35: Public and private organizations as change agents in transformations (Jakob Edler, Stefan Kuhlmann, Florian Helfrich)
Large public and private organizations uphold a critical role within the development and realisation of the transformation of wider socio-technological systems. With regards to studying overarching forms of governance of central societal actors involved in transformative processes, classical analyses heavily focused on traditional institutions and centrally managed actors. So far, innovation and other policies to achieve transformative missions tend to rely on established instruments, mostly supply side, fostering research and innovation activities to move in desired directions. Current, more sophisticated approaches, stimulate absorption and diffusion of innovation and support market creation and uptake. However, for existing socio-technological systems to shift towards sustainability, constitutive actors within such systems, like large public and private organisations, need to actively foster the transformation, as a process of internal and external organisational experimentation and innovation. They are critical actors in their respective system context in two ways: in the past they have co-produced the problematic effects of existing systems; in the future they can severely influence the speed and direction of transition of systems and act as change agents towards more sustainable systems – provided they manage to transform themselves, too. We understand such actors as very diverse organisations, ranging from large companies, governmental funding bodies, higher education institutions, and related intermediary organisations. They are situated between the individuals and their behaviour on the one hand, and the broader systems level on the other, for example at the meso-level of systems change, where they fulfil critical systemic functions.
Based on this understanding of central change agents in transformations, this panel aims at discussing central societal actors, such as public and private organizations, as change agents in transformations. We welcome papers that analyse critical change agents and their central role towards realising large scale societal transformations. We seek analyses on their involvement within socio-technical transformation processes, such as studies on the forms of re-orientation of their organisational missions, strategies and behaviours and re-configurations of their internal and external relationships. Which values and missions are changing based on these forms of re-orientation and strategic re-organization of actors? How are public and private organizations as change agents actively engaged in the very process of defining directions and orchestrating the system transformation, and to what extent are they critically reflecting about their roles and capabilities in related processes? And are there new or alternative forms of entrepreneurship and innovation which arise due to them?
We also observe that if critical meso-level actors resist change, transformations will be hindered or fail altogether. Therefore, we also welcome contributions that focus on instances of failed realisations of the transformative potential such actors possess and cases of disruption within ongoing transformations of wider socio-technological systems. Through this, the panel seeks to fill a critical gap in the context of mission oriented and transformative policies research by addressing the central role of large public and private organisations and analysing their potential towards engaging constructively with the transformation of wider socio-technological systems as an ongoing learning process.
Keywords: Corporate actors, system transformation, transition studies, meta-governance, organizational change, change agents, responsible research and innovation