Pathways and harbours for the translocal diffusion of sustainability innovations in Europe

Harm A.R.M. van den Heiligenberg; Gaston J. Heimeriks; Marko P. Hekkert; Rob P.J.M. Raven

doi:10.1016/j.eist.2022.01.011

Pathways and harbours for the translocal diffusion of sustainability innovations in Europe

Harm A.R.M. van den Heiligenberg^*, Gaston J. Heimeriks, Marko P. Hekkert, Rob P.J.M. Raven

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

Sustainability challenges require experimenting with various types of sustainability innovations. Local and regional context conditions influence their diffusion. Our research question is: what are pathways for the transfer of sustainability innovations to other locations, and how do local and regional conditions enable this transfer? We use the notion of ‘harbours’ to conceptualise the combination of these conditions. In a comparative case study in four city-regions, analysing 48 experiments, we find that technological innovations travel easier around the globe compared to social innovations. For social innovations, the transferred knowledge has a more tacit character and the innovations are strongly embedded in the local cultural and institutional context. Signifiers may enable their translocal diffusion. Moreover, the results suggest that innovations are ‘translated’ rather than replicated. We find some important local and regional context conditions enabling transfer: cultural conditions, vibrant environments (such as festivals), networks and the presence of enabling regional actors.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	374-394
Number of pages	21
Journal	Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions
Volume	42
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eist.2022.01.011
Publication status	Published - Mar 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
We would like to express our gratitude to the Provinces of Utrecht and Gelderland in The Netherlands, for their financial support for this research. We are grateful to Jonas Torrens and Frans Sengers from Utrecht university in The Netherlands for the valuable discussions in developing the harbour concept. In addition, we would like to thank a student from Utrecht University for his help with the data collection. Finally, we would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Author(s)

Funding

We would like to express our gratitude to the Provinces of Utrecht and Gelderland in The Netherlands, for their financial support for this research. We are grateful to Jonas Torrens and Frans Sengers from Utrecht university in The Netherlands for the valuable discussions in developing the harbour concept. In addition, we would like to thank a student from Utrecht University for his help with the data collection. Finally, we would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper.

Keywords

Diffusion
Experimentation
Geography
Sustainability
Transitions

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

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10.1016/j.eist.2022.01.011Licence: CC BY

1-s2.0-S2210422422000119-mainFinal published version, 2.51 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = "Sustainability challenges require experimenting with various types of sustainability innovations. Local and regional context conditions influence their diffusion. Our research question is: what are pathways for the transfer of sustainability innovations to other locations, and how do local and regional conditions enable this transfer? We use the notion of {\textquoteleft}harbours{\textquoteright} to conceptualise the combination of these conditions. In a comparative case study in four city-regions, analysing 48 experiments, we find that technological innovations travel easier around the globe compared to social innovations. For social innovations, the transferred knowledge has a more tacit character and the innovations are strongly embedded in the local cultural and institutional context. Signifiers may enable their translocal diffusion. Moreover, the results suggest that innovations are {\textquoteleft}translated{\textquoteright} rather than replicated. We find some important local and regional context conditions enabling transfer: cultural conditions, vibrant environments (such as festivals), networks and the presence of enabling regional actors.",

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Pathways and harbours for the translocal diffusion of sustainability innovations in Europe

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

UN SDGs

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