A critical review of approaches available for design and innovation teams through the perspective of sustainability science and system innovation theories

Sustainability is a system property; therefore, products/services/technologies/organisations cannot be sustainable on their own but they may be elements of sustainable systems. In addition, to achieve sustainability, there is a requirement for transformation of socio-technical systems which fulfil certain social functions such as energy, mobility and food. The theoretical and practical approaches proposed so far in the broad field of design and innovation for sustainability have not satisfactorily addressed system level changes. This paper provides a critical review of approaches targeting different phases of design and innovation processes. The strengths/shortcomings of these approaches are analysed based on the criteria developed by integrating insights from sustainability science and system innovation/transition management theories. Based on the critical review, a future research agenda is suggested in following areas: exploration of synergies between existing approaches/tools/methods, development of a theoretical framework for design and innovation for sustainability with references to system innovation and transition management theories, and, development of new approaches/tools/methods for the use of design and innovation teams. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.