A New ‘Cut’ on Technological Innovation Aiming for Sustainability in a Globalized World

Abstract

Innovation policy needs to respond to the complexity posed by sustainability goals and the globalization of innovation processes. Yet, current representations of technological innovation systems are not well suited to facilitate this view: they are built taking the diffusion of a technology as the main objective, rather than reflecting more broadly on its contributions to sustainability; and they have often focused on the interactions within a geography and not on interconnections among geographies. In this paper we propose a new ‘cut’ to technological innovation that puts the consideration of sustainability outcomes and international dynamics at its core: the Outcome-oriented Innovation Framework (OoIF). OoIF builds on key concepts from various strands of the innovation literature: innovation systems, innovation economics and sustainability transitions. We present the framework in detail, and provide a diagrammatic representation for it. We also reflect on its limitations, contributions and applications - particularly on how it allows to analyze the distribution of outcomes across differentiated activities and geographies.