Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions最新文献

Pathways towards successful urban community waste management: Insight from 26 experiments in China 成功的城市社区垃圾管理之路：来自中国26个实验的启示

IF 5.7 2区经济学

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions Pub Date : 2025-07-22 DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2025.101032

Shengnan Wang , Bernhard Truffer , Xuemei Bai

{"title":"Pathways towards successful urban community waste management: Insight from 26 experiments in China","authors":"Shengnan Wang , Bernhard Truffer , Xuemei Bai","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101032","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101032","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding factors influencing the outcomes of innovative community waste management experiments is crucial for improving urban waste management. Yet, there is limited evidence on what are the critical factors and how different combination, and interaction of these factors influence outcomes. This study analyses 26 community waste management experiments in Shenzhen, China, using a mixed-method approach. Through analyzing data obtained from interviews, surveys, and focus groups, we identify 19 key factors determining the success of these experiments. Through fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), we identified three successful causal pathways: (1) committed participants supported by dedicated communities; (2) committed participants with local government backing; and (3) strong grassroots leadership supported by responsible local government. This indicates that an integration of social, organizational, and behavioral dimensions is crucial to tackle complex waste management challenges. The results also imply that policymakers and practitioners may chose alternative approaches to success, depending on their local situation.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"57 ","pages":"Article 101032"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144680182","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Academic Institutions as Innovation Intermediaries; Co-creating knowledge and building the Gujarat agroecology learning alliance (GALA) 学术机构作为创新中介共同创造知识并建立古吉拉特邦农业生态学习联盟（GALA）

IF 5.7 2区经济学

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions Pub Date : 2025-07-22 DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2025.101033

Shambu Prasad C , Deborah Dutta , Arnab Chakraborty

{"title":"Academic Institutions as Innovation Intermediaries; Co-creating knowledge and building the Gujarat agroecology learning alliance (GALA)","authors":"Shambu Prasad C , Deborah Dutta , Arnab Chakraborty","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101033","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101033","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The role of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) as innovation intermediaries remains underexplored in sustainability transitions (ST) research, particularly in agri-food systems in the Global South. This paper examines how a HEI in India facilitated the building of a Learning Alliance in agroecology in Gujarat. The HEI acted as a boundary-spanning knowledge broker—mapping contested visions of sustainability, convening dissimilar actors, and enabling shared learning and co-production of agroecological knowledge. The paper highlights how such intermediation contributes to collective learning alliances and pluralising pathways to transition. It argues for expanding the repertoire of transition intermediaries to include engaged academic institutions, especially where formal systems marginalize grassroots actors. By fostering inclusive governance and mapping situated knowledge, HEIs and civil society can together create platforms for collective experimentation. The case demonstrates the potential for networked governance to leverage the latent capacities of communities for scaling sustainability transitions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"57 ","pages":"Article 101033"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144680181","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Assessing Lean Startup for sustainable business models: Application of the SAFE framework 评估可持续商业模式的精益创业：SAFE框架的应用

IF 5.7 2区经济学

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions Pub Date : 2025-07-21 DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2025.101029

Alberto Peralta , Andreas Pyka

{"title":"Assessing Lean Startup for sustainable business models: Application of the SAFE framework","authors":"Alberto Peralta , Andreas Pyka","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101029","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101029","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper evaluates the Lean Startup (LS) methodology as a business modelling practice for sustainable innovation, focusing on its ability to support business models that integrate economic, social, and environmental value. To guide this assessment, we introduce the Sustainable innovation practices Assessment FramEwork (SAFE), a conceptual, multi-layered structure composed of a meta-model, a framework, and a two-step diagnostic tool. SAFE enables a structured evaluation of how LS applies sustainability logic throughout the business modelling process. The analysis shows that LS can facilitate business models that are adaptive and responsive to sustainability-related challenges and stakeholder needs. However, it also reveals tensions between LS’s emphasis on rapid market validation and the long-term, systemic orientation required for sustainable innovation. By highlighting strengths and limitations, SAFE identifies opportunities to adapt LS for better alignment with sustainability imperatives, offering a basis for future research and application across other innovation practices, such as the triple layered business model canvas or TBL accounting.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"57 ","pages":"Article 101029"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144670610","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Business model innovation in food system transitions: An exploratory case study of fermentation firms 食品系统转型中的商业模式创新：发酵企业的探索性案例研究

IF 5.7 2区经济学

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions Pub Date : 2025-07-14 DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2025.101027

Linus Thomson , Johnn Andersson , Niklas Fernqvist

{"title":"Business model innovation in food system transitions: An exploratory case study of fermentation firms","authors":"Linus Thomson , Johnn Andersson , Niklas Fernqvist","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101027","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101027","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper explores how new technology-based firms innovate their business models in a dynamic transitions context. Through a case study of emerging biotech firms in the European biomass and precision fermentation industries, we analyze how firms adopt fit-and-conform and stretch-and-transform approaches to the malleable boundaries of a multi-dimensional business model design space. Conceptually, our study advances this analytical framework by integrating an ecological dimension, offering a broader socio-techno-ecological perspective on business model innovation. Empirically, we find that firms stretch-and-transform the ecological boundary through circular value delivery practices. We also find that firms fit-and-conform to the markets & users boundary by focusing on low-cost value propositions. In addition, we find that technological and business model innovation are deeply interconnected, challenging prior business model design space studies treating them as more distinct. The paper adds to a growing literature that integrates firm- and system-level perspectives on sustainability transitions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"57 ","pages":"Article 101027"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144623863","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Exploring sufficiency in meat diets: are consumers ready for consumption corridors? 探索肉类饮食的充足性：消费者准备好消费走廊了吗？

IF 5.7 2区经济学

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions Pub Date : 2025-07-12 DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2025.101026

Alessia Lombardi , Antonio Paparella , Massimiliano Borrello , Francesco Caracciolo , Luigi Cembalo

{"title":"Exploring sufficiency in meat diets: are consumers ready for consumption corridors?","authors":"Alessia Lombardi , Antonio Paparella , Massimiliano Borrello , Francesco Caracciolo , Luigi Cembalo","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101026","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101026","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This study highlights sufficiency principles and utilizes the consumption corridors (CC) framework to examine meat consumption. Conducted through a scenario-based experimental study with 901 participants representative of the Italian population, the research aimed to: explore perceptions of the CC concept, evaluate acceptance of a meat consumption reduction policy within CC standards, and identify factors influencing policy support. Findings showed moderate acceptance of the CC concept. The proposed policy received notable support (64 % of respondents), particularly for immediate implementation. Favourable individuals were predominantly altruistic, women, aged 55–70, with low meat consumption frequency and minimal association of meat with essential needs satisfaction. The study underscores the utility of the CC framework for designing and evaluating policies focused on reducing consumption. It offers valuable guidance for researchers and policymakers addressing Anthropocene challenges by fostering transitions toward sustainable consumption practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"57 ","pages":"Article 101026"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144604870","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Play, games, and gamification to support sustainability transitions: a scoping review and research agenda 游戏、游戏和游戏化支持可持续性转型：范围审查和研究议程

IF 5.7 2区经济学

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions Pub Date : 2025-07-01 DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2025.101025

Daniel Fernández Galeote, Linas Gabrielaitis, Georgina Guillén, Juho Hamari

{"title":"Play, games, and gamification to support sustainability transitions: a scoping review and research agenda","authors":"Daniel Fernández Galeote, Linas Gabrielaitis, Georgina Guillén, Juho Hamari","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101025","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101025","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Transitioning towards more sustainable systems is crucial in an era where carbon emissions continue to rise and planetary boundaries have been exceeded. However, traditional methods for public engagement with institutionally, technically, and ecologically complex issues have shown limited results in motivating change. In response, play, games, and gamification promise to support sustainability transitions by engaging diverse stakeholders and promoting psychological and behavioral changes. Despite these promises, we lack systematic knowledge of whether such techniques, which typically leverage individual motivation and agency, can bring together stakeholders in diverse areas. Thus, we conducted a scoping review of 86 empirical outputs, which revealed untapped potential to transform practices and support large-scale transitions. Based on our findings, we propose three future agendas. First, our contextual agenda encourages clearly anchored and critical sustainability conceptualizations, engaging practitioners for resilient transitions, considering emotions, supporting technical and ecological transitions, and expanding beyond the West and the local scale. Second, for design, we suggest user-centered approaches, customizable interventions, a broader conceptualization of play, combining game and goal types, including more immersive game elements and technologies, and leveraging tools and methods beyond gamification. Third, our empirical agenda calls for larger sample sizes and longer studies, contrasting conditions, employing mixed methods, exploring double and triple loop learning, displaying critical reflexivity, and reporting clearer causal links and experiences. Future research may utilize these points to explore and leverage the potential of playful and gameful interventions in changing transition dynamics, environments, and actors for practice and regime-level system transformations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"57 ","pages":"Article 101025"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-07-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144522687","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Does religious difference have an impact on the diffusion of sustainable innovations? A mixed-methods analysis of ecovillages worldwide 宗教差异对可持续创新的传播有影响吗？全球生态村的混合方法分析

IF 5.7 2区经济学

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions Pub Date : 2025-06-25 DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2025.101024

Nadine Bruehwiler , Jens Koehrsen , Julius Malin , Rebeca Roysen , Lasse Kos

引用次数: 0

Integrating spatial planning and energy policy in The Netherlands: challenges and lessons for societal energy transitions 整合荷兰的空间规划和能源政策：社会能源转型的挑战和教训

IF 5.7 2区经济学

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions Pub Date : 2025-06-19 DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2025.101023

Henk-Jan Kooij , Martijn Gerritsen , Kristof Van Assche

{"title":"Integrating spatial planning and energy policy in The Netherlands: challenges and lessons for societal energy transitions","authors":"Henk-Jan Kooij , Martijn Gerritsen , Kristof Van Assche","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101023","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101023","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Despite The Netherlands' advanced spatial planning system and robust energy infrastructure, attempts to integrate energy policy and spatial planning for energy transition faced significant challenges. This paper examines these efforts and their impact on both systems within nation-wide discussions, using social systems theory to explore why a cohesive strategy failed to emerge. It draws on Luhmann’s theory of social systems and his concept of irritations, combined with a theory-informed thematic analysis, to understand the communications and perturbations between energy planning and spatial planning. The paper argues that the planning and energy systems were unable to adequately understand and coordinate with each other, partly due to the lack of a unifying perspective and the inherent tensions within each system. These challenges hindered the formulation of effective energy transition strategies on a policy level. To distinguish between the degree to which communications of energy planning organizations successfully initiated internal reflections on and revisions of spatial planning organizations’ interests, operations, and priorities, we introduced three types of perturbations, so-called ‘irritations’: <strong><em>incomprehensible, inapt</em></strong> and <strong><em>interpretive</em></strong> irritations. The Dutch experience offers broader insights into the complexities of aligning spatial planning with energy policy in the pursuit of energy transition.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"57 ","pages":"Article 101023"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144313468","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Steaming ahead while also losing pressure? Examining the roles of the state in Kenya’s geothermal energy transition 在失去压力的同时继续前进？考察国家在肯尼亚地热能转型中的作用

IF 5.7 2区经济学

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions Pub Date : 2025-06-16 DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2025.101008

Matthew Tyce

{"title":"Steaming ahead while also losing pressure? Examining the roles of the state in Kenya’s geothermal energy transition","authors":"Matthew Tyce","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101008","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101008","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper aligns with, and seeks to build on, literature which has called for more sophisticated, dynamic conceptions of ‘the state’ in sustainability transitions research. Specifically, the paper echoes scholars who have argued that relational state theory can offer a useful approach for understanding the complex, often contradictory roles that states play in shaping sustainability transitions. The paper demonstrates its utility through the case of Kenya’s geothermal energy transition. Since the early-2000s, geothermal has displaced hydro and thermal power as Kenya’s biggest source of electricity and, today, Kenya ranks seventh amongst geothermal power producers worldwide. Mainstream accounts often appear to locate Kenya’s geothermal ‘success’ in the adoption of institutional arrangements that have promoted private investment and restricted the state’s presence. Where the state is recognised, it is often seemingly for dutifully performing the functions of a ‘de-risking state’. Critical academic literature identifies a more expansive role for the state. However, it, too, underplays various ways in which the Kenyan state – and balance of social forces underpinning it – has shaped geothermal developments. A relational approach, by contrast, uncovers a fuller, more extensive role for state actors in Kenya’s geothermal transition. It also yields a more complicated, nuanced account in which state actors have not always supported geothermal expansion and, in some respects, have actively forestalled it, through combinations of intra-state turf wars, flawed planning processes and personalistic rent-seeking.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"57 ","pages":"Article 101008"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-16","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144291354","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Organising the subjects of responsible consumption: Analysing the locus of responsibility for transitions in the UK food sector (2007-2021) 组织负责任消费的主题：分析英国食品部门转型的责任轨迹（2007-2021）

IF 5.7 2区经济学

Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions Pub Date : 2025-06-12 DOI: 10.1016/j.eist.2025.101022

David M. Evans, Jonathan D. Beacham

{"title":"Organising the subjects of responsible consumption: Analysing the locus of responsibility for transitions in the UK food sector (2007-2021)","authors":"David M. Evans, Jonathan D. Beacham","doi":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101022","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.eist.2025.101022","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper considers the phenomenon of responsible consumption, which we approach as an organisational field. In doing so, we contribute analytic guidance for the study of both consumption and responsibility in sustainability transitions. Our analysis draws on three qualitative longitudinal case studies of ostensibly ‘consumer-facing’ policies and initiatives for healthy and sustainable food: carbon labelling, food waste campaigning, and sugar taxation. In each case we explore the mechanisms by which ‘consumers' are responsibilised and trace the effects of these over time. We demonstrate that responsibilisation is a dynamic and ongoing process that cannot be reduced to the unidirectional transfer of responsibilities from organisations to individuals. We also link shifts in the relationships between, and responsibilities of, different actor groups to tangible changes in the configuration of food consumption practices. Taken together, we argue that the enactment of responsible consumption is not contingent on the success of efforts to responsibilise individual consumers. To conclude, we consider the implications of our analysis for theoretical and practical understandings of sustainability transitions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54294,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions","volume":"57 ","pages":"Article 101022"},"PeriodicalIF":5.7,"publicationDate":"2025-06-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144263653","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"经济学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0