Experiments and demonstrations for environmentally sustainable technological innovation: Reviewing insights and proposing a model

Abstract

Experiments and demonstrations are central to various environmentally sustainable technological innovations. They test, exemplify, and develop new environmentally sustainable technologies, making them ready for upscaling, thereby enabling innovation and change in industries, markets, and societies. Although many innovation management theories emphasize the importance of experiments and demonstrations, these do not coherently conceptualize experimental and demonstrative activities. Such a conceptualization is necessary to gain a deep understanding of their pivotal contribution to environmentally sustainable technological innovation and enable its acceleration and scaling. This research proposes a model that complements eleven generic innovation management theories and is based on research literature on experiments and demonstrations in sustainable energy technology over the past five decades. The proposed model offers insight into the characteristics of experiments and demonstrations that support environmentally sustainable technological innovation. It qualifies the collaborating public and private organizations involved, the activities undertaken, the intellectual and physical outcomes achieved, and the scaling opportunities created. The proposed model contributes to innovation management theory in the academic field by identifying, specifying, and connecting the environmentally sustainable technological innovation processes in experiments and demonstrations. Practitioners can utilize the model to strategize, plan, and implement their environmentally sustainable technological innovation portfolios collaboratively with partners from academia, government, and business.