Innovation Regimes and Institutional Reflexivity

Daniel Barben Arizona State University

“Innovation, Institutions and Path Dependency: The Management of Variation and Diversity in Innovation Systems” International Workshop Series “System Innovations for Sustainable Development,” Workshop No. 2, Zurich, 15 –18 April 2007

Background

• • System innovations for sustainable development require Coordinated change – they do not occur automatically; Institutional reflexivity, i.e. capacities to evaluate, anticipate, and learn • • Innovation system analysis and management require Multi-level approach including national, organizational, sectoral, and technological levels, among others; Self-reflexive capacities relating to scope and perspective of what “innovation” and “sustainability” mean 15 –18 April 2007, Zurich Daniel Barben

Overview

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Notion of innovation regime Innovation regimes, institutional reflexivity and sustainability – example biotechnology Regime change: challenges and opportunities Conclusion regarding comparative analysis 15 –18 April 2007, Zurich Daniel Barben

1. Innovation systems – innovation regimes

“Innovation systems”: predominantly • Focused on economic performance and innovativeness; • Shaped by Evolutionary and Institutional Economics; • Conceptualized in terms of system analysis “Innovation regimes”: • Focused on societal ecology of innovations; • Building on a variety of social science perspectives; • Conceptualized in terms of “structuration” analysis 15 –18 April 2007, Zurich Daniel Barben

Notion of regime • Social structures as result and precondition of action; • Extend in time, i.e. are stable though never fixed; • Often characterized by relations of power; • Combine institutional, technological, discursive, and practical dimensions; • Build across various domains of society, e.g. the economy, science, politics, law, and culture; → To be specified by particular institutional forms, i.e. principles and norms, rules and procedures 15 –18 April 2007, Zurich Daniel Barben

2. Innovation, reflexivity and sustainability

Innovation regime: • Functions: - Generate marketable innovations (product, process); - Innovation-oriented configuration of academic R&D, companies, government policies, and societal conditions • Institutional forms: - As provided by modern, capitalist societies (e.g., differentiation of institutional domains); - Innovation linked with intellectual property rights, risk regulation, ethics, and forms of application and use; - At local, regional, national, supranational, and international levels, plus transnational dynamics 15 –18 April 2007, Zurich Daniel Barben

Institutional reflexivity: • Functions: - Evaluate and anticipate events, actions and effects; - Learn from experiences, i.e. adapt and transform • Institutional forms: - Markets: utility, costs and profits of products and processes offered; Companies: own offerings and competitors’; consumer demands and institutional/societal developments - Science and engineering: state-of-the-art and trends; values in science and society Governments: own S&T policy and competitors’; policies affecting innovations in society (e.g., patenting, risk regulation, and ethics regulation) 15 –18 April 2007, Zurich Daniel Barben

Sustainable development: • Functions: - Evaluate environmental, economic, and social impacts; - Reorientation toward goals of long-term survival • Institutional forms: - Markets: emerging niche or mass markets; government policies and regulations; citizen and NGO campaigns - Companies: new business opportunities; adapt to new policy and socio-cultural environments; - Science and engineering: inventions for solving problems of non-sustainability and new products - Governments: complement competitiveness-oriented policies with sustainability-related criteria - NGOs: policies in the public and private interest 15 –18 April 2007, Zurich Daniel Barben

Example: biotechnology

Innovation regime – institutional reflexivity?

• International organizations and regimes: OECD, among others: promoting “future key technology”; - Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD): modifying the access to and use of genetic resources; - Risk management: WTO vs. Biosafety Protocol: hierarchy?

- Patenting: TRIPS vs. CBD, FAO: limitations of ownership?

- Ethics: Council of Europe, UNESCO: principles?

• National innovation regimes in transnational competition: Actors generating, regulating, and appropriating biotech • Cross-sectoral technology: Medicine, agriculture/foods, raw materials, energy, environment, process engineering etc.: what sustainability?

15 –18 April 2007, Zurich Daniel Barben

Sustainability: • Contested claims about sustainability of biotechnology: - Limits to growth: biotechnology as solution to global problems vs. new source of problems?

- Ag biotech: by definition non-sustainable (NGOs) vs. environmental benefits (agribusiness) • Principles of risk regulation: promoting sustainability by “Precautionary principle” regarding risk uncertainties?

- Monitoring GM throughout production and distribution?

Labeling of “GM”/“GM-free” products on market?

→ Configuration of needs, challenges, and opportunities at international, EU, national, regional and local levels?

15 –18 April 2007, Zurich Daniel Barben

3. Regime change: challenges and opportunities

• Biodiversity: - International: UN Earth Summit 1992: CBD regime - National/local: protection and use of genetic resources; equitable benefit sharing: e.g., technology transfer → Continuing rapid loss of biodiversity, demands to protect biodiversity as such (beyond “sustainable use”) • Climate change: - International: UN Earth Summit 1992: Framework Convention; Kyoto Protocol etc.: goals and instruments - National/local: antagonistic approaches to the science and policies of global warming → Emerging new demands to adapt and change, political alliances, businesses and markets, and ways of life 15 –18 April 2007, Zurich Daniel Barben

• Mobility: - Global circulation of goods in production and distribution, and of people in business and leisure travel; - National and local connectivity to global/regional economy; divergent combinations of private & public mobility providers → Demands to regionalize production, distribution, and travel, and to change foundations of fossil-based mobility • Energy: - Increasing global demand for energy; - National and local growth/development strategies coupled with increasing energy use → Demands to reduce use of energy, and to change foundations of fossil-based energy system 15 –18 April 2007, Zurich Daniel Barben

4. Conclusions

• Challenges to regime change: - Interdependent problems, with uneven local causation; mutually reinforcing effects, with uneven local distribution; - Interrelated infrastructures, modes of production and innovation, and ways of life • Innovation regime analysis, management and governance: - Distinguish innovativeness and sustainable innovations, and “neoliberal” and “comprehensive” sustainability; - How to achieve improved institutional reflexivity, given the multiplicity of levels, institutions, and actors?

→ Comparative studies of regime plasticity, i.e. technological variation and diversity supporting sustainability 15 –18 April 2007, Zurich Daniel Barben