Interplay of policy experimentation and institutional change in sustainability transitions: The case of mobility as a service in Finland

• Published in: Research policy 2022-01, Vol.51 (1), p.104412, Article 104412
• Main Authors: Kivimaa, Paula, Rogge, Karoline S.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Innovation policy; Mobility-as-a-service; Policy experiments; Sustainability transitions; Transport
• ISSN: 0048-7333; 1873-7625
• DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2021.104412

•Focus on policy experimentation and institutional change in transitions.•Two types of policy experiments identified in relation to innovation policy.•An in-depth case study of mobility as a service (MaaS) in Finland is presented.•Institutional change enables conducive context for policy experimentation.•Learning from policy experimentation can push transformative institutional change. While experimentation is at the heart of sustainability transitions, little attention has been paid to policy experimentation and its effects in advancing transitions. Drawing on the literatures on policy experimentation and institutional change in the context of sustainability transitions, we analyse an in-depth case study of the development of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in Finland – one of the first countries globally to advance MaaS by government support. Our findings show how a potentially disruptive innovation, MaaS, can be traced back to a longer process of administrative reorientation and restructuring, i.e. gradual transformation in institutions, and has benefitted from cycles of policy experimentation, combined with the sequencing of policy strategies and further changes in the policy mix. Administrative restructuring has enabled policy experimentation that has led - via new vision building, networking and learning - to major regulatory change allowing market creation for MaaS. We conclude that the dynamics of policy mixes in transitions are influenced by short-term policy experimentation and long-term institutional change. More generally, institutional change is vital for enabling a favourable context for policy experimentation in sustainability transitions that in turn provides cognitive and normative learning to inform further institutional change.