64 research outputs found
The case of innovative breast cancer drug reimbursement
No full textCurrent research into patient advocacy focuses on attempts of patient groups to mobilise resources and to influence researchers, pharmaceutical companies and policy-makers. This paper adopts a ‘framing political opportunities’ approach to draw attention to other kinds of advocacy strategies. In a case study of breast cancer patient advocacy of Herceptin reimbursement, it is shown how patient groups tried to gain access to policy-making by means of three different opportunity-framing strategies. Articulation aims at creating awareness through public-agenda building. Negotiation aims at frame alignment between interdependent stakeholders by arranging meetings. Politicisation is a strategy to influence the agendas of political arenas. Patient organisations succeeded in creating awareness and support, which had a considerable impact on other stakeholders. These impacts in turn aided the politicisation of the issue. However, the final impact on reimbursement procedures was only partially achieved due to depoliticising counterstrategies based on persistent ideas buttressing a particular division of responsibilities in the organisation of healthcare. According to these ideas cost control in healthcare is a medical responsibility, not a political one
Anticipating emerging genomics technologies: the role of patents and publication for research and policy strategies
No full textCollective institutional work: the case of Airbnb in Amsterdam, London and New York
No full textGiven that online platforms disrupt established industries and challenge existing institutions, they can only be successful if their innovation becomes both legal and legitimate. This requires ‘institutional work’ that changes perceptions and regulations within society. Rather than only focussing on the online platform as the sole agent engaging in institutional work, our study analyses institutional work as a collective process. We investigate the case of home-sharing platform Airbnb and the process of institutional change its introduction prompted regarding short-term rental in Amsterdam, London and New York. We find, contrary to the popular view of online platforms as disruptive entrepreneurs, that the platform mainly focusses on creating new institutions rather than disrupting existing ones, and that users and non-users undertake most of the institutional work activities. We also show that different types of actors carry out different types of institutional work suggesting that the process of institutional work is highly distributed
Replacing meat, an easy feat? The role of strategic categorizing in the rise of meat substitutes
No full textThis study investigates categories and categorization strategies in the transition towards sustainable diets. We look at the rise of meat substitutes and understand the meat substitute category as a hybrid one, covering products that are to replace meat while implicitly appealing to vegetarian/vegan diets. The category is negatively defined, solely and explicitly indicating the product to be substituted. The category's fuzzy nature presents an innovation challenge for producers. We investigate the strategies of nine Dutch meat substitute producers that seek to resemble meat along five dimensions. We conclude that by privileging meat resemblance innovation strategies, most producers tend to ‘fit and conform’ to the meat regime, largely copying dominant production and consumption practices. However, we also show that, as a hybrid category that is negatively defined, the meat substitute category provides opportunities for more radical innovations that have the potential to ‘stretch and transform’ the regime in the longer run
Positioning of systemic intermediaries in sustainability transitions : Between storylines and speech acts
No full textHow do systemic intermediaries obtain legitimate roles for themselves in innovation systems and transition processes? This is still an understudied question in the study of systemic intermediaries. We start from the observation that roles, or positions, are not given, but emerge in interactions as a negotiated set of rights and obligations. Inspired by positioning theory, which has its roots in symbolic interactionism, we analyse how positions are invoked in the actors’ various actions and statements (‘speech acts’) and how they draw from the mutually constructed narratives (‘storylines’) that enable and constrain the range of possible positions. We analyse, over time, the positioning of three Dutch systemic intermediaries in agriculture, energy production, and healthcare. We conclude that systemic intermediaries move together with the promise of the field and, as a consequence, have to reposition themselves. In different phases, they both profit and suffer from the dilemma between initiating and sustaining innovative systemic changes.</p
Modelling the effects of gate planning on apron congestion
No full textOne of the infrastructural components that limits airport capacity is the available gate capacity. In order to use existing airport infrastructure, especially gates, more efficiently, one can look at new techniques to relieve congestion. One such technique is introducing socalled gate pit-stops. By introducing gate pit-stops, aircraft will be towed to a remote parking position between arrival and departure from the gate, in order to make space for other flights in the meantime [1]. The main risk of introducing gate pit-stops in airport operations is that the additional towing movements will inevitably increase the number of apron movements, potentially interfering with other traffic on or near the apron. As such, the main challenge in introducing gate pit-stops is modelling and integrating gate and apron movements, where a tradeoff can be made between gate utilization, towing movements, turnaround times and gate flexibility. Additionally, technological innovations such as an Electric Taxi System (ETS) need to be assessed as they can have a big impact on apron operations. Therefore, the effectiveness of gate pit-stops needs to be assessed, as well as the impact of factors such as gate utilization, towing movements and turnaround times on the effectiveness of such gate pit-stops
The study of institutional entrepreneurship and its implications for transition studies
No full textInnovations accompanying transitions often prompt institutional change if they do not match with existing institutions. Transition studies started to incorporate institutional dynamics into their research, but efforts hitherto remain underdeveloped. In this paper, we systematically review the institutional entrepreneurship literature. Based on a reading of 153 empirical cases, we identify trends and biases in the literature and we distil a number of insights for transition studies to engage with
Knowledge co-production in protective spaces: case studies of two climate adaptation projects
No full textKnowledge co-production, a mode of research including contributions both from academic and non-academic actors, is a promising approach for climate adaptation research in order to produce knowledge that supports the development of local and regional adaptation policies. However, such a local and practical focus may be ill-aligned with the global ambitions of academic participants. The differences between performance criteria of academic and non-academic partners make knowledge co-production unlikely to emerge and survive without protection. This paper aims to understand how different participants in knowledge co-production for climate adaptation can be protected from the norms, values, and performance criteria of their own respective organizations and communities. We found that combinations of shielding (moderating pressures from the selection environment), nurturing (supporting knowledge development), and empowerment (increasing influence over the contexts) activities lead to more successful knowledge co-production. Moreover, our analysis shows that there is no silver bullet for the protection of knowledge co-production. An effective protection strategy should be tailored to the research problem and the social network of a given program
Conceptualizing market formation for transformative policy
No full textTransitions are hardly conceivable without understanding how new markets are formed. However, there is still an incipient conceptualization of market formation in the context of transformation and transformative policy. Drawing on existing perspectives of market formation in economics of innovation, sociology of markets and marketing studies literature, this paper develops a framework for characterizing, differentiating and analyzing new market formation processes. We use three case studies to demonstrate how the framework is able to capture the dynamic and interconnected nature of market formation. The market formation framework serves to diagnose potential misalignments, bottlenecks and failures, to identify entry points for policy to intervene in market formation and support transformative innovation
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