In order to address global environmental challenges many currently dominant societal ideas, institutions and practices related to the natural environment, science, technology and innovation need to be fundamentally rethought. Drawing on the recent Deep Transitions framework, this paper focuses on whether such shifts in the fabric of industrial societies can be detected during the past 120 years. Combining the text mining of newspapers with data from existing databases, we present empirical evidence on nine pervasive and durable traits of industrial societies from five G20 countries. We detect a sea-change in environmental discourse from the 1960s and an institutional rupture from the 1980s, but only a minor shift in practices. In contrast, technoscientific institutions have changed far less, whereas techno-optimist discourse has resurged in recent decades. In addition to alleviating environmental problems, we suggest that more attention should be turned to rethinking many societally dominant assumptions about science and technology.@en

Closing the financial gap for promoting systemic socio-economic transformations to achieve sustainability requires both a substantial increase in investment levels and a qualitative change in investment strategies. In this Perspective, we elaborate on this claim and discuss why existing investment approaches that aim to make positive contributions to sustainability are unlikely to foster the systemic transformations needed for sustainability. Qualitative change means changing the current rules that guide investment practices and we outline a new set of rules that should guide transformative investment. These rules are based on the well-established socio-technical sustainability transition theory and the recent development of a theory of deep transitions. We explain why these transformative investment rules offer a promising alternative base for assessing investment opportunities and monitoring progress toward the multi-system changes required to achieve a socially just deep transition to sustainability.@en

This article aims to analyze whether federal Science, Technology and Innovation initiatives to tackle the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil have the potential to be structured as a Mission-Oriented Policies (MOP). A qualitative research was carried out divided into five stages. Despite having valuable assets, the weakening and lack of mobilization of different capacities has severely restricted the possibilities of building a POM anchored in the mapped C, T & I initiatives.@en

In this paper, we propose a method for tracking the evolution of sociotechnical niches supported by sustainability-focused project portfolios. Based on social network analysis (SNA), this method can be used to evaluate and monitor funding initiatives that seek to advance sociotechnical transitions. It is an important area of study because there is currently a lack of tools for measuring the success of efforts to promote transformative innovation. Conceptually, our approach is based on existing sociotechnical transition research and offers insights into how project networks evolve. We applied this method to a specific portfolio of food system projects that the European Institute for Innovation and Technology Climate-KIC supported. Our results show that SNA can provide a proper visual representation of the infrastructure that supports programme-based investment and can help us understand how specific network structures can support niche development and protect it from external pressures.@en

Transformative Innovation Policy (TIP) contributes to the new challenge-led frame for science, technology and innovation policy, by emphasizing both the technological and the social aspect of transformative change. TIP presents five key features: (1) challenge-oriented, with explicit consideration for the direction of change embedded in innovations; (2) understanding of systemic innovation as a multi-level process; (3) participatory coordination and governance processes; (4) second-order learning (reflexivity) and experimentation; and (5) continuous monitoring and formative evaluation. An actionable framework has been developed to support and seize the transformative potential of projects, programs and organisations addressing societal challenges, which uses a set of twelve ‘transformative outcomes' (TOs) to implement and evaluate transformative change. One avenue for future development is the elaboration of the concept of transformative mission-oriented innovation policies, which would merge transformative innovation policy with the notion of innovation missions.@en

Recent times have seen the rediscovery and adaptation of mission-oriented innovation policies (MIPs) for driving transformative change. While such policies seek to mobilise and align stakeholders, little is known about how missions feature in policy coordination processes. We argue that to facilitate the still troublesome operationalisation of MIPs, it is essential to understand missions as ‘boundary objects’ that have some shared meanings among the participants they convene, yet are open enough to be interpreted differently by distinct actors gathering in four interconnected policy arenas—i.e. a strategic, programmatic, implementation, and performance arena. By studying the European Commission’s Horizon Europe missions, we unravel how missions as boundary objects enable and disable the coordination of heterogeneous communities. The resulting analytical perspective highlights three key mechanisms for coordinating mission meanings across communities and arenas: convergence–divergence, passage, and reflexive learning. We conclude with research avenues for studying missions as boundary objects for facilitating concerted action.@en

The view that the role of the state in the economy is constant over time clashes with reality. Usually, those who perceive the state’s economic role as static espouse a theoretical view that states should intervene as little as possible in markets, except to correct occasional “market failures” in order to allocate resources efficiently. From a historical perspective, this constant, hands-off governmental1 approach is apocryphal. What can be observed is a changing role of the state, which varies with the cyclical surges of technological change as well as of geopolitical (and ideological) inclinations. This essay discusses the former: how the role of the state changes along the life cycle of a technological revolution while also taking into account the latter.@en

This is the third of four policy papers of the project “Global Political and Economic Realignments: Implications for Brazil” by CEBRI, in partnership with KAS. Based on the reflections made in his previous Policy Paper “Geopolitics and Economics of Innovation”, Caetano Penna analyses the “new” political economy of innovation strategies in the post-pandemic world. The author argues, based on Polanyi's notion of “double movement”, that contradictory forces govern capitalist development in a constant dialectical process. The text presents examples of recent developments that highlight the four geopolitical and techno-economic trends identified in the previous policy paper, and explains the political economy of national technological strategies based on the works of Polanyi (1994), Fiori (2004; 2010) and Taylor (2016). Finally, reflections on the implications for Brazil and emerging economies are made.@en

This article aims to analyze the recent experience of the Technology Directorate (DT) of the Carlos Chagas Foundation for Research Support of the State of Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ) and discuss the opportunities and challenges for the institution with regard to the development of aninnovation policy based on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).The article contributes to the Brazilian literature on innovation policies, by mobilizing the conceptual framework on innovation promotion agencies and on mission-oriented policies to discuss the role of the FAPERJ Technology Directorate in the context ofthe Rio de Janeiro regional innovation system (SRI). Empirically, the article points, based on data from PINTEC and secondary documents, to the main systemic failures of this SRI, which contributed to the failure of the sectorial innovation policy. This analysis serves as a basis for examining the limits ofDT-FAPERJ's performance until 2018, as well as the prospects for a mission-oriented role as proposed in its Strategic Planning for the 2019-2021 triennium. The main conclusions point out that: the State of Rio de Janeiro has possible socioeconomic challenges to support a FAPERJ innovation strategy aimed at solving socio-environmental problems; the fragmentation of the State's institutional scenario presents itself not only as a challenge for the elaboration of mission-oriented innovation policies, but also as an opportunity, which DT-FAPERJ seems well positioned to take advantage of; the complexity of these problems, however, makes it difficult to formulate and implement these policies, as the results ofthe Board's recent performance indicate; and the construction of indicators and metrics to measure the impact of such policies is necessary to enable institutional learning and the implementation of these policies.@en

This paper analyses recent industrial policy plans made by five leading countries: China, Germany, Japan, United Kingdom and United States. This is done through the analysis of policy documents, using an original framework. Our analysis reveals that these policies have two main motivations. First, the acknowledgement of new technological opportunities and challenges, that allow not only for higher growth rates and competitiveness, but also for addressing ‘societal challenges’ (persistent socio-environmental problems). Second, the growing understanding that, because of the increasing complexity of innovation, private sector efforts alone are not enough, and a higher level of convergence between actors and institutions is needed. We also identify that the policy structures and proposed instruments of these strategies are quite conventional, which contrasts with the rhetoric of these policies. This reveals that the ‘resurgence’ of industrial policies is yet not a return to the ‘old’ policies of the twentieth century, but a new breed, which is much more cautious of interfering with market mechanisms.@en

The techno-economic revolution brought about by the emergence and widespread diffusion of information and communication technologies is a reality at all levels of society: from individuals, through firms, to nation-states. Thus, the importance of technologies for the development of national economies is a fact that even neoclassical economists have come to accept, after an initial period in which technical change was left outside their models, in which only labor and (generic) "capital" were seen as sources of economic growth. Today we know that technological progress is the key to economic growth and development and, as such, more and more countries are investing in R&D (research and development). Competition among states and power issues are the root of such actions (R&D investment) - not purely economic motivations, such as pursuit of economic rents or market shares. This policy paper seeks to highlight the importance of geopolitical motivations as underlying causes of technological development by analyzing the combination of classical geopolitics and international economics. In addition, the paper analyzes the increasingly open competition between the U.S. and China in these areas, how the Covid-19 pandemic has amplified current trends, the implication for Brazil and other emerging economies, as well as the geopolitical consequences of disruptive innovations.@en

Countries in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) face the challenge of finding new growth engines that allow them to achieve and sustain high levels of economic and social development in the long term. Social development implies that the objective is not to grow for growths sake, but to achieve a certain type of growth that goes in a certain direction, that ensures improvements in the standard and quality of life of people. In this context, mission-oriented policies can be key to directing investment in innovation toward solving the main challenges that countries face. Mission-oriented policies have been implemented in some LAC countries, obtaining different results and lessons learned. This document conceptualizes and characterizes mission-oriented innovation policies and offers criteria to select missions and challenges. It presents the key results and lessons from six case studies, highlighting their dynamics of implementation and outcomes. Finally, it provides conclusions and recommendations for policymakers.@en

The study “The Brazilian Innovation System: a proposal oriented by missions” (The Brazilian Innovation System: A Mission-Oriented Policy Proposal) offers subsidies to develop and monitor a strategic innovation policy, based on the strengths of the National Innovation System for overcome the weaknesses of the country. The study presents the evaluation of several initiatives of the Brazilian government to support innovation in recent years and suggests policy initiatives that allow the National Innovation System (SNI) to become more mission-oriented, through intentional policies promoted by the State, in direct partnership with the private sector. The report proposes a process by which Brazil can identify its challenges from its grassroots. And, as a result, it presents recommendations for an alternative agenda to current policies in force in Brazil. The study was carried out based on the analysis of international innovation policy experiences, focused on the evaluation of policy documents and on the review of specialized academic literature, complemented by interviews carried out with 35 representatives of the public sector, private institutions and quasi-governmental institutions of the Brazil.@en

The paper develops a typological framework of the roles of state investment banks (SIBs) in the economy. The typology identifies four different roles: countercyclical; developmental; venture capitalist; and challenge-led. The paper conceptually elaborates the typology by first providing a historical overview of SIBs, and then discussing how the mainstream “market failure theory” justifies them. It then advances a different conceptualization based on insights from heterodox economics, showing that all roles of SIBs are more about market creating/shaping rather than market-failure fixing. The paper concludes with a proposal of a new agenda for research on SIBs based on our typological framework.@en

This paper uses the Dialectic Issue LifeCycle-model (DILC-model) to analyze the co-evolution of the climate change problem and strategic responses from the American car industry. The longitudinal and multi-dimensional analysis investigates the dynamics of the climate change problem in terms of socio-political mobilization by social movements, scientists, wider publics and policymakers. It also analyses how U.S. automakers responded to mounting pressures with socio-political, economic and innovation strategies oriented towards low-carbon propulsion technologies. We use a mixed methodology with a quantitative analysis of various time-series and an in-depth qualitative case study, which traces interactions between problem-related pressures and industry responses. We conclude that U.S. automakers are slowly reorienting towards low-carbon technologies, but due to weakening pressures have not yet fully committed to comprehensive development and marketing. The paper not only applies the DILC-model, but also proposes three elaborations: (a) the continued diversity of technical solutions, and 'ups and downs' in future expectations, creates uncertainty which delays strategic reorientation; (b) firms may develop radical innovations for political and social purposes in early phases of the model; (c) issue lifecycles are also shaped by external influences from other problems and contexts.@en

Addressing societal problems requires the reorientation of firms-in-industries, including changes in technology, belief systems, and mission. The paper aims to make two contributions to the Dialectic Issue LifeCycle (DILC) model, which captures the dynamics of socio-political mobilization around societal problems and industry responses. First, the five phases in the DILC-model are elaborated with insights from social movement theory, political science, public attention, issue management, corporate political strategy, and innovation management. Second, a 'cyclical' lifecycle pattern is explored, in which a social problem does not linearly progress through successive phases, but can also move 'backwards' if public attention or political will decrease. We explore these contributions with a longitudinal study of the car-safety problem and responses from American automakers (1900-1995). We use a combined quantitative-qualitative method that employs coupled time-series analyses as support for an in-depth case study. The case study showed that the industry long denied the influence of car design on fatalities, and reluctantly changed its position in the mid-1960s (under pressure from public opinion and policymakers). In the late-1980s, when markets emerged because safety became part of consumer preferences, the industry implemented comprehensive changes in technology, beliefs and mission.@en

This paper aims to make two conceptual contributions to the greening of industry literature. Firstly, we propose that the greening process can be conceptualized as an issue lifecycle dynamics with multi-dimensional struggles between 'greening' pressures and industry response strategies. To capture the endogenous dynamics, we develop a Dialectic Issue LifeCycle model with five phases, which conceptualize how these struggles play out over time. Secondly, we propose that issue lifecycle dynamics are also influenced by (external) alignments with contextual field-level developments. This proposition accommodates the notion that industries not only face 'green' issues but also other relevant pressures. We apply the model to a historical case study: air pollution problems and responses from American automakers (1943-1985). The case study presents a good match with the first three phases of the model, but shows deviations in the fourth and fifth phase, which are due to: a) decreasing pressure from public opinion; b) limited spillovers from air pollution to consumer demand; c) rise of competing issues; and d) strong resistance from the car industry. The findings underline that the greening of industry cannot be fully understood by looking only at the focal issue (e.g. air pollution). Broader developments in industry and external contexts also need to be taken into account.@en