Article: Dealing with uncertainty in sustainable innovation: mainstreaming and substitution Journal: International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development (IJISD) 2010 Vol.5 No.1 pp.65 - 79 Abstract: In this paper, innovation is studied as a set of activities that seeks to deal with uncertainty. It is argued that the very idea of innovation contains the assumption that the future is, in principle, open to change. Moreover, since innovations compete with other innovations and with existing solutions as well, the outcome of innovative activities has to remain uncertain. Innovation theories, in the course of their development away from the linear models, have introduced elements that allow for certain degrees of fuzziness, randomness, and circularity. However, if the concern for impacts of an innovation is introduced into innovation theory, even more uncertainty is generated. This is, for instance, the case in sustainable innovations. Therefore, a fundamental shift in the thinking around innovation was promoted toward open-endedness and reflexivity. After a discussion of these conceptual efforts to incorporate uncertainty, the innovative actors| own strategies are studied in two empirical cases: advanced daylight systems and technologies that use CO<SUB align="right"><SMALL>2</SMALL></SUB> as working fluid for heating and cooling. These cases employ two different strategies to overcome uncertainty – mainstreaming and substitution – which are discussed in the light of innovation models in the last section. Inderscience Publishers - linking academia, business and industry through research

Title: Dealing with uncertainty in sustainable innovation: mainstreaming and substitution

Authors: Thomas Berker

Addresses: Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), 7491 Trondheim, Norway

Abstract: In this paper, innovation is studied as a set of activities that seeks to deal with uncertainty. It is argued that the very idea of innovation contains the assumption that the future is, in principle, open to change. Moreover, since innovations compete with other innovations and with existing solutions as well, the outcome of innovative activities has to remain uncertain. Innovation theories, in the course of their development away from the linear models, have introduced elements that allow for certain degrees of fuzziness, randomness, and circularity. However, if the concern for impacts of an innovation is introduced into innovation theory, even more uncertainty is generated. This is, for instance, the case in sustainable innovations. Therefore, a fundamental shift in the thinking around innovation was promoted toward open-endedness and reflexivity. After a discussion of these conceptual efforts to incorporate uncertainty, the innovative actors| own strategies are studied in two empirical cases: advanced daylight systems and technologies that use CO₂ as working fluid for heating and cooling. These cases employ two different strategies to overcome uncertainty – mainstreaming and substitution – which are discussed in the light of innovation models in the last section.

Keywords: sustainable innovation; linearity; uncertainty; sustainability; sustainable development; innovation models; advanced daylight systems; CO2; carbon dioxide; working fluids; heating; cooling; mainstreaming; substitution.

DOI: 10.1504/IJISD.2010.034558

International Journal of Innovation and Sustainable Development, 2010 Vol.5 No.1, pp.65 - 79

Received: 19 Dec 2009
Accepted: 02 Apr 2010
Published online: 07 Aug 2010 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article

Title: Dealing with uncertainty in sustainable innovation: mainstreaming and substitution

Keep up-to-date