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Systems innovation examples

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This page is a work-in-progress. Your feedback is important! Please share your questions, ideas or other feedback with Claudio Lazo, Wouter van den Berg, Célestine de Zeeuw and/or Mirjam Groote Schaarsberg.

Whereas the other pages describe abstract, conceptual aspects to systems innovation, we also need to point at real-world situations or events and say "That's it! That's systems innovation!". This page is an inventory and showcase dedicated to the systems innovation approach.

Following TNO's promises to society, the examples are grouped into sustainability, health, security and digital socio-technical systems.

Sustainable society​

  • Sustainable housing, buildings and materials in Belgium (OECD, 2015)
  • Diffusion of energy carriers in the US, Dutch energy transition (TNO, 2014, p.11)
  • Sustainable renovation of multi-family housing in Sweden, sustainable building and retrofitting in Austria (OECD, 2015)
  • E-mobility in Austria, electric vehicles in China (OECD, 2015)
  • Green growth in Korea, Bio-based economy in Netherlands (OECD, 2015)
  • Reuse of gypsum from construction and demolition waste (TNO, 2014)
  • Wind energy in Denmark vs Netherlands (TNO, 2014, p.17)
  • Agri-food systems innovation due to COVID-19 (Barrett et al., 2021)

Healthy society​

  • Long-term care and assisted living in UK (OECD, 2015)
  • The Vegan Society, founded in 1944, shows how system transitions take time but can start from a (social) innovation (Leadbeater & Winhall, 2020)
  • The development of the birth control pill (Eig, 2014)
  • Pandemics: COVID-19, AIDS (France, 2017)
  • Commissioning of support services for young adults (AU, CAN, UK)
  • Buurtzorg and social care in Netherland (Leadbeater & Winhall, 2020)

Safe and secure society​

  • Reducing violence rates in Glasgow (Leadbeater & Winhall, 2020)

Digital society​

  • Emergence of postal communications in 19th century US (Henkin, 2007)
  • Electrification in the West, 1880-1930 (Hughes, 1983)
  • Age of the Internet (Tuomi, 2002)
  • Technology platforms in Russia (OECD, 2015)

Other examples of Systems Innovation

  • The adoption of jet airlines shows the difference between an incremental and transformative innovation approach (Leadbeater & Winhall, 2020)
  • The invention of the shipping container changing the world economy (Levinson, 2006)
  • Megaprojects such as London Heathrow Terminal 5 (Davies et al., 2009)
  • Smart cities in Finland, Germany (OECD, 2015)
  • Cluster policies in Russia (OECD, 2015)
  • Mountain bikes, Schooling in Harlem, Bloomberg, M Pesa (Leadbeater & Winhall, 2020)

References

Barrett, C. B., Fanzo, J., Herrero, M., Mason-D’Croz, D., Mathys, A., Thornton, P., ... & Sibanda, L. M. (2021). COVID-19 pandemic lessons for agri-food systems innovation. Environmental Research Letters, 16(10), 101001.

Davies, Andrew; Gann, David and Douglas, Tony (2009), ‘Innovation in Megaprojects: Systems Integration at London Heathrow Terminal 5’, California Management Review, Vol. 51, No.2.

Eig, J. (2014). The Birth of the Pill, WW Norton.

France, David (2017), How to Survive a Plague, Penguin Random House

Henkin, David (2007), The Postal Age: The Emergence of Modern Communications in Nineteenth Century America, University of Chicago Press

Hughes, Thomas, P (1983), Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930, Johns Hopkins University Press

Leadbeater, C., & Winhall, J. (2020). Building Better Systems. A Green Paper on System Innovation. Rockwool Foundation, Copenhagen.

Levinson, M. (2008), The Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and The World Economic Bigger, Princeton University Press

OECD (2015). Systems innovation synthesis report.

Tuomi, Ilka (2002), Networks of Innovation: Change and Meaning in the Age of the Internet, Oxford University Press

TNO (2014). Systemic Innovation: Concepts and tools for strengthening National and European Eco-policies.

Last updated on by Wouter van den Berg