CO-CREATION WITH DIVERSE ACTORS FOR SUSTAINABILITY INNOVATION

Sustainability driven innovations differ from current established technologies imposing new requirements on users and often interdependent with other actors' changes. Strategic Niche Management (SNM) stresses interactions between actors through niches i.e. protected spaces for experimentation to support innovation. However, it is unclear what activities are necessary when different actors are involved in developing and diffusing sustainability innovation. This paper aims at identifying activities crucial for sustainability innovation in an implemented mobility project. The results show that co-creation through iterations and reflections by combinations of diverse actors and users can be considered a core process for sustainability innovation. Six activities are identified as critical: matching the interdependencies by combining the actors' diverse competences and resources; facilitating to steer the group of actors into actions; engaging users at early stages of innovation; trying to drive change by offering the users an opportunity; co-creating through a multitude of actors with the development and usage simultaneously; steering and facilitating to enable co-creation.