Transformative innovation policy: A systematic review

Abstract

This paper reviews the emerging literature on “transformative” innovation policy (TIP) in order to (1) identify unique TIP characteristics and the challenges they imply for policymakers throughout the policy cycle and (2) examine the literature's contribution to practical policymaking. We identify five main distinguishing TIP characteristics and analyse the literature's understanding of how they influence the policymaking process. The analysis shows that the literature discusses TIP-related challenges in all stages of the policy cycle but does not provide much guidance on how to address key cross-cutting policymaking challenges such as how to achieve broad stakeholder involvement, evaluate transformative outcomes, and build up dynamic policymaker capabilities. In order for TIP ideas to be implemented in real-life policymaking, TIP scholars, therefore, need to more explicitly consider the practitioners’ perspective and develop concrete models, tools and guidelines that help policymakers address the identified challenges.