60 M. M. Bugge et al.
sports nutrition, medical nutrition, health foods, bakery and dairy. Through
investments in state- of-the- art production equipment as well as in research
and development in the context of globalisation, Arla has achieved significant
market power, further increasing its ability to exploit the advantages of economies of scope and scale. See Chapter 9 for more details on this case.
3.5 Drivers of innovation in waste valorisation
To better understand the drivers and challenges associated with enabling a
shift towards a circular bioeconomy, we here discuss the literature on innovation and innovation policies. Schot and Steinmueller (2018) distinguish
between three generations of innovation policies in terms of different perspectives on what constitutes the main drivers of innovation and with respective implications for innovation policies. In the 1960s, innovation was
primarily seen to emerge from research and scientific discovery. This view of
innovation was very much oriented around technological development and
scientific discovery and a belief in the commercialisation of new technologies
and scientific breakthroughs. However, from the 1990s this view was supplemented by a more pronounced systemic understanding of how innovation
occurs through impulses from user needs in the market and through the interplay and collaboration between various types of actors (Edquist, 1997; Lundvall, 1992).
Such a systemic understanding of innovation also implies supplementing
the supply- oriented focus on the role of science with demand as also determining and conditioning innovation. The scholarly tradition on systems of
innovation has shown how innovation should not be understood as isolated
phenomena, but rather as being the output from collaboration and interactive
learning across diverse types of actors that possess various and complementary
capabilities. Moreover, it has illustrated how the spatial embeddedness and
context for the industry actors, such as networks, institutions, infrastructures
and policy frameworks, may also strongly affect innovation performance in
firms, sectors and regions. This has been elaborated in the economic geography literature on path development, which specifies how regional characteristics condition future development opportunities, outlines the various
stages in path development processes and considers the role of agency
(Martin, 2010; Simmie, 2012). Each sector within the bioeconomy has traditionally consisted of established value chains and industrial processes where
different inputs and resources – labour, investments, biological resources,
technologies, infrastructures, policies and management – determine how
value is created in the respective sectors. These value chains can thus be
viewed as conditioned by their surrounding systems of innovation.
From the 2000s, the systemic understanding of innovation was complemented by research on socio- technical transitions, which has served to reconsider and broaden conventional innovation theories and policies by focusing
on how entire systems may need to change more fundamentally. Particularly
sports nutrition, medical nutrition, health foods, bakery and dairy. Through
investments in state- of-the- art production equipment as well as in research
and development in the context of globalisation, Arla has achieved significant
market power, further increasing its ability to exploit the advantages of economies of scope and scale. See Chapter 9 for more details on this case.
3.5 Drivers of innovation in waste valorisation
To better understand the drivers and challenges associated with enabling a
shift towards a circular bioeconomy, we here discuss the literature on innovation and innovation policies. Schot and Steinmueller (2018) distinguish
between three generations of innovation policies in terms of different perspectives on what constitutes the main drivers of innovation and with respective implications for innovation policies. In the 1960s, innovation was
primarily seen to emerge from research and scientific discovery. This view of
innovation was very much oriented around technological development and
scientific discovery and a belief in the commercialisation of new technologies
and scientific breakthroughs. However, from the 1990s this view was supplemented by a more pronounced systemic understanding of how innovation
occurs through impulses from user needs in the market and through the interplay and collaboration between various types of actors (Edquist, 1997; Lundvall, 1992).
Such a systemic understanding of innovation also implies supplementing
the supply- oriented focus on the role of science with demand as also determining and conditioning innovation. The scholarly tradition on systems of
innovation has shown how innovation should not be understood as isolated
phenomena, but rather as being the output from collaboration and interactive
learning across diverse types of actors that possess various and complementary
capabilities. Moreover, it has illustrated how the spatial embeddedness and
context for the industry actors, such as networks, institutions, infrastructures
and policy frameworks, may also strongly affect innovation performance in
firms, sectors and regions. This has been elaborated in the economic geography literature on path development, which specifies how regional characteristics condition future development opportunities, outlines the various
stages in path development processes and considers the role of agency
(Martin, 2010; Simmie, 2012). Each sector within the bioeconomy has traditionally consisted of established value chains and industrial processes where
different inputs and resources – labour, investments, biological resources,
technologies, infrastructures, policies and management – determine how
value is created in the respective sectors. These value chains can thus be
viewed as conditioned by their surrounding systems of innovation.
From the 2000s, the systemic understanding of innovation was complemented by research on socio- technical transitions, which has served to reconsider and broaden conventional innovation theories and policies by focusing
on how entire systems may need to change more fundamentally. Particularly