The Polycentric Governance of Innovation Systems

The governance of innovation systems reflects upon how decisions are made, the rules that govern who makes decisions are formed, institutions are established and interactions occur. Governance strongly affects how innovation systems emerge and yet has received limited attention. Many actors fulfill certain functions, indicating that the emergence of innovation systems is likely to transpire in many different spaces at the same time. We expect governance to occur in multiple centers of an innovation system and in differing ways. Therefore, a polycentric governance lens can be a powerful means to evaluate the patchwork of decision-making centers, which we apply to offshore renewable energies. We observe that the system is governed polycentrically and identify five decision-making centers: legislative, market, industry, research & development and demonstration. Each center is unique and operates under different institutional conditions. We suggest that all innovation systems have a distinct polycentric composition