Assessing the relevance of different proximity dimensions for knowledge exchange and (co-)creation in sustainability-oriented innovation networks

AbstractInnovations incorporating environmental and social considerations can address many sustainability challenges. Such sustainable innovations emerge in networks often comprising actors from business, academia, civil society, and government. The crucial interactions here are the (co-)creation and transfer of knowledge, mutual learning, and experimentation in different environments. To better understand these knowledge processes and hence the eventual outcome of sustainable innovations, we analyze the actors ’ relationships with the help of proximity and its five dimensions, namely geographical, cognitive, institutional, organizational, and social proximity. Building upon findings from sustainability science and innovation system theory, we present a refined proximity framework, introducing a differen tiation of institutional proximity into micro- and macro-institutional proximity and a differentiation of cognitive proximity into systems-cognitive, normative-cognitive, and transformative-cognitive proximity. Analyzing examples from the literature by applying this framework, we see that all proxim ity dimensions and their interdependencies help to better understand knowledge processes and innovations in sustainability-oriented innovation networks. We find that such networks often depict low levels of micro-institutional and systems-cognitive proximity, which coheres with the prevalence of int er- and transdisciplinary approaches and the wide inclusion of relevant stakehol...
Source: Sustainability Science - Category: Science Source Type: research