Innovation System Functions Analysis

Functions of Innovation Systems analysis explains technological change by examining how well an innovation system performs seven key functions—entrepreneurial activities, knowledge development, knowledge diffusion, guidance of the search, market formation, resource mobilisation, and the creation of legitimacy. Associated with Hekkert, Suurs, and colleagues at Utrecht, the approach operationalises these functions through event-history analysis: a chronological dataset of innovation events is coded, functional performance is tracked over time, and the reinforcing feedback loops—the 'motors' of cumulative causation—that drive a system's rise or stagnation are identified.