Sally Gee

Eco-innovation systems and problem sequences: the contrasting cases of US and Brazilian biofuels

This paper discusses the re-emergence of biofuel innovation systems in the USA and Brazil. We develop a view of eco-innovation systems as emerging and evolving to solve ecological problems. We then consider the role of the State as a core actor in the mobilization of innovation systems and discuss how specific institutional arrangements, political contexts and technological competencies influence how problems are framed. We argue that the way ecological problems are framed and articulated has a significant impact on the direction and momentum of system evolution. Finally, we draw attention to the dynamic and evolving characteristics of eco-innovation systems that result from recurrent re-specifications of the problem in focus, as partial solutions emerge and as the political and economic dimensions are reframed.

A role for public procurement in system innovation: The transformation of the Greater Manchester (UK) waste system

The transformation of socio-technical systems to more sustainable states is more policy induced than market driven. Reflecting this, the potential for governments to direct system transformation has been widely debated. However, this debate concentrates on supply side policies and under analyses the potential for public buyers to steer system innovation. This paper draws from ideas on system innovation, transition management and public procurement to explore how a major public buyer was able to do just this. The paper describes the transformation of the Greater Manchester (UK) waste system from a relatively simple landfill model to a highly complex, multi-technology solution of intensive recycling, composting and energy production. The paper draws three main conclusions: (1) it is possible to orchestrate system innovation through public procurement in certain circumstances; (2) this involves developing the required interdependencies between technologies, institutions and practices; (3) system transformation can be orchestrated from within the incumbent regime.

Limits to the Implementation of Benchmarking Through KPIs in UK Construction Policy: Insights from game theory

Abstract Benchmarking through the use of key performance indicators (KPIs) has been an important part of the UK governments market-oriented reforms to improve efficiency across the public sector and in other areas such as construction where government is a major client. However, government attempts to implement construction KPIs have not followed the expected course. We argue that insights from game theory show that the initial plan for construction benchmarking failed to take account of the strategic value of the information collected and was not implementable because the sharing of information by construction suppliers with their clients was a dominated strategy.

Emergent Bioinformatics and Newly Distributed Innovation Processes

This book offers a novel insight into the economic dynamics of modern biotechnology, using examples from Europe to reflect global trends. The authors apply theoretical insight to a fundamental enigma of the modern learning society, namely, how and why the development of knowledge and ideas interact with market processes and the formation of industries and firms.

Closing the loop: examining the case of the procurement of a sustainable innovation

This book focuses on Public Procurement for Innovation. Public Procurement for Innovation is a specific demand-side innovation policy instrument. It occurs when a public organization places an order for a new or improved product to fulfill certain needs that cannot be met at the moment of the order. The book provides evidence of the potential benefits to public and private actors from the selective use of this policy instrument and illustrates the requirements and constraints for its operationalization. The book intends to significantly improve the understanding of key determinants of effective public procurement aiming to promote innovative capabilities in the supplying sectors and beyond. It provides both case studies and conceptual contributions that help extend the frontier of our understanding in areas where there are still significant gaps.

Biobank Finances: A Socio-Economic Analysis and Review

This socio-economic study is based on the widely held view that there is an inadequate supply of human biological samples that is hampering biomedical research development and innovation (RDI). The potential value of samples and the associated data are thus not being realized. We aimed to examine whether the financing of biobanks contributes to this problem and then to propose a national solution. We combined three methods: a qualitative case study; literature analysis; and informal consultations with experts. The case study enabled an examination of the complex institutional arrangements for biobanks, with a particular focus on cost models. For the purposes of comparison, a typology for biobanks was developed using the three methods. We found that it is not possible to apply a standard cost model across the diversity of biobanks, and there is a deficit in coordination and sustainability and an excess of complexity. We propose that coordination across this diversity requires dedicated resources for a national biobanking distributed research infrastructure. A coordination center would establish and improve standards and support a national portal for access. This should be financed centrally by public funds, possibly supplemented by industrial funding. We propose that: a) sample acquisition continues to be costed into projects and project proposals to ensure biobanking is driven by research needs; b) core biobanking activities and facilities be supported by central public funds distributed directly to host public institutions; and c) marginal costs for access be paid for by the user.

The Limits of Information? A Game Theoretic Contribution to Understanding the Development of an Indicators Policy for the UK Construction Industry

In the UK over the last decade, benchmarking has been consistently promoted as a solution to the problems of industry and the construction industry in particular. Government support of benchmarking in construction through the development of a key performance indicators programme found justification in the public goods aspects of the innovation process and because of the presence of market failures of information facing construction clients. However, attempts to merge benchmarking approaches into a single framework did not lead to a combined programme as intended. A game theoretic analysis of the implementation of government policy is presented to account for difficulties encountered by policy actors and to explain why a suitable mechanism to facilitate mutual benchmarking could not be devised. A key performance indicator (KPI) system that supports clients and suppliers in any sector – here we consider construction - is highly problematic, not only because the types of information and types of processes that generate the information used by clients and suppliers are generally different, but because the exchange of information between suppliers and clients and vice versa potentially leads to loss of commercially valuable information.

Distributed Innovation Processes (DIPs) and the Dynamics of Knowledge Tradability

This paper draws on two extensive case studies to explore how the co-production and exchange of knowledge is organised during innovative activity. In the empirical cases multiple, transient innovation systems emerge, and self organise, around a particular problem. The emergence and evolution of these innovation systems involves the mutual intrapenetration of market and non-market forms of exchange. The cases suggest that economic markets and knowledge acquisition networks are not alternative forms of economic organisation but are co-dependent and mutually embedded