16.09.15-可循环经济

Making technological innovation work for sustainable development

document

Abstract

• three key insights from scholarship and practice、

  1. technological innovation processes do not follow a set sequence but rather emerge from complex adaptive systems involving many actors and institutions operating simultaneously from local to global scales.
  2. learning from past efforts to mobilize innovation for sustainable development can be greatly improved through structured cross-sectoral comparisons that recognize the socio-technical nature of innovation systems.
  3. current institutions (rules, norms, and incentives) shaping technological innovation are often not aligned toward the goals of sustainable development because impoverished, marginalized, and unborn populations too often lack the economic and political power to shape innovation systems to meet their needs.

• three practice-oriented recommendatiosn to further realize the potential of innovation for sustainable development:

  1. channels for regularized learning across domains of practice should be established;
  2. measures that systematically take into account the interests of underserved populations throughout the innovation process should be developed
  3. institutions should be reformed to reorient innovation systems toward sustainable development and ensure that all innovation stages and scales are considered at the outset

Introduction

• help bridge the gap between scholarship and practice by drawing from conceptual research, empirical cases, and real-world experience to highlight practical guidelines for use by practicing scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs and policy advocates
• sustainable development was defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
• inclusive well-being, the aggregate quality of life for all people, everywhere, now and in the future
• focuses on how broad systemic change can be affected by practicing scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, and policy advocates working on specific technologies or the rules and incentives governing technological innovation

draw three broad insights to imporve innovation for sustainable development:

1. Innovation systems are complex adaptive systems characterized by codependent innovation stages with multiple feedbacks, positive and negative ripple effects, and the potential for nonlinear impacts;
2. Innovation systems are socio-technical systems shaped by the reciprocal interactions of social and technological factors; understanding innovation systems in this way enables more useful cross-sectoral learning
3. Innovation systems are guided by institutions that too often reflect the goals of the powerful rather than those of impoverished, marginalized, and future populations; however, institutions can be reshaped by actors with various forms of power in ways that support innovation for sustainable development.

Understanding Innovation as a Complex Adaptive System

group innovation activities into seven stages:

1. invention the process leading to the initial discovery of a technology
2. selection the choice of a technology for a given setting
3. initial adoption the early use of a selected technology
4. production the manufacturing of a technology
5. adaptation efforts by user or inventors to modify a technology to better serve the needs of individual users
6. widespread use the broad adoption of a technology in different communities of users
7. retirement the replacement of a technology by a new, more effective technology

* Innovation Stages Do Not Follow a Set Sequence *

* Innovation System Interventionds Often Create Ripple Effects *
innovation in one technology area can lead to innovation spillover that enable more rapid improvements and new Applications in other sectors

* Change in Innovation Systems Is Often Nonlinear *

Understanding the Socio-Technical Nature of Innovation Systems

* Socio-Technical Characteristics Can Diagnose Barriers to Innovation *
socio-technical characteristics (STCs)

* STC: Oresence of positive network externalities *
* STC: Perceptions of mundaneness *
* STC: Level of modularity *

* Socio-Technical Characteristics Facilitate Learning Across Innovation Systems*

Understanding Institutional Change in Innovation Systems

* Institutions Are Not Necessarily Aligned Toward Sustainable Development *
First, existing institutions tend to drive innovative activity toward the areas of greatest financial prospect rather than the areas of greatest human need.

Second, existing institutions do not adequately govern activities producing negative externalities mediated over environmental systems or over long time horizons.

Third, the public-good nature of the knowledge that enables innovation and is embodied in particular technologies has led to the creation of institutions restricting the dissemination of knowledge to strengthen incentives for investing in its creation.

* Innovation Systems Involve Many Actors Oerating at Different Stages and Scales *

* Actors Can Change Institutions to Reorient Innovation Systems Toward Sustainable Development *

Conclusion

Technological innovation has played a central role in achieving important societal objectives.

Innovation systems are characterized by pervasive power imbalances. As a result, the needs of impoverished, marginalized, and future populations are not adequately met.

Three recommendations:
- First, measures are needed to regularize learning across spheres of practice to improve understanding of how to reorient innovation systems toward sustainable development
- Second, power disparities can be mitigated by identifying ways to systematically take into account the interests of underserved populations throughout the innovation process
- Finally, we argue that actors should reform institutions to reorient
innovation systems toward sustainable development in a way that considers all stages of innovation and all relevant scales at the outset.