The co-evolution of innovation systems and context: offshore wind in Norway and the Netherlands

This paper investigates the co-evolution of new industry formation, innovation systems and context over time through an analysis of offshore wind in the Netherlands and Norway. Focusing on the evolution of context conditions and the emergence of innovation systems provides an in-depth look into the systemic and structural issues that create challenges or opportunities for sustainability transitions. We compare these two countries because of their historically weak domestic offshore wind markets, long histories in oil and gas and maritime industries and active participation in the growing offshore wind market. Our analysis is informed by the technological innovation systems framework and four context conditions: political, sectoral, geographic and technological. We derive our results from nearly 60 interviews with key stakeholders in both countries. Our results point to three main findings: 1) the Netherlands focused much more on explicit innovation system strategies than Norway, such as setting high market expectations and establishing networking organizations; 2) Oil and gas is a critical sectoral and political context condition that had a profound impact on offshore wind in both countries: in Norway, oil and gas price shocks were singular events with the industry ultimately rebounding, leading to fragmented offshore wind participation; in the Netherlands, offshore oil and gas has been on a steady decline since the early 2000s, leading to a constant pressure to diversify. 3) The Netherlands had closer industrial proximity alignment than in Norway, leading to the emergence of a stronger innovation system and industry participation.
We are submitting an abstract to the track Understanding Transitions – Theoretical contributions to transition frameworks. We are fundamentally digging into the divergent sustainability transitions pathways of two countries with similar starting points to better grasp how they got to where there are and where they will go in the future. Further, this research delves into the underlying systemic and structural issues that help or hinder transitions. We can highlight three major theoretical contributions derived from our findings: first, certain context conditions play a stronger role in certain circumstances than other context conditions. In our case, the political and sectoral context conditions had a greater effect than geographic or technological context considerations. Second, context conditions strongly overlap. We see the political and sectoral oil and gas context as being intimately linked, which has hindered the innovation system in Norway while supporting it in the Netherlands. Third, these context conditions should not be seen as static. Rather, understanding how changes in context co-evolve with TIS dynamics is of critical importance to innovation system formation processes. As the context conditions change overtime, so does its effect on the innovation system in question. Innovation systems do not emerge in isolation, but rather are dependent on critical context conditions that are embedded in a country’s histories, capabilities, institutional conditions and cultural background. Therefore, facilitating transitions also implies understanding, working within and influencing these contexts.