Sustainable innovation research methods

With the shift in focus of innovation policy goals from economic prosperity to sustainability, a need for accompanying methods and indicators arises. This chapter discusses the main methodological approaches used to study sustainable innovation processes, including process-focused and outcome-focused approaches. The chapter calls for (1) increasing efforts to systematically analyse the existing body of case study research to identify common patterns and processes. Despite their limitations, efforts should also continue to collect data and indicators on sustainable innovation with global coverage. (2) Attention for the broader technological, social, and economic context in which sustainable innovation takes place, that is, a systemic perspective is needed. And (3) the use of a wide variety of indicators to evaluate sustainable innovation. This requires mixed method approaches and a further integration of quantitative and qualitative methods as well as a reconnection between the sustainability transitions community and the general innovation sciences community.