Department Environmental Social Sciences

Users are increasingly acknowledged as important actors fostering those fundamental socio-technical innovations needed to achieve a sustainable society. In the literature, users have so far been portrayed mostly to play a role in early phases of technology formation. However, more recently users have become important players in the upscaling of various innovations. With the advent of new social media, users may interact effortlessly across large distances, exchange knowledge and so increase their contribution to upscaling. We investigate the new potential of virtual user communities. Conceptually, we build on recent insights from socio-technical transition studies to identify different upscaling dimensions. We conduct an internet ethnography of a large virtual community that formed around the Electric Vehicle (EV). Based on these data, we present virtual community characteristics and core mechanisms of participation in upscaling. We find that the community plays an important and distinctive role in fostering electric vehicle use.

Transitioning economic sectors towards more sustainable futures is a major global challenge, in particular for non-OECD countries. Policymakers in these countries are confronted with a double challenge: how to implement cleaner technologies and infrastructures while at the same time promoting rapid industrial development. In catch-up studies, this trade-off has been increasingly interpreted as providing windows of opportunity for gaining strong leadership in new generations of cleantech industries. In this paper, we maintain that in order to specify how these windows of opportunity can be endogenized, a deeper understanding is needed about whether, how and by whom the directionality of innovation systems can be influenced. For this purpose, we propose an analytical approach that draws on the technological innovation system framework extending the current understanding of directionality in two ways: first, we complement the prevalent top-down perspective with a bottom-up view exemplified by the institutional entrepreneurship literature. Second, we posit that the focus has to be shifted from the manufacturing of single technologies to the transformation of entire socio-technical systems. The presented framework is validated by a case study on recent shifts in the dominant technology in China's urban water management sector. Major changes in the country's sectoral selection environment led membrane bioreactor technology to become the dominant design in urban water management - a development that is unmatched in any other country in the world. Owing to these transformations, China's technology firms outcompete multinational players and therefore they show strong potentials for industrial leapfrogging. However, although the promise to solve environmental problems played a decisive role in the shaping of the selection environment, it remains unclear whether the observed transformation leads the way to a more sustainable sector structure in the longer run. The case, however, still enables us to specify how windows of opportunity can be endogenized through the interplay of different actors trying to shape different layers of the selection environment in a specific sector.

The provision of basic services is falling short in informal settlements of cities in the Global South. In particular, public utilities have had difficulties expanding their services to the urban poor. Why is this the case despite utilities having improved their capabilities substantially over the last years? This paper investigates how innovation strategies of utilities are aligned or misaligned with the broader contexts in informal settlements, which are populated by different socio-technical regimes. We propose a framework to identify new capabilities needed by utilities to deal with these different regimes. The paper reconstructs pro-poor initiatives of a water and sewerage utility in a large East-African city and explains why they tended to fail in terms of livelihood improvement. We show how the alignment between capability portfolios and specific regime structures have set limits to the success of pro-poor innovation strategies in informal settlement contexts.

The provision of basic services suffers from a multitude of sustainability challenges in many cities of low-income countries. Sanitation provision faces particular challenges in the form of environmental contamination, high costs, and large inequalities among urban residents. In recent years an increasing number of innovations in on-site systems have been developed, which have not yet evolved into fully functional alternatives to the existing regimes. We study three prominent recent on-site sanitation initiatives in informal settlements in Nairobi, Kenya that aimed at developing entire "sanitation value chains", which we conceptualize as an emerging Technological Innovation System (TIS). The analysis leads us to propose alternative governance modes for the TIS to overcome system failures such as capability, coordination and institutional barriers. Conceptually, the paper extends conventional TIS analyses towards entire value chains, enabling a wide range of transition processes to be addressed beyond informal settlements and low-income countries.

Governments in countries across the world increasingly adopt the “green growth” discourse to underline their ambition for the greening of their economies. The central tenet of this narrative is the economic opportunities rather than challenges arising from the pursuit of environmental sustainability. Our paper synthesises insights from 113 recent scientific articles, dealing with both environmental issues and economic growth, as well as innovation. Our ambition is exploratory in attempting to take stock of heterogeneous contributions across the spectrum of social science. The articles have been reviewed with a focus on six themes, derived from current discussions in economic geography and transition studies: skills, technology, physical resources, markets, institutions and policies. Four major implications emerge from the review. First, green growth requires competences that allow for handling complex, non-routine situations – in both the private and the public sector. Second, technological progress should be directed towards greener technologies, to avoid investments funds being channelled to brown technologies for short-term returns. Third, our knowledge of the opportunities for achieving green growth must base upon a joint assessment of market failures, structural system failures and transformational system failures. Finally, greater attention should be devoted to the geography of green growth processes at different scales.

By studying servitization processes and service competencies in the wind-to-energy industry in European regions, this paper provides a framework for territorial servitization. The framework resonates with the concepts of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) and industry life cycles, and its elements can be embedded into concepts of regional development (e.g., lead-market models, sustainability transitions, territorial innovation models). The framework suggests that regions benefit from servitization processes via the interplay of generating employment opportunities, enabling an efficient allocation of technology resources, opening up new markets, strengthening territorial competitiveness, raising the odds of securing employment in the consolidation period and enabling technological leaps.

Research and policy processes in many fields, such as sustainability and health, are increasingly relying on transdisciplinary cooperation among a multitude of governmental, nongovernmental, and private actors from local to global levels. In the absence of hierarchical chains of command, multistakeholder governance may accommodate conflicting or diverse interests and facilitate collective action, but its effectiveness depends on its capacity to integrate systems, transformation, and target knowledge. Approaches to foster such governance are nascent and quickly evolving, and methodological standards to facilitate comparison and learning from best practice are needed. However, there is currently no evaluation approach that (i) comprehensively assesses the capacity for knowledge integration in multistakeholder governance, (ii) draws on the best available knowledge that is being developed in various fields, and (iii) combines a systematic and transferable methodological design with pragmatic feasibility.

We brought together 20 experts from institutions in nine countries, all working on evaluation approaches for collaborative science–policy initiatives. In a synthesis process that included a 2-day workshop and follow-up work among a core group of participants, we developed a tool for evaluating knowledge integration capacity in multistakeholder governance (EVOLvINC). Its 23 indicators incorporate previously defined criteria and components of transdisciplinary evaluations into a single, comprehensive framework that operationalizes the capacity for integrating systems, target, and transformation knowledge during an initiative’s (a) design and planning processes at the policy formulation stage, (b) organization and working processes at the implementation stage, and (c) sharing and learning processes at the evaluation stage of the policy cycle. EVOLvINC is (i) implemented through a questionnaire, (ii) builds on established indicators where possible, (iii) offers a consistent and transparent semiquantitative scoring and aggregation algorithm, and (iv) uses spider diagrams for visualizing results. The tool builds on experience and expertise from both the northern and southern hemispheres and was empirically validated with seven science–policy initiatives in six African and Asian countries.

As a generalized framework, EVOLvINC thus enables a structured reflection on the capacity of multistakeholder governance processes to foster knowledge integration. Its emphasis on dialog and exploration allows adaptation to contextual specificities, highlights relative strengths and weaknesses, and suggests avenues for shaping multistakeholder governance toward mutual learning, capacity building, and strengthened networks. The validation suggests that the adaptive capacity of multistakeholder governance could be best enhanced by considering systems characteristics at the policy formulation stage and fostering adaptive and generic learning at the evaluation stage of the policy cycle.

Recent empirical studies show a persistent gap between 'socially robust' knowledge produced by transdisciplinary research projects and its ability to promote change on a large scale. Current discourses about the 'project-to-science-and-practice-at-large gap' have focused mainly on exploring various conditions that need to be fulfilled to produce 'socially robust' knowledge. Yet, those discourses have rarely built on the broader literature of knowledge utilization, which Greenhalgh and Wieringa (2011) emphasize acknowledges 'the fundamentally social ways in which knowledge emerges, circulates, and gets applied in practice.' Their insights are helpful in advancing our understanding of why transdisciplinary research projects do or do not contribute to sustainability on a large scale. Expanding Jahn et al. (2012)'s model of transdisciplinary research, we present a revised conceptual model of an ideal-typical, interactive and iterative transdisciplinary research process that adds two new phases from the field of knowledge utilization to their original three-phase model and accounts for the social and relational nature of knowledge utilization. The revised model includes five phases through which transdisciplinary projects operate in different order: (i) defining sustainability problems, (ii) producing new knowledge, (iii) assessing new knowledge, (iv) disseminating new knowledge in realms of both science and practice and (v) using new knowledge in both realms.

Mit einem Wiederbeschaffungswert von 230 Milliarden Franken zählt die Wasserversorgung und Abwasserentsorgung in der Schweiz zu den wertvollsten Infrastrukturbauten. Alternde Leitungen, steigende Bevölkerungszahlen und zunehmende Urbanisierung verlangen in den nächsten 30 Jahren Investitionen von insgesamt 130 Milliarden Franken. Auf globaler Ebene schätzt die OECD die Investitionen in die Siedlungswasserwirtschaft auf jährlich 900 Milliarden Franken. Dieser hohe Investitionsbedarf und der global steigende Druck, neue Ansätze zu finden, bieten einen Spielraum für innovative Lösungen. Die Schweiz hat mit ihrer Spitzenforschung in diesem Bereich und dem aktuellen Bedarf an Infrastrukturerneuerung ein ungenutztes «Lead-Market»-Potenzial. Dazu braucht es aber ein gesamtschweizerisches Impulsprogram, das die fragmentierten Infrastrukturentscheide der Gemeinden koordiniert.

Metabolomics aims to measure and characterise the complex composition of metabolites in a biological system. Metabolomics studies involve sophisticated analytical techniques such as mass spectrometry and nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy, and generate large amounts of high-dimensional and complex experimental data. Open source processing and analysis tools are of major interest in light of innovative, open and reproducible science. The scientific community has developed a wide range of open source software, providing freely available advanced processing and analysis approaches. The programming and statistics environment R has emerged as one of the most popular environments to process and analyse Metabolomics datasets. A major benefit of such an environment is the possibility of connecting different tools into more complex workflows. Combining reusable data processing R scripts with the experimental data thus allows for open, reproducible research. This review provides an extensive overview of existing packages in R for different steps in a typical computational metabolomics workflow, including data processing, biostatistics, metabolite annotation and identification, and biochemical network and pathway analysis. Multifunctional workflows, possible user interfaces and integration into workflow management systems are also reviewed. In total, this review summarises more than two hundred metabolomics specific packages primarily available on CRAN, Bioconductor and GitHub.

Direct potable water reuse (DPR), the injection of highly purified wastewater into drinking water systems, is among the newest, and most controversial, methods for augmenting water supplies. DPR is garnering increasing interest, but does not come without risks. This paper examines the notion that emerging regulation of DPR may lack sufficient attention to a particular class of risks: catastrophic risks with low probabilities of occurrence, but high consequences. It may be instructive for proponents of DPR that such consequences have materialized in other industries, with damage to human welfare and to the industries themselves. We develop brief histories of risk regulation from the aviation, offshore oil, and nuclear industries, drawing out relevant lessons for the emerging DPR field.We argue that proponents of DPR could benefit from proactively developing a safety culture in DPR utilities and establishing an effective industry-wide auditing organization that investigates unanticipated system failures. Developing independent oversight for DPR operation could ensure that stringent quality and management requirements are set and enforced, and that any system failures or "near misses" are investigated and adequately responded to.

New industries emerge in increasingly complex spatial patterns that challenge existing explanations of industrial path creation. In particular, the case of latecomer regions building up industries in fields that are unrelated to their previous industrial capabilities is not well understood in the literature. This paper aims to address this gap by expanding on an analytical framework that draws on innovation studies and catching-up literature to characterize unrelated diversification processes in latecomer contexts. A case study in the Chinese solar photovoltaics (PV) sector reveals an industry formation process that differs from traditional models of industry formation. The PV industry emerged from a highly internationalized entrepreneurial project in which Chinese latecomer firms directly mobilized knowledge, markets, investment and technology legitimacy developing outside China and combined them with the country’s generic capabilities in mass-manufacturing. In some industries, globalization thus enables a new model of industry formation that heavily draws on extra-regional system resources.

Due to shortcomings in sewage treatment systems and the availability of a large number of cement pit latrines without good maintenance and service planning, an informal sector of micro business ventures named "honey suckers" has emerged to fulfil the market need for on-site sanitation services. "Honey suckers" is the term given to the businesses that pump the waste out of pit-latrines, septic tanks and other types of on-site wastewater treatment plants. These businesses have been successful in exploiting this opportunity for the past few years and Bangalore now has an estimated 300 of such businesses. The primary market is where honey suckers collect fecal sludge from pit latrines for a fee. The sludge is then disposed of either at an approved site (rarely) or more typically it is dumped illegally on open lands or into drains. A secondary market has emerged in which the honey suckers deposit the sludge on farmlands at the farmer's demand, either in pits or directly on designated sites. There is usually no fee but the farmer may tip the driver. The sludge is used as a fertilizer and in some cases for the water content. The value for household is the clean removal of fecal sludge to ensure a working water closet and a clean property and environment. The value for farmers resides in obtaining nutrient-rich manure for free or for a very low fee. This model works well, because no other fast, reliable, high-quality pit cleaning service is available. The model works best when the cleaning service is easily combined with the dumping service, for which a smart network with farmers is required. The socioeconomic and environmental benefits can be significant, with the creation of jobs, reduction of wild sludge dumping and associated health and environmental problems, improved sanitation and living comfort. However, risks have to be controlled and the informal nature of honey suckers and 'illegal' aspect of the business (i.e. the supply of collected fecal sludge to the farmers) prevents monitoring of the practice.

Urban water management represents a core economic sector exposed to global water-related challenges. Recently, small modular system configurations have been identified to enable a potential sustainability transition in this lasting and rather conservative sector. The identification of current market potentials of decentralised wastewater treatment is a first step to assess whether decentralised treatment technologies could potentially be deployed on a larger scale in Europe, which would allow current decentralised wastewater treatment technologies to develop and mature. The paper elaborates a method to assess the market potential for decentralised wastewater treatment systems by starting from a raster-based geospatial modelling framework, to determine the optimal degrees of centralisation for the case of Switzerland. The resulting market potential is shown to be twenty times higher than the current market share of decentralised systems. In order to extrapolate these findings to other countries, the calculated optimal degrees of centralisation were correlated with different spatial density measures to determine a reliable and widely available proxy: population density. Based on this indicator, the European market potentials for decentralised treatment systems are estimated to be about 100,000 units per annum serving around 35 million population equivalents. The paper concludes by discussing implications for future sustainability transitions in urban water management by large-scale installation of small modular wastewater treatment systems.

This paper addresses the question why socio-technical transitions follow similar trajectories in various parts of the world, even though the relevant material preconditions and institutional contexts vary greatly between different regions and countries. It takes a critical stance on the implicit methodological nationalism in transition studies' socio-technical regime concept and proposes an alternative 'global' regime perspective that embraces the increasingly multi-scalar actor networks and institutional rationalities, which influence transition dynamics beyond national or regional borders. By drawing on globalization theories from sociology and human geography, we show that socio-technical systems often develop institutional rationalities that are diffused via international networks and thus become influential in various places around the world. In so doing, we shed light on the multi-scalar interrelatedness of institutional structures and actors in socio-technical systems and elaborate on the implications for the conceptualization of transition dynamics. The paper illustrates this with the case study of an unsuccessful transition in the Chinese wastewater sector. Recent studies indicate that key decisions on wastewater infrastructure expansion were not only influenced by path-dependencies stemming from China's national context, but equally (or even more critically) by the dominant rationality of the water sector's global socio-technical regime. We conclude by discussing the contours of a new research agenda around the notion of global socio-technical regimes.

Providing socially beneficial services to people living close to the poverty line is an exceptionally complex task, due to limited disposable income for such services and little knowledge to understand the actual service benefits. In addition, service providers face capability constraints to provide these types of services. This article examines capabilities for providing services to consumers in low-income markets. Based on a multiple case study on providing drinking water as a service, we show that service providers require three capabilities: (a) adapting the service operation model, (b) converting latent customer needs into value-added services, and (c) extending the customer portfolio. These capability descriptions advance previous capability descriptions about services for low-income consumers.

Sadia is one of the world’s leading producers of chilled and frozen foods with approximately 10,000 integrated poultry and pork farms, which supply raw material to its industrial plants. In order to abate the environmental impacts associated with its swine production farms and to institute sustainability into the pork meat supply chain, Sadia designed and implemented the Program for Sustainable Swine Production (3S Program) in 2003. The 3S Program provides swine producers with bio-digesters and is designed to reduce GHG emissions from the more than 3,500 swine producers in Sadia’s supply chain and to qualify the emission reductions as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project. Sadia installs the bio-digesters on its swine producers on a B&T (Build and Transfer) basis. The program seeks to bring sustainability to the company’s supply chain by providing additional revenue from carbon credits and better working conditions for swine producers, while reducing the environmental impact associated with swine production. The biogas generated at the swine farms is used on-site and thus significantly saving operational costs for the swine farms. The program contributes to improving the local environmental condition by improving quality of water and reducing soil pollution and foul odors. Moreover, the 3S Program is expected to help disseminate environmental education among swine producers and the surrounding community. Through the design and implementation of the 3S Program, Sadia has incorporated environmental sustainability into its revenue design.

By studying servitization processes and service competencies in the wind-to-energy industry in European regions, this paper provides a framework for territorial servitization. The framework resonates with the concepts of knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) and industry life cycles, and its elements can be embedded into concepts of regional development (e.g., lead-market models, sustainability transitions, territorial innovation models). The framework suggests that regions benefit from servitization processes via the interplay of generating employment opportunities, enabling an efficient allocation of technology resources, opening up new markets, strengthening territorial competitiveness, raising the odds of securing employment in the consolidation period and enabling technological leaps.

An increasing number of knowledge brokers work at the interface between research, policy and practice. Their function is to facilitate processes to foster mutual learning among research, policy and practice. For some knowledge brokers, practical methodologies to assess the quality of their work is an important concern. While frameworks exist for assessing research impact at the level of a project or program, few are available for assessing contributions of individual knowledge brokers. In response to this, we have compiled a set of indicators to measure the quantity and quality of the contributions of individual knowledge brokers to projects, programs or platforms at the interface between research, policy and practice. The set is based on a review of the literature and the experience of a group of knowledge brokers active in water research and management in Switzerland, including the co-authors of this article. The set can be used by knowledge brokers to identify ways to improve the effectiveness of their practices and to demonstrate the benefit of their work to their employers and other stakeholders. Our approach is flexible enough that it can be applied where there are limited resources available for assessment.

Purpose - Open service innovation is an emergent new service development practice, where knowledge on how to organize development work is scarce. The purpose of the present research is to identify and describe relevant archetypes of open service innovation. The study views an archetype as an organizing template that includes the competence of participants, organizing co-creation among participants and ties between participants. In particular, the study’s interest lies in how open service innovation archetypes are used for incremental and radical service innovation.
Design/methodology/approach - For the research, a nested case study was performed, in which an industrial firm with nine open service innovation groups was identified. Forty-five interviews were conducted with participants. For each case, first a within-case analysis was performed, and how to perform open service innovation in practice was described. Then, a cross-case analysis identifying similarities and differences between the open service innovation groups was performed. On the basis of the cross-case analysis, three archetypes for open service innovation were identified.
Findings - The nested case study identified three archetypes for open service innovation: internal group development, satellite team development and rocket team development. This study shows that different archetypes are used for incremental and radical service innovation and that a firm can have multiple open service innovation groups using different archetypes.
Practical implications - This study provides suggestions on how firms can organize for open service innovation. The identified archetypes can guide managers to set up, develop or be part of open service innovation groups.
Originality/value - This paper uses open service innovation as a mid-range theory to extend existing research on new service development in networks or service ecosystems. In particular, it shows how open service innovation can be organized to develop both incremental and radical service innovations.

Our investigation draws on a qualitative study, which explores the anomaly of Born Solution Providers. Compared to the traditional assumption that product companies shift toward solutions during the maturity phase, companies can already offer solutions in the market development phase. We investigate the dynamic capabilities for providing solutions in the market development phase. Our findings reveal a microfoundation of dynamic capabilities. This microfoundation is structured into 10 dimensions along sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring activities. Within these 10 dimensions, we disaggregate the dynamic capabilities into individual skills and organizational routines. Interestingly, organizations utilize routines underlying the options for each dimension (e.g., routines for sensing internal and external opportunities, seizing standardization, and customization), but they tend to stick to routines for one of these options. Individual skills enable organizations to balance the options. Our results suggest that these individual skills evolve through higher-order processes, namely, single- and double-loop learning activities.

People in Base of the Pyramid markets still face difficulties when it comes to sanitation. Container-based Sanitation (CBS) services represent a promising advanced sanitation service. Despite the observed outcomes of CBS services, organizations face obstacles when providing these services. To overcome these obstacles, digital transformations of these services are being carried out. We rely on multiple case studies to understand these digital transformations. Our findings highlight (1) the challenges these case organizations faced before engaging in the digital transformation, (2) their individual digital transformation pathways, and (3) a general framework for digital transformations in BoP markets.

Today's rapid global urbanization highlights the need for long-term transformations of basic service sectors in developing cities in order to improve the livelihoods of the urban poor. Sustainability transitions frameworks have proven fruitful for addressing these sort of challenges. However, they have been at pains so far in accounting for the heterogeneity and complexities that typically characterize informal settlements in the Global South. We therefore propose a conceptual framework that extends the conventional analysis of socio-technical regimes by distinguishing the two levels of sectoral regime and service regime. Challenges for sustainability transitions may then be identified by missing alignments within and among the two regime levels. The framework is applied to the sanitation sector of Nairobi, Kenya, a city experiencing rapid population growth and a highly uneven provision of basic services. Drawing on a set of 152 in-depth interviews, observations, and five focus group discussions, the paper reconstructs the prevailing service regimes and shows how they suffer from misalignments and dysfunctionalities creating all sorts of problems at a sectoral level. We conclude that Nairobi's sanitation sector can best be characterized as representing a splintered regime. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the new conceptualization of socio-technical regimes suggests some new sustainable transition pathways and how this framework might also be instructive for transition challenges in cities of the Global North.

What methods and procedures support transdisciplinary knowledge integration? We address this question by exploring knowledge integration within four thematic synthesis processes of the Swiss National Research Programme 61 Sustainable Water Management (NRP 61). Drawing on literature from inter- and transdisciplinary research, we developed an analytical framework to map different methods and procedures of knowledge integration. We use this framework to characterize the variety of methods and procedures that were combined in the four processes to produce thematic synthesis reports. We suggest that the variety of combinations observed reflects the different objectives and questions that guided the processes of knowledge integration as well as the different roles that leaders assumed in these processes. Although the framework was developed in the course of NRP 61, we consider it as a basis for designing ex ante new synthesis processes by defining and sequencing different synthesis stages and by identifying, for each stage, the contributions of specific scientific and societal actors, the purpose of their contributions, and the methods and procedures supporting their contributions. Used in a formative evaluation process, the framework supports reflection on and adaptation of synthesis processes and also facilitates the generation of new knowledge for designing future processes.

This paper proposes a framework for the analysis of technological innovation processes in transnational contexts. By drawing on existing innovation system concepts and recent elaborations on the globalization of innovation, we develop a multi-scalar conceptualization of innovation systems. Two key mechanisms are introduced and elaborated: the generation of resources in multi-locational subsystems and the establishment of structural couplings among them in a global innovation system (GIS). Based on this conceptualization, we introduce a typology of four generic GIS configurations, building on the innovation mode and valuation system in different industry types. The analytical framework is illustrated with insights from four emerging clean-tech industries. We state that a comprehensive GIS perspective is instrumental for developing a more explanatory stance in the innovation system literature and developing policy interventions that reflect the increasing spatial complexity in the innovation process.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to develop a typology of management innovations.
Design/methodology/approach - The authors apply a multiple-case (embedded) design, with each organization representing a case, which entails a few embedded units of analysis. Case studies are about the base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) initiatives, during which all organizations are interested in management innovations which support them in coming up with and implementing between two and four new management practices.
Findings - The findings suggest four types of management innovations: efficiency-driven, externally recommended, problem-oriented, and opportunity-oriented management innovation.
Research limitations/implications - This paper explores and analyses management innovations, rather than testing them. As with most qualitative research, the transferability of the findings is limited.
Practical implications - Managers should vigorously pursue management innovations, not only in BoP markets, but also in all markets. Practitioners must, however, ensure that they are not fully absorbed by a single type of management innovation, and recognize the importance of pursing multiple ones.
Social implications - For academics, the authors revitalize the concept of engaged scholarship.
Originality/value - Surprisingly, previous research looks either into generic or specific management innovations. The typology is original, since the typology offers a more fine-grained view on management innovations.

Many barriers must be overcome when entering the base-of-the-pyramid (BoP) market. Firms facing these barriers need to innovate new business models and reinvent existing ones to suit the BoP context. While previous literature has focused on the innovations of particular components of business models in BoP markets, we investigate the reconfigurations in the business model components that underpin the successful business model innovations. This study is based on multiple case studies in the water sector that we carried out in several different countries. Our findings suggest five business model innovations: (a) design, (b) renewal, (c) expansion, (d) diversification and (e) replication. Each business model innovation is a specific response to the barriers met in the BoP market and requires consistent configuration between its various components (i.e. value proposition, value creation and profit equation). These findings add, in two important aspects, to the academic realm of the business model domain: by contributing to the debate of business models in BoP markets and by advancing the configurational view of business models.

What challenges do researchers face when leading transdisciplinary integration? We address this question by analyzing transdisciplinary integration within four thematic synthesis processes of the Swiss National Research Programme (NRP 61) on Sustainable Water Management. We adapt an existing analytical framework to compare transdisciplinary integration across the four synthesis processes regarding different types of generated knowledge (systems, target and transformation knowledge), different types of involved actors (core team, steering committee, advisory board, scientific experts and practice experts) and different levels of actor involvement (information, consultation and collaboration) at different stages of the processes. Based on a structured ex-post self-evaluation of the four synthesis processes, we present core challenges of transdisciplinary integration as perceived by core team members of the four synthesis processes and formulate empirically derived recommendations for designing and implementing future processes. We suggest that future synthesis processes should be conceptualized and initiated concurrently with all other individual research projects, involving a phasing-in stage where leaders conceptualize transdisciplinary integration, an intermediate stage of intense knowledge integration involving all relevant actor groups in a functional and dynamic way, and a final phasing out stage, where synthesis results are consolidated within the research program, validated by different actor groups and diffused to the target audiences. We argue that transdisciplinary integration requires professional competences, management skills and enough time. Finally, we suggest fostering communities of practice (CoP) to link committed leaders and enable mutual learning processes beyond the boundaries of individual synthesis projects or research programs.

Pay-per-use services are an interesting phenomenon, both empirically and theoretically. Despite the alleged benefits, companies still struggle to succeed with pay-per-use services. Theoretically, it is common sense that existing service capabilities cannot easily be converted into organizational capabilities for pay-per-use services. Based on multiple case studies, the present article narrows down the existing empirical and theoretical gaps through an inductive research approach. Our findings make the following contributions to the field of services in product-oriented companies and to the servitization literature. We describe the organizational capabilities necessary for pay-per-use services (e.g., financing such services, aligning costs with equipment usage, and collaborating with customers). We reveal that companies should convert these capabilities into three core competencies (strategizing pay-per-use services, utilizing technologies for pay-per-use services, and de-risking pay-per-use services), in order to achieve competitive advantages.

Service growth in product firms is one of the most active service research domains and is open to a variety of conceptualizations. This article provides a critical inquiry into the past, present, and future of the research domain. The evolution of the research on service growth is discussed in two phases: (1) setting the boundaries of the research domain, and (2) emergence of the conceptual foundation. We find that while research in this area has a well-established tradition in terms of output, theoretically it is still largely in a ‘nascent’ phase. Next, we highlight the contributions of the papers in this special section, emphasizing their challenges to prevailing assumptions in the research domain. We conclude by identifying, from the contributions to this special section, suggested themes for further research on service growth: the assessment of empirical evidence of the impact of service growth on firm performance, the role of merger & acquisitions in the service growth strategy, the exploration of single/multiple positions along the transition line, the process of adding or removing services, and expanding the context of service growth beyond product manufacturing firms.

The topic of servitization has generated a considerable body of research and many conferences, as well as industry engagement. Yet, despite the extensive literature associated with this now-mature discipline, there is no broad-based consensus on the core concepts and definitions deployed by servitization scholars, and both terminology and usage often seem ambiguous. This paper examines challenges related to service growth strategies, as well as strategies involving deservitization or a retreat from service offerings. Showing that these strategies have been pursued for more than fifty years, clarification is sought here by framing the corresponding processes and proposing definitions for four core terms: servitization, service infusion, deservitization and service dilution. It becomes clear that in focusing on the organizational change entailed by these processes, future research must elucidate “softer” issues such as leadership and business logic.

By representing the servitization of three leading corporations via a strategy map, this multiple-case study discusses how the strategic logic of servitization can be explained by linking the key practices adopted by manufacturers to support critical processes while shifting their focus to project-based customer solutions. The results draw on data collected from solution providers operating in the metal and machinery industries headquartered in Finland. By examining the strategic actions, tools, and processes behind the implementation of servitization, this study extends recent debates on the service-based business models of manufacturing companies. For servitization theory, this study develops a strategy map for a solution provider. For manufacturing firms, this study provides a framework and a tool for benchmarking, developing and implementing a strategy while mitigating the processes of long-term value creation and appropriation.

The toilets used most in informal urban settlements have detrimental consequences for the environment and human health due to the lack of proper collection and treatment of toilet waste. Concepts for safe, sustainable and affordable sanitation systems exist, but their feasibility and acceptance have to be investigated at an early stage of development, which is difficult due to the high costs of building working models. In this paper, we present an approach to estimate acceptance in a valid and representative form with only one working model, and apply it to test an innovative zero-emission toilet with recycling of wash water. Four basic principles were specified for investigation and nine hypotheses formulated to test the feasibility and acceptance of these principles: source separation of urine and feces with subsequent collection for resource recovery; provision of wash water in a separate cycle with on-site recovery through a membrane bioreactor; a convenient and attractive overall design; and a financially sustainable business plan. In Kampala (Uganda), in 2013, data was collected from 22 regular users, 308 one-time users and a representative sample of 1538 participants. Qualitative data was collected from the users, who evaluated their likes, perceived benefits, social norms and expected ease of use based on verbal and visual information. Most of the hypotheses were confirmed, indicating the feasibility and acceptance of the basic principles. Source separation and on-site water recovery were found to be feasible and accepted, provided users can be convinced that the emptying service and water recovery process work reliably. In the survey, the toilet was evaluated favorably and 51% of the participants agreed to be placed on a bogus waiting list. However, some design challenges were revealed, such as the size of the toilet, hiding feces from view and improving the separation of urine and water

Service innovation is often viewed as a process of accessing the necessary resources, (re)combining them, and converting them into new services. The current knowledge on success factors for service innovation, such as formalized new service development (NSD) processes, predominantly comes from studying large firms with a relatively stable resource base. However, this neglect situations in which organizations face severe resource constraints. This paper argues that under such constraints, a formalized new service development process could be counter-productive and a bricolage perspective might better explain service innovation in resource constrained environments. In this conceptual paper, we propose that four critical bricolage capabilities (addressing resource scarcity actively, making do with what is available, improvising when recombining resources, and networking with external partners) influence service innovation outcomes. Empirical illustrations from five organizations substantiate our conceptual development. Our discussion leads to a framework and four testable propositions that can guide further service research.

Towards a theory of regional diversification: combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies. Regional Studies. This paper develops a theoretical framework of regional diversification by combining insights from Evolutionary Economic Geography and Transition Studies. It argues that a theory of regional diversification should not only build on the current understanding of related diversification but also account for processes of unrelated diversification by looking at the role of agency in processes of institutional entrepreneurship, and at enabling and constraining factors at various spatial scales. This paper proposes a typology of four regional diversification trajectories by cross-tabulating related versus unrelated diversification with niche creation versus regime adoption, and it develops a number of propositions.

ADDRESSING real-world problems is one of the purposes of integrative and collaborative research. Transdisciplinary research (TR) is a family of concepts and approaches that aims at better fitting academic knowledge production to societal needs for solving, mitigating, or preventing problems such as violence, disease, and environmental pollution. Transdisciplinary research strives to grasp the relevant complexity of a problem, taking into account the diversity of both everyday and academic perceptions of problems, linking abstract and case-specific knowledge, and developing descriptive, normative, and transformative knowledge for the common interest. Integration is a core feature and major challenge of TR. Practitioners of TR also call for a recursive approach to addressing problems, focusing on problem identification and structuring, investigation, and bringing results to fruition as the three phases of the TR process.
In this chapter we first describe the context in which TR and kindred approaches emerged in the second half of the twentieth century and the steps in developing TR as a form of research (Section 23,1). We then present a definition of TR that focuses on its role in addressing wicked real-world problems (Section 23.2). Next we explain challenges that come along with research on real-world problems (Section 23.3) and with providing knowledge for addressing such problems (Section 23.4). Tools for tackling challenges of the TR process appear after that (Section 23.5), illustrated by the example of the Sustainability Foresight project. The conclusion highlights open questions and ongoing debates requiring clarification for the next steps forward in TR (Section 23.6).

Sustainability transitions of sectors like energy, transport or water have become explicit goals of national policy programs in several parts of the world. The governance of associated innovation and transformation processes requires an integrated assessment on how new and seemingly superior technologies will interact with manifold societal, economic, industrial and political contexts. Failing to do so is likely to quickly undermine political support for these ambitious and long term projects. Part of the program of technology assessment is to anticipate the impacts of new technologies on society and the environment. However, in order to address the challenge of sustainability transitions, institutional dynamics have not been considered explicitly enough in existing approaches. We elaborate a methodological proposal on how to analyze the interaction between technological and institutional developments in specific technology fields. We identify potential future variations of core institutional structures of a socio-technical regime, construct matching regime constellations, and elaborate on interactions with technological design alternatives. The framework will be applied to recent developments in the field of electric mobility in the context of the German Energiewende. The results provide some fresh perspectives for academics and policy makers on how to better consider interactive dynamics in socio-technical systems.

The concept of innovation systems has been a guiding paradigm of innovation research and strongly influenced research and innovation policy since the early 1990s. In spite of this success, criticisms have been raised in recent years about whether it is still a suitable framework for addressing the innovation-related challenges of the future. In the present paper we claim that systemic explanations of innovation success have still a very important role to play. In order to address the rising criticism, however, we have to reconsider the conceptual core of the family of innovation systems (IS) approaches and sketch out a path for renewal. The paper retraces the conceptual roots of IS approaches, assesses their uptake in different policy circles around the world, discusses the conceptual core and explanatory ambition, and finally formulates a future-oriented research agenda for a more integrative innovation systems framework.

Direct potable water reuse (DPR), the injection of highly purified wastewater into drinking water systems, is among the newest, and most controversial, methods for augmenting water supplies. DPR is garnering increasing interest, but does not come without risks. This paper examines the notion that emerging regulation of DPR may lack sufficient attention to a particular class of risks: catastrophic risks with low probabilities of occurrence, but high consequences. It may be instructive for proponents of DPR that such consequences have materialized in other industries, with damage to human welfare and to the industries themselves. We develop brief histories of risk regulation from the aviation, offshore oil, and nuclear industries, drawing out relevant lessons for the emerging DPR field.We argue that proponents of DPR could benefit from proactively developing a safety culture in DPR utilities and establishing an effective industry-wide auditing organization that investigates unanticipated system failures. Developing independent oversight for DPR operation could ensure that stringent quality and management requirements are set and enforced, and that any system failures or "near misses" are investigated and adequately responded to.

The voluminous literature on industrial catching-up in Southeast Asian countries has regularly argued that successful catching-up largely depended on a committed state, which orchestrated industry development with a relatively uniform set of policies, including R&D support, subsidies, trade restrictions, and local content requirements. In contrast, recent contributions from the technology lifecycle literature have argued that policies should be tailored to differing technological characteristics in industries for mass-produced standardized goods, complex engineered products, and—as we argue—complex product systems (CoPS). In this paper, we extend this argument by introducing a set of separate policy mixes for each industry type, which appears most capable of providing the key resources required for catching-up: knowledge, market access, financial investment and technology legitimacy. This framework is used to analyze catching-up patterns in China's wind, solar PV, and biomass power plant industries, drawing mainly on policy documents and 106 interviews with key industry actors
We find that traditional top-down catching-up policies played a decisive role in the development of China's wind industry, but were of limited importance in the early solar PV industry, and resulted only in a limited period of rapid growth in the biomass power plant industry. The relative progress achieved in these three industries is not related to top-down policy guidance alone, but also to private sector initiative, international interdependencies, and flexibility in adapting policy mixes to each industry's technological characteristics. These results suggest that policy makers in newly industrializing countries (NICs) should avoid drafting generic sector plans, but should tailor plans to individual industries, and respond to changing policy support needs as technological capacities and global competitiveness develop.

Where and how new industrial paths emerge are much debated questions in economic geography, especially in light of the recent evolutionary turn. This article contributes to the ongoing debate on path creation with a new analytical framework that specifies the formation of generic resources in embryonic industries. It suggests that path creation processes are not only conditioned by preexisting regional capabilities and technological relatedness but also by the way firm and nonfirm actors mobilize and anchor key resources for industry formation. Our framework elaborates on the early industry development phase, extending the focus on regional knowledge spillovers in evolutionary economic geography (EEG) literature with recent insights on industry formation dynamics from innovation studies. It understands early path creation as conditioned by four systemic resource formation processes—knowledge creation, investment mobilization, market formation, and technology legitimation—that can be mobilized both from inside or anchored from outside the region. The use and value of the analytical framework is illustrated by a case study on on-site water recycling technology (OST), based on interviews with 40 experts in three Chinese city regions. The findings suggest that, despite possessing the least favorable initial conditions, a sizable OST industry developed only in Beijing. This is explained based on the specific anchoring process of the four key resources in the early development stage of the industry. Our results imply that EEG would profit from incorporating a broader set of variables than knowledge-based relatedness in explanations of regional industrial path creation.

Technological innovation that is incongruous with established social rules and practices is often confronted with strong skepticism and a lack of societal legitimacy. Yet, how the early actors in a new technological field create legitimacy for new products is not well researched. This paper addresses this gap by proposing an analytical framework for the early technology legitimation phase that combines recent insights from innovation studies and institutional sociology. Both literatures agree that technology legitimation depends on a complex alignment process in which the technology and its institutional context mutually shape each other. Innovation system studies recently proposed to explore these processes in more detail. So far, this literature has mainly treated legitimacy as an outcome of overall system maturation and has not ventured into assessing legitimation as an active process. The framework we put forward in this paper conceptualizes technology legitimation as being enacted by different actors in a technological innovation system through specific forms of institutional work. This framework is illustrated with a case study on potable water reuse, in this case the injection of treated wastewater into drinking water reservoirs — a technology most consumers confront with revulsion. California is among very few regions worldwide where this technology is becoming common practice. Interviews with 20 key stakeholders and content analysis of 124 newspaper articles reveal how technology proponents worked on legitimizing this controversial technology by engaging in system building and institutional work at various levels. We outline how the legitimation process interrelates with other core development processes of a technological innovation system and discuss how our framework informs recent work in innovation and transition studies.

To determine the optimal connection rate (CR) for regional waste water treatment is a challenge that has recently gained the attention of academia and professional circles throughout the world. We contribute to this debate by proposing a framework for a total cost assessment of sanitation infrastructures in a given region for the whole range of possible CRs. The total costs comprise the treatment and transportation costs of centralised and on-site waste water management systems relative to specific CRs. We can then identify optimal CRs that either deliver waste water services at the lowest overall regional cost, or alternatively, CRs that result from households freely choosing whether they want to connect or not. We apply the framework to a Swiss region, derive a typology for regional cost curves and discuss whether and by how much the empirically observed CRs differ from the two optimal ones. Both optimal CRs may be reached by introducing specific regulatory incentive structures.

Literature on socio-technical transitions has primarily emphasized the co-determination of institutions and technologies. In this paper, we want to focus on how actors play a mediating role between these two pillars of a socio-technical system. By introducing the theoretical concept of institutional work, we contribute to the conceptualization and empirical assessment of agency processes in socio-technical systems. We illustrate this approach by analyzing recent developments in the Australian urban water sector, where seawater desalination technology has experienced an unexpected, but rapid diffusion to all major cities, often interpreted as a reaction to a major multi-year drought. However, the drought broke and left all but one plant unused. This has led many commentators wonder how such a massive investment – which is likely to limit alternative development trajectories in the sector for the coming decades – could have happened so quickly and why other, potentially more sustainable technologies, have not been able to use the momentum of the crisis to break through. A comparative analysis between seawater desalination and its main rival wastewater recycling in regard to processes of institutional work provides valuable insight into how technology, actors and institutions mutually shaped each other.

In den afrikanischen Megastädten wächst eine kaufkräftige Mittelscicht mit eigenen Bedürfnissen heran. Das macht traditionelle Strategien zur Markteroberung obsolet. Eine Anleitung, wie deutsche Unternehmen in die zukunftsträchtigste Region der Welt expandieren sollten.

Services in product-oriented companies have become one of the most active research areas in the service domain. Practitioners have become advocates for service business development. Research domain on services in product-oriented companies remains open to a variety of conceptualizations and interpretations such as hybrid offerings, solution providers, transition from products to services, system suppliers, product-service systems (PSS), servitization. In this article, we reflect on the past, present, and future of service research in product-oriented companies. We explore the way in which the literature on services in product-oriented firms has been evolving and taking shape, expose the underlying key concepts, and describe future research directions.

Research is increasingly organized as large programs. A growing number of such programs produce a synthesis that links and relates scientific results of individual projects and integrates them into an overarching context. The synthesis thus creates an added value that goes beyond individual project results. Which methods and procedures are used to generate that added value? This paper presents methods and procedures of transdisciplinary knowledge integra tion that were applied within four thematic syntheses of the Swiss Nation al Research Programme on Sustainable Water Management (NRP 61).

In many regions of the world, urban water systems will need to transition into fundamentally different forms to address current stressors and meet impending challenges—faster innovation will need to be part of these transitions. To assess the innovation deficit in urban water organizations and to identify means for supporting innovation, we surveyed wastewater utility managers in California. Our results reveal insights about the attitudes towards innovation among decision makers, and how perceptions at the level of individual managers might create disincentives for experimentation. Although managers reported feeling relatively unhindered organizationally, they also spend less time on innovation than they feel they should. The most frequently reported barriers to innovation included cost and financing; risk and risk aversion; and regulatory compliance. Considering these results in the context of prior research on innovation systems, we conclude that collective action may be required to address underinvestment in innovation.

The top priorities for urban water sustainability include the provision of safe drinking water, wastewater handling for public health, and protection against flooding. However, rapidly aging infrastructure, population growth, and increasing urbanization call into question current urban water management strategies, especially in the fast-growing urban areas in Asia and Africa. We review innovative approaches in urban water management with the potential to provide locally adapted, resource-efficient alternative solutions. Promising examples include new concepts for stormwater drainage, increased water productivity, distributed or on-site treatment of wastewater, source separation of human waste, and institutional and organizational reforms. We conclude that there is an urgent need for major transdisciplinary efforts in research, policy, and practice to develop alternatives with implications for cities and aquatic ecosystems alike.

Legitimacy is central for both novel and established technologies to mobilize the resources necessary forgrowth and survival. A loss of legitimacy, in turn, can have detrimental effects for an industry. In thispaper, we study the rise and fall of technology legitimacy of agricultural biogas in Germany over a periodof more than 20 years (1990–2012). The field witnessed impressive growth and professionalization formany years and has become one of the key technologies in Germany’s energy transition. In recent years,however, it has been confronted with major criticism, which finally resulted in a substantial cut-backof public and political support. The aim of our study is twofold. In empirical terms, we will explainthe technology’s loss of legitimacy despite its compliance with original policy objectives: growth andmaturation. In theoretical terms, we work toward a more general framework to understand technologylegitimacy and to explain the institutional dynamics of technological innovation systems.

Demand for safe water, as well as access to adequate and affordable products for drinking water treatment, is key for household water treatment (HWT) in low-income countries. Critical barriers, particularly in rural areas, are the lack of adequate marketing and sales models and the challenge of setting up distribution channels that reach low-income customers, leading to the unavailability of HWT products. Trials with four different social marketing and sales models, involving local Q1 entrepreneurs, staff of an NGO, community health workers and members of community-based organizations, were conducted in Kenya and Bolivia to test which marketing and sales strategies, as well as which behavioural determinants, influence product purchase and water treatment practices in different local contexts. Selling filters through the water utility, a community-based enterprise, was a promising retail model in Kenya and in Bolivia. Most successful were sales done by a women’s group in Bolivia. We found that community education activities, independent of the stakeholder carrying out the activity, are an important element to create demand for water treatment products. Other factors influencing product purchase and practice are very context specific and include: the turbidity of water, risk perception, socio-economic status, social norms and emotional attributes.

The Network for Transdisciplinary Research (td-net) of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences seeks to foster transdisciplinary research and showcase new approaches addressing topics of societal relevance and impact. The Jury honours the awardees and encourages them to go on contributing to the maturation of their fields.

Decentralised wastewater treatment is increasingly gaining interest as a means of responding to sustainability challenges. Cost comparisons are a crucial element of any sustainability assessment. While the cost characteristics of centralised waste water management systems (WMS) have been studied extensively, the economics of decentralised WMS are less understood. A key motivation for studying the costs of decentralised WMS is to compare the cost of centralised and decentralised WMS in order to decide on cost-efficient sanitation solutions. This paper outlines a model designed to assess those costs which depend on the spatial density of decentralised wastewater treatment plants in a region. Density-related costs are mostly linked to operation and maintenance activities which depend on transportation, like sludge removal or the visits of professionals to the plants for control, servicing or repairs. We first specify a modelled cost-density relationship for a region in a geometric two-dimensional space by means of heuristic routing algorithms that consider time and load-capacity restrictions. The generic model is then applied to a Swiss case study for which we specify a broad range of modelling parameters. As a result, we identify a ‘hockey-stick’-shaped cost curve that is characterised by strong cost reductions at high density values which level out at around 1 to 1.5 plants per km². Variations in the cost curves are mostly due to differences in management approaches (scheduled or unscheduled emptying). In addition to the well-known diseconomies of scale in the case of centralised sanitation, we find a similar generic cost behaviour for decentralised sanitation due to economies of density. Low densities in sparsely populated regions thus result in higher costs for both centralised and decentralised system. Policy implications are that efforts to introduce decentralised options in a region should consider the low-density/high-cost problem when comparing centralised and decentralised options.

The strong reliance of most utility services on centralised network infrastructures is becoming increasingly challenged by new technological advances in decentralised alternatives. However, not enough effort has been made to develop planning tools designed to address the implications of these new opportunities and to determine the optimal degree of centralisation of these infrastructures. We introduce a planning tool for sustainable network infrastructure planning (SNIP), a two-step techno-economic heuristic modelling approach based on shortest path-finding and hierarchical-agglomerative clustering algorithms to determine the optimal degree of centralisation in the field of wastewater management. This SNIP model optimises the distribution of wastewater treatment plants and the sewer network outlay relative to several cost and sewer-design parameters. Moreover, it allows us to construct alternative optimal wastewater system designs taking into account topography, economies of scale as well as the full size range of wastewater treatment plants. We quantify and confirm that the optimal degree of centralisation decreases with increasing terrain complexity and settlement dispersion while showing that the effect of the latter exceeds that of topography. Case study results for a Swiss community indicate that the calculated optimal degree of centralisation is substantially lower than the current level.

A firm's competitive advantage originates increasingly from absorbing external knowledge. Absorbing external knowledge and the underlying learning processes are referred to as a company's absorptive capacity. In this article, we outline research trends on absorptive capacity. We apply a bibliometric analysis to describe the concept's historical development, define the intellectual core of the absorptive capacity concept, and discuss recent conceptualizations. Then, we identify two prominent streams in the absorptive capacity literature and provide a new approach on how to integrate them. Finally, we provide an outlook on possible themes in future research on absorptive capacity.

Water resource managers often tout the potential of potable water reuse to provide a reliable, local source of drinking water in water-scarce regions. Despite data documenting the ability of advanced treatment technologies to treat municipal wastewater effluent to meet existing drinking water quality standards, many utilities face skepticism from the public about potable water reuse. Prior research on this topic has mainly focused on marketing strategies for garnering public acceptance of the process. This study takes a broader perspective on the adoption of potable water reuse based on concepts of societal legitimacy, which is the generalized perception or assumption that a technology is desirable or appropriate within its social context. To assess why some potable reuse projects were successfully implemented while others faced fierce public opposition, we performed a series of 20 expert interviews and reviewed in-depth case studies from potable reuse projects in California. Results show that proponents of a legitimated potable water reuse project in Orange County, California engaged in a portfolio of strategies that addressed three main dimensions of legitimacy. In contrast, other proposed projects that faced extensive public opposition relied on a smaller set of legitimation strategies that focused near-exclusively on the development of robust water treatment technology. Widespread legitimation of potable water reuse projects, including direct potable water reuse, may require the establishment of a portfolio of standards, procedures, and possibly new institutions.

Both academics and practitioners emphasize the importance for product firms of implementing service-led growth strategies. The service transition concept is well established, namely a unidirectional repositioning along a product-service continuum—from basic, product-oriented services towards more customized, process-oriented ones—ultimately leading to the provision of solutions. We challenge this service transition assumption and develop alternative ones regarding how product firms should pursue service-led growth. Using 'problematization methodology', and drawing on findings from thirteen system suppliers, we identify three service-led growth trajectories: (1) becoming an availability provider, which is the focus of most transition literature; (2) becoming a performance provider, which resembles project-based sales and implies an even greater differentiation of what customers are offered; and, (3) becoming an 'industrializer', which is about standardizing previously customized solutions to promote repeatability and scalability. Based on our critical inquiry, we develop two alternative assumptions: (a) firms need to constantly balance business expansion and standardization activities; and (b) manage the co-existence of different system supplier roles. Finally, we consider the implications for implementing service-led growth strategies of the alternative assumptions.

The sanitation concept ‘Blue Diversion’ (www.bluediversiontoilet.com) was developed as a possible answer to the sanitation crisis in urban slums. It is based on two main elements: (1) diversion of urine, feces, and water at the source as the basis for efficient resource recovery, and (2) linking different scales (family toilets and semi-centralized resource recovery). Our objective was to develop an attractive ‘grid-free’ (i.e. functioning without piped water, sewer, and electrical grid) dry urine-diverting toilet, which provides water (through recycling on-site) for flushing, personal hygiene (anal cleansing and menstrual hygiene), and hand washing. This service, including the entire sanitation value chain, should eventually be made available as a profitable business with total user fees of 5 ¢/p/d. The results presented in this paper are (1) a toilet design model, (2) the development of a new type of membrane bioreactor for treating flush and wash water, (3) main results of a geographic information system-based stochastic service model to link the family-scale toilet to a community-scale Resource Recovery Plant, and (4) a business model that yields maximum profit for the local community. We conclude that the approach is feasible, but challenging from a technical as well as an organizational point of view.

This paper analyzes the ability of water utilities to contribute to sustainability transition processes. More specifically, we compare the capacity of utilities, embedded in purely public, mixed and largely private governance modes, to innovate. We employ dynamic capabilities as core indicators for innovativeness and therefore as major enabling factors for sustainable sector transitions. We assess the relationship between governance modes and innovation by conducting an in-depth comparative analysis of three water utilities, each within a differing governance mode along the public-to-private continuum: Zurich, Berlin and Leeds. While we find that the private and mixed governance modes have an increased degree of innovativeness, they perform lower in terms of static sustainability criteria than the public mode. We therefore conclude that the impact of privatization on sustainability transitions in the water sector involves multi-dimensional trade-offs between static and dynamic sustainability criteria.

Transition research has recently been criticized to lack of geographically sensitive concepts to address sustainability transitions and environmental innovation processes. This has generated a number of suggestions how space, place and scale can be better incorporated into transitions studies. Moreover, it has led to a quickly growing number of empirical studies that explicitly deal with geographical aspects of transition processes. This special issue takes stock of these recent developments by assembling a set of eight exemplary papers that illustrate the added value of an explicitly geographical perspective on sustainability transitions. The contributions include a conceptual paper, a literature review and six empirical papers that offer representative examples of recent work. Taken together, these contributions testify to the vitality of the emerging research on the geography of sustainability transitions. This introduction to the special issue provides an overview of the special issue and offers suggestions for future research.

In recent years, socio-technical transitions literature has gained importance in addressing long-term, transformative change in various industries. In order to account for the inertia and path-dependency experienced in these sectors, the concept of the socio-technical regime has been formulated. Socio-technical regimes denote the paradigmatic core of a sector, which results from the co-evolution of institutions and technologies over time. Despite its widespread acceptance, the regime concept has repeatedly been criticized for lacking a clear operationalization. As a consequence, empirical applications tend to depict regimes as too 'monolithic' and 'homogenous', not adequately considering persistent institutional tensions and contradictions. These are however crucial for assessing transition dynamics. In this paper, we revisit two concepts from institutional theory that enable an explicit identification of socio-technical regimes and more generally a specification of the 'semi-coherence' of socio-technical systems. First, we will show that 'levels of structuration' can be conceptualized as degrees of institutionalization, thereby treating institutionalization as a variable with different effects on actors, the stability of the system and thus the potential for change. Secondly, we draw on the institutional logics approach to characterize the content of various structural elements present in a system and to trace conflicts and contradictions between them. We illustrate this approach with an empirical in-depth analysis of the transformation of the Australian urban water sector since the 1970ies.

Studies on technological innovation systems (TISs) often set spatial boundaries at the national level and treat supranational levels as a geographically undifferentiated and freely accessible global technological opportunity set. This article criticizes this conceptualization and proposes instead to analyze relevant actors, networks and processes in TIS from a relational perspective on space. It develops an analytical framework which allows investigating innovation processes (or 'functions') of a TIS at and across different spatial scales. Based on social network analysis of a co-publication dataset from membrane bioreactor technology, we illustrate how the spatial characteristics of collaborations in knowledge creation vary greatly over relatively short periods of time. This finding suggests that TIS studies should be more reflexive on system boundary setting both regarding the identification and analysis of core processes as well as in the formulation of policy advice.

Various technologies have been deployed in household devices or micro-water treatment plants for mitigating fluoride and arsenic, and thereby provide safe and affordable drinking water in low-income countries. While the technologies have improved considerably, organizations still face challenges in making them financially sustainable. Financial sustainability questions the business models behind these water technologies. This article makes three contributions to business models in the context of fluoride and arsenic mitigation. Firstly, we describe four business models: A) low-value devices given away to people living in extreme poverty, B) high-value devices sold to low-income customers, C) communities as beneficiaries of micro-water treatment plants and D) entrepreneurs as franchisees for selling water services and highlight the emergence of hybrid business models. Secondly, we show current business model innovations such as cost transparency & cost reductions, secured & extended water payments, business diversification and distribution channels. Thirdly, we describe skills and competencies as part of capacity building for creating even more business model innovations. Together, these three contributions will create more awareness of the role of business models in scaling-up water treatment technologies.

The transition from products to services is popular research theme with a continuously increasing number of articles. We analyze these articles and identify the intellectual core. The intellectual core consists of seven research directions: Solution delivery, Solution marketing, Services in manufacturing companies, Service performance in manufacturing companies, product-service-systems, and industrial service development. We articulate critical empirical and theoretical considerations. Future research should further explore the synergies among the research directions. We articulate concrete research questions to expand and to deepen the empirical and theoretical research.

Determining how to optimally market ceramic filters and other household water treatment and safe storage products (HWTS) is crucial to the promotion of safe water use. Trials were conducted to test four different distribution strategies to find out which works best in different local contexts.

Ein junger afrikanischer Unternehmer will in seiner Heimat ein Ver­pa­ckungs­un­ter­neh­men aufbauen. Soll er sein Geschäft auf mehrere kleine Länder ausdehnen oder sich lieber auf den größten Markt in Nigeria konzentrieren?

Transdisciplinary research plays an increasing role in topics of societal relevance and impact. The td-net of the Swiss Academies of Arts and Sciences awards innovative transdisciplinary research every other year. The last td-award was given in 2013. This special focus of GAIA features the six prize-winning projects, presenting short summaries of their work. Explaining its selection in the following introduction, the Jury of the td-net honours the awardees, and puts their work into a global perspective.

Literature on academic spin-offs gives evidence of different modes of interaction between spin-offs and their parent and their relative role in different modes of knowledge production. In this article, we examine the development of interactions between academic spin-offs and their parent organizations over a mid- to long-term period (4–15 years), drawing on a series of 25 case studies of spin-off/parent pairs from France and Switzerland. We show that the relational trajectories can be captured by four major dynamic patterns. These patterns range from an early cut-off of interactions in line with a linear model of innovation to sustained interactions supporting joint production of knowledge. Some patterns even include a change in the mode of knowledge production over time. In addition, we identify a number of determinants, internal or external to the pair, affecting the dynamic pattern. We conclude that management of spin-off processes and support policies for academic spin-offs should embrace this dynamic diversity.

Interaction between institutional change and technological change poses important constraints on transitions of urban water systems to a state that can meet future needs. Research on urban water and other technology-dependent systems provides insights that are valuable to technology researchers interested in assuring that their efforts will have an impact. In the context of research on institutional change, innovation is the development, application, diffusion, and utilization of new knowledge and technology. This definition is intentionally inclusive: technological innovation will play a key role in reinvention of urban water systems, but is only part of what is necessary. Innovation usually depends on context, such that major changes to infrastructure include not only the technological inventions that drive greater efficiencies and physical transformations of water treatment and delivery systems, but also the political, cultural, social, and economic factors that hinder and enable such changes. On the basis of past and present changes in urban water systems, institutional innovation will be of similar importance to technological innovation in urban water reinvention. To solve current urban water infrastructure challenges, technology-focused researchers need to recognize the intertwined nature of technologies and institutions and the social systems that control change.

Urban water scarcity has been an issue for a long time in China while water pollution has attracted more and more attention over the last two decades. Recently, on-site wastewater treatment (OST) has been proposed as a meaningful alternative to deal with both water pollution and water scarcity in cities in a more sustainable way. However, the diffusion of such an OST system is still slow and often hindered by mismatched regulation, city planning and policy interventions. This paper is intended to explore potential solutions from institutional and governance perspectives. Based on expert interviews and in-depth analysis of an OST system in Kunming, an improved trajectory for diffusing OST in urban China is developed, which includes reformed decision-making and operational procedures, role transition of relevant stakeholders, and improved financing mechanisms. The results might give some suggestions for the transition of urban water management in other newly industrializing countries.

Institutions play a crucial role for the development and diffusion of novel technologies. Many studies have analyzed the role of formal institutions such as support policies or specific R&D programs, while informal institutions have received less attention. With this paper, we contribute to the institutional analysis of emerging technological fields as we examine how the effects of formal institutions depend on informal institutional structures. We present findings from a comparative study of biogas technology in selected Austrian regions. Our findings suggest that the professional culture in which farmers are embedded modulates the effects of feed-in tariffs and investment subsidies to a considerable extent. This explains regional differences in the diffusion as well as variations in the design and operation of biogas plants. We argue that studies on emerging technologies benefit from a systematic analysis of the interplay of regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive institutions. We also argue that socichnical variation is an important indicator to look at in addition to diffusion rates.

This paper proposes a capability-based framework to explain performance deficiencies in utility firms as a result of policy and regulatory changes. The framework complements conventional explanations such as transaction cost and agency approaches, which suggest that appropriate incentives and regulations increase the performance of public utilities after relatively short adaptation processes. In contrast, we argue that capability gaps – understood as an inadequate availability of competences, skills and experiences – tend to have long-lasting effects on firm performance. A crucial implication of the capability perspective is that regulatory interventions that create capability gaps at the firm level may affect utility performance – and the ability of infrastructure sectors to provide adequate services – more severely than expected by traditional approaches.

Manufacturers of capital goods may not be able to master internally all the relevant service activities for moving from products to solutions. As well, it is rarely economically viable for them to do so. Consequently, they increasingly resort to complex service networks that embrace traditional product-orientated and vertically-integrated supplier-customer relationships. Through multiple case studies this paper identifies four different types of service networks involved in the provision of solutions, and the capabilities necessary for forming and utilizing such networks. The types are: a). vertical after-sales service network, b). horizontal outsourcing service network, c). vertical life-cycle service network, and d). horizontal integration service network. Analyzed through the perspective of the "focal firm", these network types promote understanding of the movement towards providing integrated solutions for products and services. The service components included in the solution drive the formation of the network along the vertical and horizontal dimensions. The formation and utilization of each service networks type require a specific set of dynamic capabilities (to initiate a specific network formation), and operational capabilities (that allow the network firms to develop, integrate and deliver the service components of the solution), discussed in the paper.

Purpose – The article aims to combine research priorities in the service domain with the emerging topic of service management for the base of the pyramid (BoP). This combination allows us to construct an agenda for service research at the BoP.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses bibliographic methods for structuring the BoP contributions, and a literature review for the current research priorities in the service domain.
Findings – First, the paper highlights the main topics in the emerging BoP debate. Second, the paper constructs a research agenda for service management at the BoP. This agenda can guide service researchers in the selection of feasible empirical fields, support them in finding appropriate research designs, and finally, help them to develop suitable theoretical perspectives.
Research limitations/implications – Limitations arise from the literature review and bibliographic methods themselves.
Practical implications – Service research on the BoP provides new ideas for practitioners interested in learning about BoP markets, strategies, and entrepreneurial initiatives.
Social implications – Understanding the need to explore BoP activities is fundamental to working with a huge segment of society, not only as passive consumers, but also as genuine entrepreneurs capable of creating and managing "inclusive" innovations.
Originality/value – The research agenda for future service management offers a relevant source of ideas and guidance for interested researchers to rethink their empirical fields, research approaches, and theoretical perspectives.

Purpose - Information and communication technology (ICT) is a key enabler for new product- and process-oriented services. The purpose of this paper is to investigate how ICT can enable service differentiation and, in doing so, act as a catalyst for a service business orientation.
Design/methodology/approach - The paper is based on a qualitative, multi-case research design with eight multinational goods manufacturers.
Findings - The paper identifies two distinct types of service-oriented differentiation: services in support of the product (SSP) and services in support of the client's actions (SSC). The study finds that SSC have the largest positive impact on firms' service business orientation.
Research limitations/implications - Western firms in a limited sample of industries are studied. Furthermore, the service business orientation construct does not include any measurements of service profitability or impact on overall competitive advantage. Practical implications: To various extents, successful firms are likely to pursue both SSP and SSC differentiation traits through ICT. The two options are interdependent and the framework presented helps managers to understand both key specificities and their interrelatedness.
Originality/value - The study contributes to theory on service strategies by specifically focusing on the enabling role of ICT for new services and its effects on each of the three dimensions of the service business orientation construct.

Waste-based business models for resource recovery could be the solution to the sanitation challenges of low and middle income countries. This is the research aim of the Tr iple R Project (Resource, Recovery and Reuse), which is analysing the factors of business success in this industry.

At an IMD Discovery Event in April 2013, 75 participants reflected on the challenges of building a service-centric organization, discovered some of the best practices of leading companies and networked with their peers. Executives left better equipped to navigate the transition from the increasingly commoditized product landscape to one offering value-added services.

Environmental innovation and sustainability transitions in regional studies, Regional Studies. Sustainable development and environmental innovations have received increasing attention in regional studies and the related literature. In how far sustainability concerns might also lead to fundamental transformations in technologies, industries and lifestyles (so-called sustainability transitions) has, however, found much less resonance. Sustainability transitions have been in the focus of scholars from the field of innovation studies. However, until recently, these approaches mostly disregarded spatial aspects. This paper therefore maps out a field of future research – the geography of sustainability transitions – that might be beneficially laboured by both traditions. The paper introduces the core concepts, but also the limitations of the transitions literature. After reviewing salient lines of sustainability-related research in regional studies, the paper specifies promising research areas at the interface between both fields. Empirical illustrations will be provided from recent work in sustainability transitions research venturing into this interface.

Sustainability oriented innovation and technology studies have received increasing attention over the past 10–15 years. In particular, a new field dealing with "sustainability transitions" has gained ground and reached an output of 60–100 academic papers per year. In this article, we aim to identify the intellectual contours of this emerging field by conducting a review of basic conceptual frameworks, together with bibliographical analysis of 540 journal articles in the field. It is against this background that we position the six papers assembled in a special section in Research Policy. These papers pave the way for new conceptual developments and serve as stepping-stones in the maturation of sustainability transition studies, by linking with the scholarly literatures of management studies, sociology, policy studies, economic geography, and modeling.

Sustainable transitions in the energy sector have gained only insufficient attention in economic geography so far. Conversely, transition scholars do not pay sufficient attention to the spatial dimension of these dynamics. This paper introduces a conceptual framework for analysing the spatial characteristics of market formation processes in emerging technological innovation systems, thus proposing a shared field of research for economic geographers and transition scholars. Drawing on a social constructivist analysis of market formation processes, we propose to differentiate "market formation" into three sub-processes for which we additionally specify spatial characteristics: (1) the formation of market segments, (2) market transactions and (3) end-user profiles. We apply this conceptual and explanatory framework to explain the uneven geography of photovoltaic market formation in Germany, the current world market leader in this field. By analysing the role of local solar initiatives in shaping and supporting local market formation processes, we are able to provide a more encompassing explanation of the German PV success story than alternative accounts that merely focus on strong incentive structures and favourable geophysical conditions.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze how strategic renewal affects the reconfiguration of capabilities. In the context of organizational change in a large utility firm, we examine the evolution of the capability structure, and explain the emergence and persistence of capability gaps.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses an inductive multiple case study methodology to compare four processes of capability reconfiguration at Eskom, South Africa’s electricity supplier.
Findings – The results show that strategic renewal unfolds through different processes, which vary in their impact. Some processes have an immediate effect in closing capability gaps. The impact of others is with a significant time lag. Most critical, however, are processes that widen capability gaps. As a result, firms may face severe and persistent performance deficiencies.
Research limitations/implications – Prior research has only marginally addressed the relationship between strategic renewal and capability reconfiguration, and has largely neglected emerging capability gaps.
Practical implications – Strategic renewal may cause unintended crowding out effects of specific capabilities. Managers need to consider these potential implications of strategic renewal.
Social implications – Understanding the challenges of how to improve the performance of utility services is crucial for economic development, welfare and social inclusion.
Originality/value – This study importantly highlights that the emergence of capability gaps is a common phenomenon rather than an exception in strategic renewal processes. The findings contribute to the strategic renewal literature and to management research in infrastructure sectors.

Infrastructure services such as electricity, water supply, sanitation and transportation are crucially important in our economies. Despite this importance, utility firms have found little attention in management research. This is surprising because the lack of adequate organizational structures, skills and specialized managerial know-how is an emergent issue and main challenge for many utilities worldwide. We propose a capability-based framework to explain performance deficiencies in utilities. The framework elaborates why capability gaps emerge and persist, and how this, in turn, affects performance. The insights from this framework go beyond the conventional explanations of the transaction cost and agency approaches, which suggest that appropriate incentives and regulatory structures increase the performance of public utilities immediately or after a short adaptation process. In contrast, capability gaps – understood as an inadequate availability of competences, expertise and experience – tend to have long-lasting effects because capabilities take time to develop. Especially if capabilities are highly tacit, correcting for a gap and rebuilding capabilities take time due to the involved learning processes. Consequently, performance deficiencies affect utility firms more severely than expected by traditional approaches. Deriving from the proposed framework, we discuss possible strategies that utility firms can implement to respond to capability gaps.

A rapid implementation of potentially more sustainable sector structures in newly industrializing countries (NICs) is of key importance to reach global sustainability. The conceptual basis for assessing such "leapfrogging" potentials is however still rather weakly developed. The present paper elaborates an encompassing conceptual framework drawing on the technological innovation systems literature and adding an explicit geographical focus that embeds an NIC's innovation system in its international context. From this, we derive six ideal-type leapfrogging trajectories. The framework is applied to the case of a potential transition to onsite wastewater treatment in China. Empirical evidence is based on 30 expert interviews with representatives from companies, universities, authorities and associations in China and Europe. Our results suggest that leapfrogging in the Chinese wastewater sector might develop in either an integrated "international innovation system" trajectory, where Chinese and international actors closely interact, or in an "international competition" trajectory, where Chinese actors endogenously build up technological leadership in strong competition to international actors. We conclude by outlining policy implications and by discussing future research priorities for leapfrogging and transition studies.

In the past decade, the literature on transitions toward sustainable socio-technical systems has made a considerable contribution in understanding the complex and multi-dimensional shifts considered necessary to adapt societies and economies to sustainable modes of production and consumption. However, transition analyses have often neglected where transitions take place, and the spatial configurations and dynamics of the networks within which transitions evolve. A more explicit spatial perspective on sustainability transitions contributes to the extant transitions literature in three ways. Firstly it provides a contextualization on the limited territorial sensitivity of existing literature. Secondly, it explicitly acknowledges and investigates diversity in transition processes, which follows from a 'natural' variety in institutional conditions, networks, actor strategies and resources across space. Thirdly, it encompasses not only greater emphasis but also an opportunity to connect to a body of literature geared to understanding the international, trans-local nature of transition dynamics. Concerned with the prevalent lack of attention for the spatial dimensions of sustainability transitions in most studies, this paper seeks to unpick and make explicit sustainability transition geographies from the vantage point of economic geography. The paper argues that there are two interrelated problems requiring attention: the institutional embeddedness of socio-technical development processes within specific territorial spaces, and an explicit multi-scalar conception of socio-technical trajectories. Following these arguments, the paper concludes that transitions research would do well to take a closer look at the geographical unevenness of transition processes from the perspective of global networks and local nodes.

The sustainability challenges associated with increasing demand and generation of electricity require a far-reaching transformation of the energy system. Smart grid technologies are expected to play a major role in such sectoral transformation. While a growing body of literature is concerned with the dynamics and particularities of sectoral transformation, most contributions have focused on exogenous shocks or new technological developments as drivers of change. This paper complements the existing perspectives by exploring the role of actors as catalysts for transformation. Within the field of smart grid, we study the transformative influence of ICT firms on the energy sector in Europe. More specifically, we analyze actor participation in 450 European smart grid projects between 2000 and 2011 as well as acquisitions in the field. We find that incumbent firms from the ICT sector have gained influence and drive transformation through the creation of variety, in terms of technology, business models and value chains. As a strategic reaction, electricity sector incumbents have recently acquired many start-ups specialized in ICT technology and thus expanded their competence base. We conclude that entrants from another sector can be important catalysts for sectoral transformation and should be analyzed more systematically in transition studies.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of key research contributions on the topic of service strategies in manufacturing by focusing on descriptions of the phenomenon and theoretical explanations of its evolution and financial consequences.
Design/methodology/approach – A summary analysis of the extant literature is provided. Valuable contributions and fundamental methodological issues are identified and discussed. Challenges, limitations and directions for future research avenues are also highlighted.
Findings – As a result of the analysis and discussion presented, the concept of service-driven manufacturing is integrated through the provision, evolution and impact of services in industrial settings.
Practical implications – The paper contains guidelines for manufacturing managers interested in the evolution from products to services in different industries.
Originality/value – The paper is expected to be used as a relevant source of ideas and guidance for all those interested in doing research in services strategies in manufacturing.

The current paper focuses on absorptive capacity in the context of strategic innovation. Strategic innovation aims at a re-conceptualisation of business models, the creation of uncontested market spaces, and leaps in customer value. By using the learning-process perspective of absorptive capacity (exploratory, assimilative, transformative, and exploitative learning processes), we suggest that transformative learning processes in particular, play a key role in strategic innovation. In addition, a follower strategy and participative role in the knowledge network, instead of a first-mover strategy and a dominant role in the knowledge network, do indeed promote strategic innovation. Companies should not only manage the accumulation of external knowledge, but also adapt their combinative capabilities (systematisation, coordination, and socialisation of knowledge) in order to succeed with strategic innovation. The findings yield a set of research propositions for further academic and managerial consideration. Two longitudinal case studies of European electricity providers form the empirical background.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate the intentional formation of business networks in the wastewater industry. It enriches the theory-building of the formation of business networks by drawing on theoretical contributions to business networks and capabilities. The paper describes, assesses and predicts scenarios relevant to the formation of business networks in the wastewater industry.
Design/methodology/approach - The research methodology employed is based on multiple sources of data in a multi-method design, interpreting potential scenarios of business networks.
Findings - The findings reveal that water scarcity, population growth and economic constrains jeopardize existing business networks in the wastewater industry. Two potential scenarios: re-inventing the centralized system through on-site systems for mass-markets; and expanding on-site systems into mass-markets seem realizable. A comparison of the two scenarios suggests that the first scenario is in a superior position to utilize the business opportunities offered.
Research limitations/implications - Research limitations arise from the qualitative nature of the research undertaken.
Practical implications - Capability alignments and barriers suggest that the re-inventing the centralized system through on-site systems for mass-markets scenario, is the most suitable for implementation. The knowledge gained allows managers to outline a specific approach for developing the capabilities required, in order to take advantage of the alignments and overcome the barriers that may exist.
Originality/value - The paper highlights that building theories of business networks may benefit from combining the formation of business networks with dynamic and operational capabilities.

This article investigates the interplay of expectation dynamics and innovation processes at the level of organizations and at the innovation system level. We examine how different kinds of organizations contributed and responded to a recent hype and disappointment cycle in the field of stationary fuel cells. Among others, we trace how innovation and discourse activities changed and we explain the observed differences in strategic responses. We show that the sensitivity of organizations to expectation dynamics depends on at least three factors: the strategic embedding of the new technology, the organization's dependence on external legitimacy and its role in the innovation system. Moreover, we show that – in their aggregation – strategic responses affected the level of the technological innovation system as well. Not only did the pace and direction of innovation activities change, but structures such as actor constellations and institutions were also modified. Our study thus provides insights into the interplay of expectation and innovation dynamics, which is important for our understanding of larger transformation processes, e.g. toward more sustainable modes of energy supply.

In the field of energy supply, various innovative technologies such as fuel cells, photovoltaics and biomass digestion exist as potentially sustainable alternatives. However, many of these new technologies only cover small percentages of the overall energy supply. A better understanding of the determinants of innovations is thus crucial for their timely diffusion and a subsequent transformation of the energy sector towards more sustainable technologies. To examine the complex dynamics of technological change, the concept of technological innovation systems (TIS) represents a fruitful approach. TIS studies focus on the interplay of actors, networks and institutions and reveal systemic blocking or enhancing mechanisms that impact the generation, utilization and diffusion of new technologies. [...]

Op het terrein van de energievoorziening zijn er verschillende innovatieve technologieën zoals brandstofcellen, fotovoltaïsche cellen en biomassavergisting die de potentie hebben uit te groeien tot duurzamere alternatieven voor bestaande niet duurzame technologie. Om te komen tot een duurzame energievoorziening hebben we vele van deze alternatieven nodig aangezien elk maar een klein deel van de toekomstige energievraag kan vervullen. Een beter begrip van de factoren die invloed hebben op de snelheid van innovatie en diffusie is nodig om zorg te dragen voor hun tijdige diffusie en daarmee de transformatie naar een meer duurzame energiesector te bewerkstelligen. Om de complexe dynamiek van technologische verandering te bestuderen is het Technologische Innovatie Systeem (TIS) heel geschikt. TIS studies concentreren zich op het samenspel tussen actoren, netwerken en instituties en leggen de systemische mechanismen bloot die de ontwikkeling, het gebruik en de verspreiding van nieuwe technologieën vertragen dan wel versnellen,. [...]

Regarding multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA), the problem of generating alternatives has not received the attention it deserves. Most research is currently devoted to the problem of alternative selection, where it is assumed that a set of appropriate alternatives is already given. This paper addresses the generation of potential alternatives in the domain of sanitation systems planning and decision-making. A compatibility assessment procedure is proposed to determine the set of technically feasible or potential sanitation system alternatives. This is based on a clear definition of such an alternative containing sub-processes that include a user interface, storage, conveyance treatment and reuse/disposal. A newly developed compatibility matrix is applied to identify incompatibilities between the options of the sub-processes.
A potential sanitation system alternative is therefore defined by the absence of two-by-two incompatibility between all its options.
The compatibility assessment acts as a first filter on the set of sanitation system alternatives to eliminate those that are inoperable before the feasibility assessment. The objective of both steps is to obtain a set of alternatives that are of reasonable and manageable size from which the final solution may be selected.

Previous research has shown that formal networks can play a crucial role in the formation of technological innovation systems (TIS). Firms and other actors collaborate in formal networks not only to generate new knowledge but also to strategically create and shape supportive system resources such as technology specific R&D programs. This paper takes a closer look at the resources, which are developed and deployed by networks to facilitate the building up of a TIS. Networks rely not only on the organizational resources of their members but also on new resources developed at the network level including network governance structures, trust among network members, a common understanding of the strategic goals or a good reputation of the network. Our analysis shows that the capacity of networks to fulfill different tasks of system building especially depends on the network resources they are able to establish. With the differentiation of organizational, network and system resources we introduce a conceptual framework, which makes three important contributions. It highlights the strategic nature of (innovation) system building; it allows us comparing the contribution of different actors and formal networks in this regard; and it improves our understanding of how firm and system level processes are intertwined.

Purpose: This article explores service business development by small- and medium-sized equipment manufacturers (SMEMs). It focuses on underlying dynamic and operational capabilities in service business development.
Design/Methodology/Approach: The research design is based on case study research with nine companies from Germany, Italy, Sweden, and Switzerland.
Findings: The findings are twofold. First, the authors elaborate the phases and capabilities necessary for service business development. Second, they argue that these phases and capabilities depend on sales channels (direct sales versus indirect sales through distributors) and customer structures (a limited number of strategic customers versus many end-customers). SMEMs selling directly to a limited number of strategic customers develop organizational capabilities through four phases: (1) consolidation of service offerings, (2) job enlargements in organizational functions, (3) job enlargement in the key account teams, and (4) orchestration of partners to widen the solutions offered to customers. SMEMs selling indirectly through distributors to many customers develop organizational capabilities through the following four phases: (1) rearranging collaboration with distributors, (2) enlarging the service competencies of distributors, (3) modifying distributors into subsidiaries, and (4) enlarging jobs in the sales function of the subsidiaries.
Research Limitations/Implications: The research limitations are due mainly to the intrinsic nature of qualitative research.
Practical Implications: Managers can obtain guidance for service business development from the phases and capabilities described in the paper.
Originality/Value: The study offers a comprehensive framework for assisting researchers in conceptualizing service business development and operationalizing capabilities. The results provide testable propositions that can be used to guide future research.

Technological innovation systems and the multi-level framework are closely related concepts for the study of far-reaching technological change. They draw on common theoretical roots and analyze similar empirical phenomena. However, they have developed rather independent research strands over the past few years. The paper reviews the state of the art of both concepts and explores commonalities as well as differences. Against this background, we outline first elements of a path towards an integrated framework that combines the strengths of the two approaches and allows providing a better understanding of radical innovation processes and socio-technical transformations.

The technological innovation systems (TIS) literature has focused strongly on actors, networks and institutions in early development phases of specific technologies. Structures and processes concerned with setting up and developing end-user markets have gained much less attention. Especially in maturing innovation systems, such market-related structures play a decisive role for the long-term success of innovations. The present paper proposes a conceptual framework for analyzing TIS substructures oriented at specific end-user markets. We apply this framework to the creation and maturation of different market segments for photovoltaic applications in Germany. The paper concludes by outlining implications of a more differentiated conceptualization of market processes for TIS research.

Several strategic planning approaches have been proposed for dealing with future uncertainties in the urban water infrastructure sector. We identify three well established perspectives that address uncertainties in strategic decisions: an adaptive perspective, focusing on an incremental adaptation of existing structures as a reaction to unforeseen developments, a modeling perspective, focusing on an improved characterization of future context conditions and a managerial perspective, focusing on increasing the flexibility of the infrastructure organization. Despite their virtues, these approaches have definite weaknesses in their approach to uncertainty: they often consider a restricted scope of alternatives, they face substantial difficulties in predicting context conditions over time periods of decades and often consider objectives and tradeoffs only implicitly. We elaborate and illustrate with a case study a fourth perspective that may compensate for these specific weaknesses and complement the established strategic planning approaches. This perspective is based on a discursive, qualitative assessment of key elements in the strategic planning process among a selected set of local stakeholders and decision makers. We maintain that this approach leads to a more explicit and reflexive treatment of future uncertainty, conflicting objectives and a broadening of the considered alternatives and therefore to a more robust decision-making process.

Companies that find innovative ways to manage capabilities gain competitive advantages. The results of multiple case studies of capital goods manufacturing companies suggest that management innovation contributes to dynamic capabilities. The findings confirm the importance of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring as dynamic capabilities. Management innovation differs in terms of whether it contributes to sensing, seizing, or reconfiguring. The findings describe issues of management innovation, such as key change agents and utilization (motivation, invention, implementation, as well as theorizing and labeling), which facilitate sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring. Maintaining capability-driven competitive advantages is not limited to the innovation of products and services, but should also address management innovation that drives dynamic capabilities. The present study relies on a novel conceptualization of dynamic capabilities through management innovation. This conceptualization advances theory-building on the issue of dynamic capabilities.

This paper examines the relationship among the complexity of customer needs, customer centricity, innovativeness, service differentiation, and business performance within the context of companies that have made a service transition from pure goods providers to service providers. A survey of 332 manufacturing companies provides the basis for the empirical investigation. One key finding is that a strong emphasis on service differentiation can lead to a manufacturing firm's strategies for customer centricity being less sensitive to increasingly complex customer needs, which can increase a firm's payoff for customer centricity. In contrast, the payoff from innovativeness appears to be higher if the firm focuses its resources on either product or service innovation; that is, a dual focus does not work well. This paper discusses the implications of these findings for researchers and managers.

Purpose – Despite the proven benefits of high-performing spare parts logistics, recommendations on how to organize spare parts logistics in China are rather rare. The absence of spare parts logistics concepts for China is surprising, since the spare part business is the profit pool of the capital goods industry: spare parts create about 17 percent of the industry's total revenue. The margins involved in this spare parts revenue are, on average, 25 percent compared to 2-3 percent of the capital goods. This paper aims to offer recommendations to increase spare parts logistics performance.
Design/methodology/approach – The authors conducted an extensive benchmarking project with a variety of firms (focus group and single case study) in order to gain a better understanding of spare parts logistics in China. By reviewing the first benchmarking findings with a single company that struggled to achieve sufficient spare parts logistics performance, additional insight was gained into how spare parts logistics should be organized in China.
Findings – The paper attempts to provide a better understanding of the necessary changes for improving logistics performance in the Chinese market. It analyzes the necessary changes to achieve a cutting-edge logistics solution, and shows how companies can implement the solution.
Research limitations/implications – Research limitations come from the qualitative nature of the research.
Practical implications – Managers can use the results obtained in this study to challenge their current logistics practices and develop a project procedure on how to initiate logistics projects that lead to cutting-edge logistics performance.
Originality/value – Rather than concentrating on performance benchmarks of the supply chain of spare parts or specific aspects of spare parts management, the paper develops the setting up of a cutting-edge logistics solution for China and Asia. The cutting-edge solution is based on two main pillars: companies should try to develop logistics solutions for Asia that consider existing Asian and Chinese constraints instead of taking the logistics practices used in mature markets and trying to adapt them to the Chinese market, and the development of the logistics solution should be in intensive collaboration with the logistics providers.

Purpose – The article aims to investigate how product manufacturing firms can configure their global service approach.
Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative, multi-case research design was employed.
Findings – The following four global service approaches could be identified: integrated and ethnocentric; integrated and polycentric; separated and polycentric; and separated and geocentric.
Research limitations/implications – The research findings are limited in generalizability because of the qualitative research approach.
Practical implications – Exploring global forms of and supply chain configurations for services supports the efforts of manufacturing firms in developing new service-based and relationship-based value propositions.
Originality/value – The study contributes to the debate on integrating versus separating the service organization. It offers a complementary explanation on integrating and separating the service business, through a differentiation into central and local (market) organizations.

Purpose – Literature is relatively sparse on describing how companies should align their determinants for service innovations with their different types of service strategies. This study seeks to explore the alignment between three types of service strategies and determinants for service innovations.
Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative, multi-case research design on 12 Western European capital goods manufacturers including 24 service innovation projects was employed. The study is based on multiple sources of evidence: internal documentation of service innovation and development projects and, most importantly, interview data and participation in internal innovation workshops. Traditional inductive research methods were used to analyze the case studies.
Findings – These indicate that aligning service strategies with determinants for service innovations is very complex. The configurations of the determinants are associated with the innovation success. Alternative configurations of determinants can create counterproductive effects and can limit the success of service innovation projects as well as implementation of service strategies.
Research limitations/implications – The study is based on interviews and case studies, but the external validity (generalizability) of the alignments could not be assessed accurately. Future research would benefit from insights obtained from quantitative data. The findings supplement existing research on success factors for the service business in manufacturing companies.
Practical implications – The findings imply that managers contemplating a specific service strategy have to consider the service innovation and reframe the determinant for service innovations accordingly. Companies trying to implement an after-sales service strategy should focus on a narrow range of determinants for service innovations. The resulting configurations guide managers to set up an efficient and effective service innovation management that helps them to implement their service strategy through successful service innovation project.
Originality/value – This empirical study shows that the configuration of determinants for service innovation differs for each service strategy. Whereas, the few similarities in determinants on service innovation are mainly other applications of existing theories on service innovation, the differences modify the existing theories.

This article introduces the new journal Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions (EIST). We consider its key terms and offer a survey of relevant theoretical and empirical insights, policy issues and research challenges. Four theoretical approaches to studying sustainability transitions are identified. The treatise ends with a synopsis of the 19 articles in this inaugural issue and a list of suggested research themes.

Purpose – This paper seeks to utilise Prahalad's five activities of co-creation (customer engagement, self-service, customer involvement, problem-solving, and co-design) to explore how value co-creation occurs in the context of a public-transport service provider.
Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a single qualitative case study of the Swiss federal railway operator (SBB).
Findings – The findings enrich understanding of value co-creation by showing that the case firm is not merely a value facilitator, but has increasingly become a value co-creator through the five co-creation activities noted above. Organisations should take a comprehensive view of value co-creation if they are to exploit its full strategic potential.
Research limitations/implications – The study is a single case study with a focus on the supplier perspective.
Practical implications – Public-transport operators should facilitate the active participation of customers in designing and implementing their processes and systems. Rather than relying on knowledge about the customers, customer-relationship management should be based on knowledge of the customers (that is, the knowledge that customers possess).
Originality/value – The paper provides a comprehensive framework to help organisations manage the value co-creation process. The study shows that a public-transport service provider is not restricted to making value propositions, but can actively influence and assist customers in their fulfilment of value-co-creation.

Dezentrale Technologien in der Siedlungswasserwirtschaft sind vielversprechende Lösungsansätze, wenn Wasserinfrastruktursysteme neu errichtet werden müssen. Heute sind dezentrale Kleinkläranlagen etablierte Lösungen in Nischenanwendungen im ländlichen Raum von Industrieländern; Grauwasseraufbereitungsanlagen stellen ein relativ neues Produkt dar, das in wasserverbrauchsintensiven Gebäuden zunehmend eingesetzt wird. Hauptsächlich in Deutschland hat sich ein führendes Herstellerfeld entwickelt. In diesem Beitrag wird der Möglichkeit nachgegangen, dass in Zukunft weiterentwickelte dezentrale Wassertechnologien im Weltmarkt zu einer dominanten Standardlösung werden könnten. In diesem Feld könnte sich ein neuer starker Umwelttechnologie-Sektor entwickeln, der von der Kleinserienfertigung zur Massenproduktion wechselt. Andere Sektoren, wie die Hersteller von Windkraft, haben diese Entwicklung bereits vorgemacht. Basierend auf einer prospektiven Innovationssystemanalyse und einem Technology-Roadmapping- Workshop zeigt dieser Beitrag, in welchen Märkten und mit welchen Produkten eine derartige Sektorentwicklung mittel- bis langfristig vorstellbar ist.

Electricity generation from hydropower is responsible for a large part of the human impacts on water resources in the Alps. Attempts at finding an encompassing mitigation approach to these impacts are often confronted with high levels of societal conflict. Therefore, an integrative approach has to consider both ecological and political/social aspects of this economic activity. In the following, we will present an integrative mitigation approach that was developed as an eco-label for electricity in Switzerland. This label was developed and implemented in the early 2000s and has meanwhile been accepted as an environmental standard for hydropower operation in many other countries. The chapter emphasizes the interdisciplinary competencies needed as well as the potential benefits of an integrative approach to the problem.

Sustainability transitions have repeatedly been demanded in various economic sectors to confront global environmental problems. The present paper analyses the role of strategic planning processes for improving the prospects of achieving sustainable transitions in infrastructure sectors. Current planning approaches in these sectors tend to perpetuate the established socio-technical configurations by neglecting context uncertainties, by ignoring radical system alternatives and by focusing on narrow value considerations. In order to improve the prospects for sustainable transitions, more reflexive and discursive strategic planning methods are needed. We present the Regional Infrastructure Foresight methodology as a specific procedural proposal and analyse results from its application to a case study in the Swiss sanitation sector.

The requirements for urban wastewater management organisations in the field of strategic planning have risen significantly during recent years. Increasing uncertainties regarding requirements to be fulfilled in future, options for action and objectives require new methods and approaches. This article shows how strategic planning methods can be implemented in public wastewater organisations. This is illustrated by experiences from three Swiss wastewater management associations.

Infrastructure sectors in general, and urban water management in particular, have developed over the past couple of decades within the confines of a rather narrow and stable socio-technical regime. Nowadays, these infrastructures are increasingly confronted with uncertain context conditions, a broadened spectrum of technological alternatives and an increasing heterogeneity of value positions. As a consequence, the longterm sustainability of these sectors has been questioned by many commentators. Of particular importance is the way strategic decisions are made. Current approaches tend to block important opportunities for sustainable transformation. It is argued here that a more reflexive, discursive and participative approach to strategic planning is needed. The paper introduces «Regional Infrastructure Foresight» (RIF) as a method which combines foresight on regional framework conditions with a stakeholder assessment of a broad range of system options. The paper presents the methodology in some detail and discusses the main lessons learned through three empirical applications in the Swiss sanitation sector. Based on these experiences, it is argued that strategic decision making in infrastructures is of high relevance for regional policy and therefore warrants more attention in future research in economic and political geography.

In this article, we put forward a concept for the identification and analysis of future development options of technological innovation systems. The key element of our approach, the so-called variation analysis, is a methodology to identify coherent socio-technical and organizational variants within a specific innovation field. Consistent combinations of these two dimensions may be interpreted as nuclei for alternative future developments of innovation systems. The method may be used in discursive foresight processes to inform strategy formulation of firms or policy makers who see a utility in furthering the innovation field. The paper has a focus on developing the theoretical background and the analytical structure of the methodology. Empirically, we illustrate the method for the innovation system of biomass digestion in Switzerland.

The sustainable transformation of infrastructure sectors represents a challenge of prime importance worldwide. Due to long life times of infrastructures, strategic decision making has to explicitly consider uncertainties in context conditions, value considerations and available technological alternatives. However currently, strategic infrastructure planning is often carried out in a very narrow perspective. The present paper argues that foresight informed strategic planning, allows addressing trade-offs related to context uncertainties, value conflicts and sustainability deficits in a structured way. The paper introduces a specific procedural proposal, the Regional Infrastructure Foresight method (RIF) and illustrates its potential virtues through an application to urban water management planning in a Swiss region (Kiesental).

This Eawag project addresses the various decision-making aspects in sanitation system and technology selection as a support tool for choosing the best available options to secure sustainable sanitation systems.

This case study seeks to show, from an engineering perspective, the importance of historical insights. Urban water infrastructures and particularly the case of rainwater will be used as an example, since this is an issue which became increasingly controversial in Germany in the 1970s. It is remarkable that this happened, since this issue had apparently been settled during the development period of the conventional approach (closure). As the controversy emerged again, not only did it return to the engineering agenda, but by then engineering itself had specialized into separate sub-disciplinary fields. The analysis focuses on why and how the infiltration of rainwater succeeded in becoming established as an innovation in the field of sewage disposal rather than in that of water supply. Conclusions point to the context in which debates take place and decisions are made. Special consideration is given to the boundaries between these two most important sub-disciplinary fields of engineering, as well as to those between experts and laypeople. Apart from knowledge of certain techniques, history provides insights into the construction of the context and the interrelatedness of technology and society – into the co-construction of socio-technical solutions by society.

Network-bound infrastructure systems as electricity, gas, water and telecommunications are currently undergoing transformations on various levels and dimensions. Liberalization, technological innovations and socio-cultural dynamics are part of this. For analyzing these ongoing transformation dynamics as well as exploring future developments of utility systems, a theoretical concept is necessary which spans production, consumption and governance, different levels, and also different sectors. This paper argues that the multi-level perspective is a fruitful starting point allowing the identification of interrelated transformation dynamics in production, consumption and governance, but that multi-regime dynamics need more emphasis, particularly in a future oriented analysis.

This project was established to explore the consequences of structural change in German utility sectors and to raise awareness of the need for coordinated action by stakeholders as well as for the development of strategies for sustainable development. A three step procedure was applied comprising socio-technical scenarios, sustainability assessment and strategies for critical innovation processes. Interactions between four utility sectors - electricity, natural gas, water and sanitation, telecommunications - were considered. Stakeholders involved in production, consumption and governance have been involved at all stages. A multi-level approach was applied to link developments at the sector level with general societal developments and the dynamics of specific fields of innovation. The project also aimed at developing a general methodology for "sustainability foresight".

Technological innovation systems and the multi-level framework are closely related concepts for the study of far-reaching technological change. They draw on common theoretical roots and analyze similar empirical phenomena. However, they have developed rather independent research strands over the past few years. The paper reviews the state of the art of both concepts and explores commonalities as well as differences. Against this background, we outline first elements of a path towards an integrated framework that combines the strengths of the two approaches and allows providing a better understanding of radical innovation processes and socio-technical transformations.

The innovation systems approach has been successfully established as a conceptual basis for an encompassing analysis of actors, networks and institutions that influence innovation processes. Here we present an approach that concentrates on the actors in a selected technological innovation system. The intention is to specify current or potential contributions of actors, or actor groups, to innovation system performance and dynamics. This will be achieved by explicitly relating actor level characteristics such as innovation strategies and resource endowments to system level characteristics like actor configurations, system functions and performance. We illustrate the approach with a case study on stationary fuel cells in Germany.