transitions: Commentary and Agenda
Authors: Christian Binz, Lars Coenen, Koen Frenken, James T. Murphy, Simone Strambach, Michaela Trippl, Bernhard Truffer
Description: Sustainability transitions research and economic geography have developed largely in parallel — but the two fields have much to offer each other. This commentary maps the shared terrain and proposes a research agenda for deepening the exchange between the two traditions.
Journal: Economic Geography

Geographies of innovation and well-being
Authors: Fulvio Castellacci, Emil Evenhuis, Koen Frenken
Description: The geography of innovation has long measured regional development in terms of income, productivity, and jobs — but what if innovation were judged by its contribution to well-being? This editorial introduces a special issue proposing a broader framework, outlining the pathways through which innovation can enhance well-being at different spatial scales, and how well-being concerns in turn give directionality to innovation policy.
Journal: Review of Regional Research

Geographies of mission-oriented innovation policy
Authors: Elvira Uyarra, Markus M. Bugge, Lars Coenen, Kieron Flanagan, Iris Wanzenböck
Description: Mission-oriented innovation policies are often framed as spatially blind — as if geography does not matter. This paper challenges that assumption, arguing that place, scale, and the uneven geography of innovation capabilities are central to how missions can and should be designed and implemented.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

Governance arrangements for the implementation of transformative innovation policy: Insights from a comparative case study
Authors: Matthijs Jawnssen, Iris Wanzenböck, Lea Fünfschilling, Dimitrios Pontikakis
Description: Transformative innovation policy requires not only ambitious goals but also governance arrangements capable of putting them into practice. Drawing on comparative case studies, this book chapter identifies the governance tasks that public administrations must master to implement mission-oriented and other transformative policies effectively.
Book: Transformative Mission-Oriented Innovation Policies

Growing pains in upscaling: A constructive technology assessment of sea lice treatment innovations in the stagnating Norwegian aquaculture regime
Authors: Casper Friederich, Matthijs Mouthaan, Koen Frenken
Description: Scaling up innovations can solve one problem while creating others — and in aquaculture, this tension is especially stark. This paper applies constructive technology assessment to sea lice treatment innovations in Norwegian aquaculture, examining the unintended consequences of rapid upscaling in a stagnating regime.
Journal: Progress in Economic Geography

Mission-oriented innovation: from a new vocabulary to a new grammar for regional innovation policy
Authors: Iris Wanzenböck
Description: Has mission-oriented innovation policy genuinely transformed regional innovation policy, or merely added new vocabulary to old practice? Drawing on Hall's distinction between first-, second-, and third-order policy change, this commentary argues that aligning regional policy with societal goals requires a shift from an economic to a political conception of innovation — new governance models and delivery mechanisms, not just rhetorical change.
Journal: Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society

The politics of directionality in innovation policy through the lens of policy process frameworks
Authors: Sabine de Graaff, Iris Wanzenböck, Koen Frenken
Description: Who sets the direction of innovation — and through what political processes is that direction contested and decided? This paper uses established policy process frameworks to shed light on the contested politics of directionality in innovation policy and sustainability transitions.
Journal: Science and Public Policy

The spatial and scalar implications of missions: challenges and opportunities for policy
Authors: Elvira Uyarra, Iris Wanzenböck, Kieron Flanagan
Description: Mission-oriented innovation policies have largely ignored geography — but the places where missions are implemented matter enormously. This book chapter explores the spatial and scalar dimensions of mission-oriented policy, examining what different regions need and how missions can be made more territorially sensitive.
Book: Transformative Mission-Oriented Innovation Policies

What roles do governments play vis-à-vis niche actors? A typology illustrated with transition dynamics in the Dutch agri-food system
Authors: Hens Runhaar, Sophie van Doorm, Laura Bello Cartagena, Sabine de Graaff, Charlotte Offringa, Laura van Oers, Nataliia Pustilnik, Evelien Remorie, Willem Lageweg, Rob Raven
Description: Governments can nurture niche innovations — or actively defend the incumbent regimes those innovations threaten. Drawing on the Dutch agri-food system, this paper develops a typology of six governmental roles vis-à-vis niche actors, ranging from facilitating regime change to actively blocking it, and invites policymakers to reflect on their own positionality in ongoing transitions.
Journal: Environmental Science and Policy

Behind the scenes: Politics and pragmatism in formulating mission-oriented innovation policies in a national context
Authors: Håkon Endresen Normann, Silje Marie Svartefoss, Taran Thune
Description: Mission-oriented innovation policies are often presented as rational responses to societal challenges — but how are they actually developed? This paper goes behind the scenes of Norway's national policy process to reveal the political bargaining and pragmatic compromises involved.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

CCS technological innovation system dynamics in Norway
Authors: Markus Steen, Allan Dahl Andersen, Jørgen Finstad, Teis Hansen, Jens Hanson, Kristin Jordal, Tuukka Mäkitie, Amber Nordholm, Marianne Ryghaug, Artur Santoalha
Description: Carbon capture and storage is widely regarded as indispensable for meeting climate targets, yet it remains frustratingly slow to deploy. This paper traces the evolving innovation system dynamics of CCS in Norway, examining what has driven recent progress and what challenges remain.
Journal: International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control

Collaboration or competition? Interactions between floating and fixed-bottom offshore wind in Norway
Authors: Hylke C. Havinga, H.Z. Adriaan van der Loos, Markus Steen
Description: Fixed-bottom and floating offshore wind are often discussed as complementary technologies, but they are increasingly competing for the same resources, talent, and policy attention. This paper investigates how the two technologies interact in Norway — and whether their relationship is better characterised as collaboration or rivalry.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

Developing the industrial capacity for energy transitions: Resource formation for offshore wind in Europe
Authors: Markus Steen, Tuukka Mäkitie, Jens Hanson, Håkon Endresen Normann
Description: Scaling up renewable energy is not just about generating electricity — it requires building the industrial capacity to manufacture and deliver the necessary components. This paper examines how the offshore wind industry in Europe is developing that industrial capacity as it moves from formative to growth phases.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

Does digitalisation affect the adoption of electric vehicles? New regional-level evidence from Google Trends data
Authors: Fulvio Castellacci, Artur Santoalha
Description: Could a region's digital infrastructure and capabilities influence how quickly its residents adopt electric vehicles? This paper investigates the link between digitalisation and EV adoption across European, Canadian, and US regions, using novel data from Google Trends.
Journal: Regional Studies

Exploring barriers in the transition toward an established e-waste management system in Brazil: a multiple-case study of the formal sector
Authors: Alice Frantz Schneider, Margunn Aanestad, Tereza Cristina Carvalho
Description: Brazil generates more e-waste than any other country in Latin America, yet most of it is still handled informally. This paper examines the barriers facing the formal e-waste management sector as it seeks to establish itself as the principal route toward sustainable waste handling.
Journal: Environment, Development and Sustainability

Green upscaling of an established path? The case of salmon farming in Norway
Authors: Markus Steen
Description: Can an established industrial path be made genuinely green — or do sustainability pressures simply reshape it while preserving existing power structures? This paper examines Norwegian salmon farming, asking whether its rapid upscaling has followed a truly green trajectory.
Journal: Progress in Economic Geography

Greening from within: The role of organisational purpose shift in building internal legitimacy for fossil fuel incumbents’ green innovation
Authors: Hannah Schupfer, Birthe Soppe
Description: Fossil fuel companies face intense pressure to pursue green innovation — but external pressure alone is rarely enough without internal buy-in. This paper investigates how a shift in organisational purpose can help incumbents build the internal legitimacy needed to commit to green innovation.
Journal: Industry and Innovation

How aligned are industry strategy and government policy for the decarbonization of energy-intensive process industries?
Authors: Teis Hansen, Johnn Andersson, Jørgen Finstad, Jens Hanson, Hans Hellsmark, Tuukka Mäkitie, Amber Nordholm, Markus Steen
Description: Decarbonizing energy-intensive industries like steel, cement, and chemicals requires close alignment between government policy and industry strategy — but how well-aligned are they in practice? This paper compares decarbonization efforts across six European countries to reveal significant gaps and tensions.
Journal: Climate Policy

Incumbents Under Pressure: Frame Inversion as Legitimacy Balancing Act During Issue Salience
Authors: Hannah Schupfer, Birthe Soppe
Description: When a global issue like climate change becomes highly salient, incumbent organisations in carbon-intensive industries face conflicting demands from multiple audiences. This paper introduces 'frame inversion' as a strategy through which incumbents balance competing legitimacy expectations during moments of heightened public scrutiny.
Journal: Academy of Management Proceedings

Integrating industrial transformation and sustainability transitions research through a multi-sectoral perspective
Authors: Andersen, A. D., Mäkitie, T., Steen, M., & Wanzenböck, I
Description: Sustainability transitions research and industrial transformation research share common origins but have developed in parallel, each missing something the other offers. This paper proposes a multi-sectoral perspective to bridge the two fields and better account for the structural economic changes that accompany green transitions.
Working paper: Available at SSRN

International alliances and technology diffusion: A worldwide analysis of adoption of energy, railway and satellite technologies
Authors: Michał Bączyk, Koen Frenken, Matthijs B. Punt, Iris Wanzenböck
Description: Does belonging to an international alliance make a country more likely to adopt new technologies? This paper analyses the worldwide diffusion of six key infrastructure technologies — from nuclear and solar power to high-speed rail and satellites — across 161 countries over six decades.
Journal: PLOS Sustainability and Transformation

Scalar orientation of policies and technology legitimacy: The case of decarbonization in Norway
Authors: Teis Hansen, Jens Hanson, Tuukka Mäkitie, Håkon Normann, Markus Steen
Description: Not all policies operate at the same geographic scale — and the scale at which a policy is pitched shapes how technologies gain public legitimacy. This paper examines the scalar orientation of decarbonization policies in Norway and its consequences for how different low-carbon technologies are perceived and supported.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

The emergence of new regional technological specialisations: exploring the role of organisations and their technological network structure
Authors: Iris Wanzenböck, Silvia Rocchetta, Keungoui Kim, Dieter F. Kogler
Description: How do regions develop new technological specialisations — and what role do inter-organisational networks play in that process? This paper explores how the structure of technological collaboration networks shapes regions' ability to branch into new fields.
Journal: Industry and Innovation

Tipping the scales of the blue transition: Framing the geography of a Norwegian seafood mission
Authors: Matthijs Mouthaan, Koen Frenken, Laura Piscicelli, Taneli Vaskelainen
Description: When it comes to Norway's seafood mission, different actors want governance to happen at very different scales — national, regional, or local. This paper examines how scale frames are deployed in policy consultations, revealing the politics embedded in the blue transition.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

A New View on Radical Innovation
Authors: Koen Frenken, Matthijs B. Punt
Description: The distinction between incremental and radical innovation is foundational in innovation studies — but is our understanding of radical innovation adequate? This paper argues for a broader conceptualisation that moves beyond firm-level technological change to encompass the full scope of transformative innovation.
Working paper: SocArxiv Working Paper

Complexity challenges for transition policy: lessons from coastal shipping in Norway
Authors: Anna Bergek, Teis Hansen, Jens Hanson, Tuukka Mäkitie, Markus Steen
Description: Decarbonizing an entire transport sector involves far more than deploying new technologies — it requires navigating deep socio-economic and institutional complexity. Drawing on Norwegian coastal shipping, this paper identifies the key complexity challenges that transition policy must confront.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

Det globale grønne skiftet: Mer evolusjon enn revolusjon
Authors: Jan Fagerberg
Description: Det globale grønne skiftet beskrives ofte som en presserende nødvendighet — men er det en gradvis evolusjon eller en gjennomgripende revolusjon? Denne artikkelen, publisert på norsk i Internasjonal Politikk, analyserer drivkreftene bak overgangen til nullutslipp og politikkens rolle i denne prosessen.
Journal: Internasjonal Politikk

Digital innovation's contribution to sustainability transitions
Authors: Tuukka Mäkitie, Jens Hanson, Sigrid Damman, Mari Wardeberg
Description: Digital innovation is increasingly seen as a key enabler of sustainability transitions — but in what ways, and under what conditions, does it actually contribute? This conceptual paper critically examines the mechanisms through which digital technologies can support or hinder transformative change.
Journal: Technology in Society

E-skills and income inequality within European regions
Authors: Davide Consoli, Fulvio Castellacci, Artur Santoalha
Description: Do digital skills help reduce income inequality within regions — or do they widen existing divides? Drawing on data from 103 European regions over a decade, this paper unpacks the relationship between workforce digital literacy and income distribution.
Journal: Industry and Innovation

Innovation policy, regulation and the transition to net zero
Authors: Jan Fagerberg, Håkon E. Normann
Description: Reaching net zero emissions will require more than market forces — it demands purposeful innovation policy and effective regulation. This book chapter examines what kinds of policies and regulatory frameworks can drive the fundamental societal transformation needed to achieve climate neutrality.
Book: Handbook of Innovation and Regulation

Multi-sector technology diffusion in urgent net-zero transitions: Niche splintering in carbon capture technology
Authors: Jørgen Finstad, Allan Dahl Andersen
Description: Reaching net zero requires the same low-carbon technologies to take hold across multiple sectors simultaneously — but this rarely happens smoothly. This paper introduces the concept of 'niche splintering' to explain how carbon capture technology diffuses differently across industries, often creating fragmented rather than systemic change.
Journal: Technological Forecasting and Social Change

Systemic sustainability effects of contemporary digitalization: A scoping review and research agenda
Authors: Matthijs Mouthaan, Koen Frenken, Laura Piscicelli, Taneli Vaskelainen
Description: Digitalisation is frequently heralded as a key enabler of sustainability — but the evidence is more ambiguous than the hype suggests. Through a scoping review of 112 studies, this paper critically appraises research on the systemic sustainability effects of digital technology, identifying where knowledge is solid and where it falls short.
Journal: Futures

The energy sector: an industrial perspective on energy transitions
Authors: Tuukka Mäkitie, Markus Steen
Description: Energy transitions are often analysed through the lenses of technology or policy — but what does the shift look like from an industrial perspective? This handbook chapter explores how firms and sectors in the energy industry navigate the transformation away from fossil fuels.
Book: Handbook of Industrial Development

Time Will Tell: Category Reinvention as Incumbent Stigma Management Strategy in Contested Industries
Authors: Hannah Schupfer, Birthe Soppe
Description: As climate concerns have intensified, the oil and gas industry has become increasingly stigmatized — but how do incumbents manage that stigma collectively? This paper introduces 'category reinvention' as a strategy through which industry members jointly reshape their public identity in response to mounting external pressure.
Journal: Academy of Management Proceedings

Towards a problem-oriented regional industrial policy: possibilities for public intervention in framing, valuation and market formation
Authors: Kieron Flanagan, Elvira Uyarra, Iris Wanzenböck
Description: A new wave of interest in regional industrial policy has emerged around missions and grand challenges — but who gets to define the problem, and how does that shape what solutions are pursued? This paper proposes a problem-oriented approach to regional industrial policy, attending to the politics of framing, valuation, and market formation.
Journal: Regional Studies

A socio-technical perspective on CCS innovation system dynamics in Norway
Authors: Markus Steen, Allan Dahl Andersen, Jørgen Finstad, Kristin Jordal, Teis Hansen, Jens Hanson, Tuukka Mäkitie, Amber Joy Nordholm, Marianne Ryghaug, Tomas Moe Skjølsvold
Description: Carbon capture and storage has long been identified as essential for deep decarbonization, yet its development has been slow and uneven. This paper examines the dynamics of Norway's CCS innovation system from a socio-technical perspective, identifying the system functions and failures that have shaped its trajectory.
Working paper: SSRN Electronic Journal

Capabilities, diversification & economic dynamics in European Regions
Authors: Jan Fagerberg, Martin Srholec
Description: Why do some European regions grow and diversify more successfully than others? This paper investigates how regional capabilities shape economic diversification dynamics, with implications for innovation and industrial policy across Europe.
Journal: The Journal of Technology Transfer

Complementarity formation mechanisms in technology value chains
Authors: Tuukka Mäkitie, Jens Hanson, Markus Steen, Teis Hansen, Allan Dahl Andersen
Description: Sustainability transitions often depend on technologies that reinforce one another — but how do such complementarities form in the first place? This paper develops a theory of complementarity formation mechanisms within and across technology value chains, grounded in the case of offshore wind and maritime transport.
Journal: Research Policy

Conceptualising institutional complexity in the upscaling of community enterprises: Lessons from renewable energy and carsharing
Authors: Thomas Bauwens, Taneli Vaskelainen, Koen Frenken
Description: Community enterprises are celebrated as drivers of sustainability transitions, but scaling them up is far from straightforward. This paper theorizes the institutional complexity that emerges when community enterprises in renewable energy and carsharing grow beyond their local roots.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

Digital Platforms for Industrial Symbiosis
Authors: Pim Krom, Laura Piscicelli, Koen Frenken
Description: Industrial symbiosis — where one company's waste becomes another's raw material — is a cornerstone of the circular economy, but coordination between firms is notoriously difficult. This paper investigates how digital platforms can facilitate the exchange of excess resources and enable industrial symbiosis at scale.
Journal: Journal of Innovation Economics & Management

Innovation and adaptation strategies during the front-end phase of an industry downturn
Authors: Jakoba Sraml Gonzalez
Description: How do firms innovate when their core market is in freefall? This chapter examines how Norwegian oil and gas suppliers responded to the early phase of the 2014–2018 industry downturn, finding that choices made during the crisis front-end had lasting consequences for firms' long-term trajectories.
Journal: Rethinking the Social in Innovation and Entrepreneurship

Innovation policy
Authors: Fagerberg, J
Description: Innovation policy has grown from a niche concern to a central pillar of economic governance — but how did it develop, and what does it encompass today? This encyclopaedia chapter traces the emergence and evolution of innovation policy as both a field of practice and a scholarly discipline.
Book: Elgar Encyclopedia on the Economics of Knowledge and Innovation

Knowledge recombination for emerging technological innovations: the case of green shipping
Authors: Maria Tsouri, Teis Hansen, Jens Hanson, Markus Steen
Description: Where does the knowledge for new green industries come from? This paper traces how actors in the emerging green shipping sector drew on and recombined knowledge from established technological fields between 2007 and 2018, revealing the network mechanisms that shape the formation of new industries.
Journal: Technovation

Mobilizing innovation for the global green shift: The case for demand-oriented innovation policy, in D
Authors: Jan Fagerberg
Description: What role do demand-side policies play in driving the global green transition? Drawing on wind energy in Denmark, the German Energiewende, and Norway's electric vehicle uptake, this book chapter makes the case for placing demand-oriented innovation policy at the centre of cross-border green innovation strategies.
Book: Cross-Border Innovation in a Changing World

Small wins for grand challenges
Authors: Sanne A.M.J.V. Bours, Iris Wanzenböck, Koen Frenken
Description: Grand societal challenges can seem overwhelming — but can small, locally driven actions accumulate into transformative change? This paper makes the case for a bottom-up governance approach to regional innovation policy, arguing that 'small wins' can serve as building blocks for addressing large-scale problems.
Journal: European Planning Studies

Towards a problem-oriented regional industrial policy: possibilities for public intervention in framing, valuation and market formation
Authors: Kieron Flanagan, Elvira Uyarra, Iris Wanzenböck
Description: Regional industrial policy has long emphasised the supply of new knowledge, but has paid far less attention to how problems are defined and markets are formed. This paper draws on policy sciences and the sociology of markets to argue for a more problem-oriented approach to place-based industrial strategy.
Journal: Regional Studies

Blending new and old in sustainability transitions: technological alignment between fossil fuels and biofuels in Norwegian coastal shipping
Authors: Hanna Bach, Tuukka Mäkitie, Teis Hansen, Markus Steen
Description: How does a new low-carbon fuel gain a foothold in an industry deeply embedded in fossil fuel infrastructure? This paper traces the development of biodiesel and liquefied biogas in Norwegian coastal shipping, showing how technological alignment with existing systems shapes the prospects for greener alternatives.
Journal: Energy Research & Social Science

Digital skills, relatedness and green diversification: A study of European regions
Authors: Artur Santoalha, Davide Consoli, Fulvio Castellacci
Description: Relatedness — building on what a region already knows — is a well-established driver of green economic diversification. This paper adds digital literacy to the equation, arguing that ICT skills offer an important but underexplored pathway to sustainable technological development across European regions.
Journal: Research Policy

Innovation in established industries undergoing digital transformation: the role of collective identity and public values
Authors: Jakoba Sraml Gonzalez, Magnus Gulbrandsen
Description: How do established industries maintain a coherent identity while undergoing fundamental digital transformation? This paper examines the role of collective identity and public values in shaping innovation strategies in sectors facing disruptive change.
Journal: Innovation: Organization & Management

Institutional relatedness and the emergence of renewable energy cooperatives in German districts
Authors: Matthijs B. Punt, Thomas Bauwens, Koen Frenken, Lars Holstenkamp
Description: What conditions allow renewable energy cooperatives to emerge and thrive? Analysing all cooperatives founded in German districts between 2006 and 2016, this paper finds that 'institutional relatedness' — the alignment of a community's existing norms with cooperative governance — is a key enabler.
Journal: Regional Studies

Legitimation, institutions and regional path creation: a cross-national study of offshore wind
Authors: Danny MacKinnon, Asbjørn Karlsen, Stuart Dawley, Markus Steen, Samson Afewerki, Assiya Kenzhegaliyeva
Description: Building a new industry requires more than technology and capital — it also requires legitimacy. This cross-national study of offshore wind traces how legitimation narratives evolve over time and vary across different regional and institutional contexts.
Journal: Regional Studies

Mobilizing innovation for the global green shift: The case for demand-oriented innovation policy
Authors: Jan Fagerberg
Description: What role do demand-side policies play in driving the global green transition? Drawing on wind energy in Denmark, the German Energiewende, and Norway's electric vehicle uptake, this working paper makes the case for placing demand-oriented innovation policy at the centre of the green shift.
Journal: Cross-Border Innovation in a Changing World

On digitalization and sustainability transitions
Authors: Allan Dahl Andersen, Koen Frenken, Victor Galaz, Florian Kern, Laurens Klerkx, Matthijs Mouthaan, Laura Piscicelli, Juliet B. Schor, Taneli Vaskelainen
Description: Sustainability transitions research has largely overlooked the role of digitalization — and the digitalization literature has paid little attention to sustainability. This paper calls for greater dialogue between the two fields and maps out a research agenda for studying how digital technologies shape, and are shaped by, transitions.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

Regional innovation systems and global production networks: contrasting policy implications?
Authors: Jiří Blažek, Markus Steen
Description: Regional innovation systems and global production networks offer complementary but sometimes conflicting lenses on economic development and industrial policy. This paper explores the tensions between the two frameworks and their implications for how regions can foster innovation in a globalized economy.
Journal: European Planning Studies

The promises and premises of mission-oriented innovation policy: A reflection and ways forward
Authors: Matthijs J Janssen, Jonas Torrens, Joeri H Wesseling, Iris Wanzenböck
Description: Mission-oriented innovation policy has attracted growing enthusiasm as a response to grand societal challenges — but how well-founded are its promises? This paper critically reflects on the governance challenges and open questions that surround mission-oriented approaches.
Journal: Science and Public Policy

The role of regional innovation systems in mission-oriented innovation policy: exploring the problem-solution space in electrification of maritime transport
Authors: Markus M. Bugge, Allan Dahl Andersen, Markus Steen
Description: Can existing regional innovation systems provide the foundation for ambitious mission-oriented policies? This paper investigates how regional actors, resources, and institutions can be mobilized — using the electrification of Norwegian maritime transport as an illustrative case.
Journal: European Planning Studies

Unleashing the industrial transformative capacity of innovations
Authors: Margarida Fontes, Nuno Bento, Allan Dahl Andersen
Description: Some innovations do more than improve a product — they reshape entire industrial sectors. This paper explores the conditions under which innovations can unlock broader industrial transformative capacity, with implications for how we understand sustainability transitions.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

A framework for mission-oriented innovation policy: Alternative pathways through the problem–solution space
Authors: Iris Wanzenböck, Joeri Wesseling, Koen Frenken, Marko Hekkert, Matthias Weber
Description: Mission-oriented innovation policies aim to channel research and investment toward solving grand societal challenges — but how should the mission be designed? This paper offers a framework mapping the space between problems and solutions to help policymakers choose the right approach for different types of challenge.
Journal: Science and Public Policy

Coping with societal challenges: Lessons for innovation policy governance
Authors: Jan Fagerberg, Gernot Hutschenreiter
Description: Grand societal challenges like climate change demand fundamental changes in technology, production, and ways of life — changes that only innovation can deliver. This paper examines what governance lessons innovation policy can draw from how societies have tackled large-scale challenges in the past.
Journal: Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade

Greener and smarter? Transformations in five Norwegian industrial sectors
Authors: Mäkitie, Tuukka Rainer Reinhold; Steen, Markus; Thune, Taran Mari; Lund, Henrik Brynthe; Kenzhegaliyeva, Assiya; Ullern, Eli Fyhn; Kamsvåg, Pål Furu; Andersen, Allan Dahl; Hydle, Katja Maria
Description: How are Norwegian industries responding to the twin pressures of digitalization and the green transition? This INTRANSIT report analyses transformations across five sectors — oil and gas, maritime, aquaculture, manufacturing, and process industries — to identify common patterns and diverging pathways.
Report

Implementing maritime battery-electric and hydrogen solutions: A technological innovation systems analysis
Authors: Hanna Bach, Anna Bergek, Øyvind Bjørgum, Teis Hansen, Assiya Kenzhegaliyeva, Markus Steen
Description: How can shipping decarbonize — and what does the transition to battery-electric and hydrogen propulsion actually look like in practice? This paper applies a technological innovation systems framework to analyse the development and diffusion of low- and zero-carbon energy solutions in Norwegian coastal shipping.
Journal: Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment

Innovation–diffusion, the economy and contemporary challenges: a comment
Authors: Jan Fagerberg, Bart Verspagen
Description: Do the ideas of technological revolutions and long waves still hold in today's economy? This comment revisits Christopher Freeman's perspective on capitalist development in light of two contemporary challenges: climate change and the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Journal: Industrial and Corporate Change

Make at home or abroad? Manufacturing reshoring through a GPN lens: A Norwegian case study
Authors: Henrik Brynthe Lund, Markus Steen
Description: After decades of offshoring, some manufacturers are bringing production back home — but what is driving this reversal? Drawing on a Norwegian case study, this paper introduces reshoring as a topic for regional and global production network research.
Journal: Geoforum

Making sense of how the natural environment shapes innovation, industry dynamics, and sustainability challenges
Authors: Allan Dahl Andersen, Olav Wicken
Description: As human activity reshapes the natural world, the natural world is reshaping the conditions for innovation in return. This paper argues that natural resource-based industries offer a crucial but underexplored window into how the environment drives industry dynamics and sustainability challenges.
Journal: Innovation and Development

The innovation and industry dynamics of technology phase-out in sustainability transitions: Insights from diversifying petroleum technology suppliers in Norway
Authors: Allan Dahl Andersen, Magnus Gulbrandsen
Description: Transitioning to clean energy requires not only building new technologies, but also phasing out established ones — and that process is far more nuanced than it might appear. This paper examines how Norwegian petroleum technology suppliers respond to phase-out pressures by diversifying into adjacent markets.
Journal: Energy Research & Social Science

The role of data analytics in developing sustainable digital business ecosystems
Authors: Raissa Pershina
Description: Can data analytics help build more sustainable digital business ecosystems? This qualitative study explores the synergies between digital technologies and sustainability imperatives, drawing on empirical cases of ecosystem formation.
Book: Handbook on Digital Business Ecosystems

The role of inter-sectoral dynamics in sustainability transitions: A comment on the transitions research agenda
Authors: Allan Dahl Andersen, Markus Steen, Tuukka Mäkitie, Jens Hanson, Taran M. Thune, Birthe Soppe
Description: Sustainability transitions are rarely confined to a single sector — yet most research treats them as if they are. This comment on the transitions research agenda calls for greater attention to the dynamics between sectors as a driver of transformative change.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

The study of institutional entrepreneurship and its implications for transition studies
Authors: Marjolein J. Hoogstraaten, Koen Frenken, Wouter P.C. Boon
Description: Sustainability transitions do not happen in a vacuum — they require changing the rules of the game. This paper systematically reviews the institutional entrepreneurship literature to examine how actors deliberately reshape institutions to enable transformative innovation.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions

The subsidiarity principle in innovation policy for societal challenges
Authors: Iris Wanzenböck, Koen Frenken
Description: While national governments are the main actors in innovation policy, we witness a proliferation of challenge-oriented innovation policies both at the subnational and the supranational level, Iris Wanzenböck and Koen Frenken argue. Their paper asks where policies targeting societal challenges — such as climate change or ageing — should be organized to be most effective.
Journal: Global Transitions

Bridging analog and digital expertise: Cross-domain collaboration and boundary-spanning tools in the creation of digital innovation
Authors: Raissa Pershina, Birthe Soppe, Taran Mari Thune
Description: Digital expertise alone is rarely enough to create breakthrough innovations — the hard part is bridging it with deep domain knowledge. This paper explores how specialists from digital and analog fields collaborate across boundaries, and what tools help them do it effectively.
Journal: Research Policy

Collaborating with larger partners: Benefits and risks for entrepreneurial firms
Authors: Christian Lechner, Birthe Soppe, Karolina Heggli
Description: Partnering with a large established company can open doors for a startup — but it also carries real risks. This chapter examines the benefits and hazards of 'asymmetric' collaborations between entrepreneurial firms and larger industry partners.
Book: The Oxford Handbook of Entrepreneurship and Collaboration

Converging Logics. Coopetitive ties and innovation in the early clean transportation industry
Authors: Claudia Doblinger, Birthe Soppe, Stephan Huber
Description: Can competing firms also cooperate — and when they do, does it spur innovation? This study examines coopetition among entrepreneurial firms in the early clean transportation industry and unpacks the productive and unproductive tensions that arise when the logics of competition and collaboration converge.
Journal: Academy of Management Proceedings

Corporate entrepreneurship and sustainability transitions: resource redeployment of oil and gas industry firms in floating wind power
Authors: Tuukka Mäkitie
Description: Why would oil and gas companies invest in floating wind power? This paper investigates how three Norwegian firms redeployed their existing resources and competences into emerging clean energy ventures — and what this tells us about the role of incumbents in sustainability transitions.
Journal: Technology Analysis & Strategic Management

Cross-specialisation policy: rationales and options for linking unrelated industries
Authors: Matthijs J Janssen, Koen Frenken
Description: How can policymakers help economies build new industries by bridging their existing strengths? This article makes the case for 'cross-specialisation' policies that deliberately link seemingly unrelated industries to keep regional knowledge bases adaptive and competitive.
Journal: Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society

Do digital skills foster green diversification? A study of European regions
Authors: Fulvio Castellacci, Davide Consoli, Artur Santoalha
Description: Do regions with stronger digital capabilities also diversify more successfully into green technologies? This working paper examines whether digital skills provide an additional advantage for sustainable regional diversification across Europe.
Journal: Regional Studies

Mission (im)possible? Mobilizing innovation – and policies supporting it – in the transition to sustainability
Authors: Friedemann Polzin, Mark Sanders, Ulrika Stavlöt
Description: Sustainability transitions typically unfold over decades — but can the right policies make them happen faster? This working paper explores the conditions under which demand-side advantages and proactive policy can accelerate the shift to sustainability.
Book: Palgrave Studies in Sustainable Business In Association with Future Earth

Multidimensional relatedness between innovation systems in sustainability transitions
Authors: Rumy Narayan, Annika Tidström
Description: When do established industries provide fertile ground for low-carbon innovation — and why does it happen? This working paper develops a multidimensional concept of 'relatedness' to explain how and when resources flow across innovation systems during sustainability transitions.
Journal: Between Science and Economics

The role of inter-sectoral dynamics in sustainability transitions: A comment on the transitions research agenda
Authors: Allan Dahl Andersen, Markus Steen, Tuukka Mäkitie, Jens Hanson, Taran M. Thune, Birthe Soppe
Description: Sustainability transitions are rarely confined to a single sector — yet most research treats them as if they are. This comment on the transitions research agenda argues that inter-sectoral dynamics are a crucial but underexplored driver of transformative change.
Journal: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions