Sustainable Innovation Policy Research Articles

Message from the editor in Chief

The year 2024 promises many exciting developments for the Global Journal of Computer Sciences: Theory and Research (GJCS). In addition, every year, the number of citations continues to rise strongly in proportion to the increase in the number of articles published. In this respect, first of all, we would like to thank all our authors who have contributed to the success of our journal. While reviewing our new issue, we saw articles from different authors from different countries: Turkey, India The multiculturalism policy followed in our globally-focused journal makes us happy with every new issue. We examine the following research areas in the current issue; “Determination of reinforcement diameters of reinforced concrete deep beams with genetic algorithms”, “Single server queueing model with Poisson arrival and gamma service time distribution”, “Sustainable innovation policy in non-walled technoparks” . We will continue to contribute to literature within the scope of Computer Science with our strong team. Thanks to all our authors the contributors to this issue. Hope to see you in our new issue. Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ezgi Pelin YILDIZ Global Journal of Computer Sciences: Theory and Research (GJCS) CHEF EDITOR

Sustainable innovation policy in non-walled technoparks

Meanwhile, the government in different countries encourages these sustainable activities to make their domestic brands open worldwide Because sustainability and learning growth have comparable meanings, all paths leading in this direction cross with a single phenomenon known as innovation. The more investment in innovation, the more value the company can gain. In Turkey, the government has increased the financial support of sustainable innovation management for more than 20 years. Especially, in the last five years the budget of the ministry has widened to keep growing in growth. The grant incentives given for Research &Development (R&D) centers and Design centers, also called non-walled technoparks, are two main examples of this encouragement. This study is framed on a big-scale company’s growth with the help of the R&D or Design Center. The financial and performance-based milestones in the R&D center road map lead the company to follow and invest in technology. This also means taking advantage of the international competition in 360 degrees. Not only is financial performance increased by gaining incentives, but also the qualification of human resources is going up and up. The results show how sustainable innovation policy influences business activities. Keywords: Brand; Design center; R&D center; sustainable ınnovation.

Sustainable innovation policy: Examining the discourse of UK innovation policy

Innovation can be a key mechanism to address some of society's greatest challenges, or it can contribute to them. There is extensive conceptual academic literature focused on how policy can be used to create more positive societal and environmental impacts through innovation, however, little empirical evidence exists to understand to what extent innovation policy in particular embeds the principles of social and environmental sustainability into its discourse. We begin to address this lack of evidence by using a critical discourse analysis and corpus linguistics approach to explore how UK Innovation Policy embeds the concepts of societal and environmental impact, and how it balances these at times conflicting paradigms into policy documents. We find that although there is some inclusion of key environmental and societal words these are predominately secondary to economic themes, signalling a ‘business as usual’ approach to innovation policy.

The Governance of Low-Carbon Transitions in a Multilevel Perspective Framework: How Does the Concept of ‘System Transformation’ Work?

The energy studies on low carbon transition provide valuable insights into the characteristics of socio-technological transitions and the driving factors of appropriate policy intervention. Transition studies have adopted the multilevel perspective framework to inform policymaking and to assess policies for sustainable transitions. Policymakers face challenges in trying to reconcile innovation and sustainability policy objectives. How can the concept of “system transformation” assist policymakers in combining innovation and sustainability goals and building a sustainable innovation policy regime? We reviewed various system transition publications and examined the role that policymakers can play in solving issues arising in the process of shaping system transition to sustainability with the system transformation concept. This paper will provide some determinants of success for niche innovations, regime setting and legitimacy making in a multilevel perspective framework to support policymakers.

Social Topography for Sustainable Innovation Policy: Putting Institutions, Social Networks and Cognitive Frames in Their Place

AbstractBuilding upon social fields theory, the authors analyze the impact of the three social forces – institutions, social networks and cognitive frames – on the social topography of regional innovation systems. Unlike previous studies, which focused on individual social force, the authors’ fuzzy-set comparative analysis of fifteen diverse regions from four continents reveals nuanced impact of individual forces and shows that a well-functioning regional innovation system is the outcome of their combined influence. This implies a need for a coherent, reflexive, context-specific and multi-level innovation policy that supports the balanced development of an institutional framework, encourages the formation of social networks and enables supportive cognitive frames.

Social enterprises in regional innovation systems: a review of Finnish regional strategies

ABSTRACTThe aim of modern innovation policies is to enhance the innovation capability of regions, their organizations and people. Regional innovation system (RIS) theory has been one of the most popular frameworks for realizing innovation policies. Yet, adopting the perspective of sustainable innovation policy where innovation is also seen as a solution to various societal and environmental problems has been slow. Social enterprises (SEs) are discussed here as a means to address those problems, particularly through collaboration between sectors and focusing on social sustainability. The aim of this paper is to identify whether and in what way SEs are communicated as an innovative solution and as a source of innovations for economic and development activities through regional strategies. The data consist of regional innovation and business strategies from all Finnish regions, analysed using qualitative content analysis. We argue that there is a need to go deeper and include effective support mechanisms for SEs in these documents. Better inclusion of SEs as part of innovation systems and communicating this through regional strategies would help to develop SEs and to have them perceived as potential innovators and active entrepreneurial actors in innovation systems contributing to economically, environmentally and socially sustainable development.

Creating cultures of sustainable innovation

Sustainability has become one the main drivers of innovation and many regions in the world aim to transform into a ‘sustainable innovation region’. Culture is an essential element of the innovation environment in a sustainable innovation policy. This article discusses recent insights in the theoretical and empirical foundation of innovation policies aimed at developing ‘cultures of sustainable innovation’. A multidisciplinary approach based on the dilemma paradigm of enquiry is used to develop a dynamic framework on how to foster sustainable innovation. The approach is applied in an assessment of the sustainable innovation culture in two regions: Silicon Valley and Southeast Netherlands. It is concluded that Regional Innovation Systems can be assessed by evaluating to what extent a dynamic balance is established on each of the innovation culture dilemmas. However, copying ‘success formulas’ for sustainable innovation from other regions is impossible. The dynamic balance depends on history and culture of the region and the continuous interaction with the external environment.

Towards an integrated framework for analysing sustainable innovation policy

An integrated framework for the analysis of sustainable innovation policy was developed, based on a combination of the transition management (TM) framework, the strategic niche management approach, and policy recommendations, resulting from technological innovation system (TIS) studies. In the framework, the multi-level view from TM has been integrated with the functions approach from the TIS literature. The integrated policy framework shows that specific policy goals and measures can be found at the specific points of intervention related to (the interfaces between) landscape, regime, TIS and niches. The integrated framework suggests that stimulation of a TIS only makes sense when this action is well aligned with landscape and regime developments. The framework should be used in empirical studies for further testing and refinement.

The role of climate finance in innovation systems

This paper addresses questions over the function and institutional arrangements of climate finance from an innovation systems perspective. It examines the barriers that prevent developing countries from transitioning to low-carbon and climate-resilient economies, and the interventions necessary to overcome those barriers. It finds that the barriers to innovation and economic change are much more pervasive than a lack of incentives. They include issues like insufficient knowledge flows and technical capacity in research and development and business; inadequate network formation around value chains; capital constraints due to undeveloped capital markets; and unstable and inappropriate policy regimes. To overcome these barriers, climate finance will need to be deployed through technology-push policies, strategic niche management and demand-pull policies. It will also need to incentivise and enable developing country governments to implement the ‘sustainable innovation policy regimes’ necessary to guide transitions to low-carbon and climate-resilient economies. Concerning the institutional arrangements of climate finance, this paper argues that climate finance should flow through national funding entities, and that the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change should adopt crediting mechanisms for Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions or Sectoral No-Lose Targets.

Evolutionary approaches for sustainable innovation policies: From niche to paradigm?

Fostering technological innovation is considered as an important element of policies towards sustainable development. In the past 10 years, evolutionary policy approaches have been increasingly advocated. For several reasons, they seem well equipped to underpin sustainable innovation policies. They focus on dynamics of change and their drivers, they allow for a substantive perspective on technologies beyond mere input–output relations, taking into account trajectories and different characteristics of innovation, and they are able to describe circumstances under which established technologies might persist even when they are to some extent inferior to their new competitors (lock-in). However, the policy effectiveness of evolutionary approaches in cases in which radical or systemic changes are involved is not yet proven. In this paper we assess the theoretical rationale, instrumental aspects and the coping with policy constraints of three evolutionary policy approaches which have also been used in empirical studies: strategic niche management, transition management and time strategies. Each approach has its strengths and specific problems and all three have to be further developed and tested out but they hold promise for contributing to non-incremental change with economic and environmental benefits, by shaping processes of variation, selection and retention, with the outcomes feeding back into policy. They may also be used in other areas in which innovation direction is important, for instance health care or food.

Overcoming barriers to innovation and diffusion of cleaner technologies: some features of a sustainable innovation policy regime

Despite a deepening understanding of systems and processes by which the innovation and diffusion of cleaner technologies occurs, relatively little attention has been given to the development of policy processes that reflect this deeper understanding. A set of guiding principles for improving sustainable innovation policy processes has been formulated and disseminated by the authors and colleagues in research drawing on theoretical and empirical analysis, including a case study of low carbon energy innovation in the UK, and interactions with policy-makers and other stakeholders through a series of workshops. This paper elaborates on two of the guiding principles: (1) stimulating the development of a sustainable innovation policy regime, bringing together innovation and environmental policy regimes; (2) applying systems thinking, engaging with the complexity and systemic interactions of innovation systems and policy-making processes, to promote a transition to sustainability.

Towards improved policy processes for promoting innovation in renewable electricity technologies in the UK

This paper analyses recent, current and potential future relations between policy processes and substantive outcomes in UK low carbon innovation policy, focussing on policies relating to renewable electricity generation technologies. It examines the development of policy processes relating to the adoption and implementation of the Renewables Obligation and how these may affect the current and likely future success of the Obligation in promoting low carbon innovation. It examines the new policy and institutional processes put in place in the 2003 Energy White Paper and argues that these are unlikely to provide the strategic long-term framework needed to realise the ambitious goals for UK energy policy set out in the White Paper. Finally, it outlines some suggestions for further development of policy processes to facilitate improved delivery of these goals, based on guiding principles for sustainable innovation policy processes, developed by the authors and their colleagues.