Analysing the role of consumers within Technological Innovation Systems towards sustainability: the case of Alternative Food Networks

In recent years, an increasing number of studies have stressed the relevance of the consumer experience in the research of new trajectories towards sustainability. On the early stage of an innovation process the purchase continue to be strategic for the market creation although consumers should not be conceived only as selector of different commercial options. This paper argues for a broader application of Technological Innovation System (TIS) conceptual framework and proposes an analytical approach that explicitly considers consumers and producers as interacting and then coevolving actors. In this view the transition towards sustainability is not exclusively a production based innovation process and also the interactive relation between consumers and producers may foster the transition towards a new socio-technical regime. The conceptual framework will be introduced and exemplified with the case of Alternative Food Networks, a TIS in the food industry, based on a meta-analysis of the literature.