Seminar Economics of Innovation

Module No: 5209-611

Topic: Sustainability transitions and innovation systems

Please note: Our seminar is already fully booked.

Responsible person: Lea Stöber

Kick-off: November 7, 2023, 14:00-16:00

Delivery of Seminar Paper: January 16, 2023

Presentation: January 23, 2023, 14:00-tbc

Today more than ever, sustainability has become a topic of growing public interest and thus a central concept of socio-economic change. There is no doubt about the role of innovation in the transformation process towards higher degrees of sustainability. It seems to be clear that transformation means more than economic growth and development. A crucial difference is that besides qualitative changes, the transformation idea also includes changes (together with their feedbacks on the supply side) of the demand side and consumer behavior (e.g., the emergence of new life styles, prosumers & demand-side entrepreneurship, avantgarde consumers etc.). As transformation encompasses the overall economic system, it is relevant for almost all economic sectors and system actors. Prominently, the transformation idea is discussed in the context of the mobility sector, the energy sector and in the food & agriculture sector.

In this master seminar we will discuss hot topics in the field of innovation economics related to this issue. We will analyze different concepts, discuss the role of various innovation system actors and their behavior and present cases of ongoing sectoral transformation processes. Participating students will apply a broad spectrum of methods ranging from systematic literature reviews to text analyses and structured interviews to answer their research question(s). They will write their results up in a seminar paper and present them concisely in a presentation at the end of this course.

Please register for the seminar until November 3, 2023 via e-mail. Please enter as subject for the email: Master Seminar Summer Term 2023 [Your Student ID]. The seminar is limited to 10 participants.

Registration in our course "Scientific Writing/ Wissenschaftliches Arbeiten (ab WS2022)" is a prerequisite for joining the seminar.