Radosevic, Slavo, Tsekouras, George ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7801-8417 and Wostner, Peter (2026) Beyond pilots and policy labs: institutionalizing experimentation through transformative partnerships. Policy Design and Practice. ISSN 2574-1292 (Online) (doi:10.1080/25741292.2026.2704271)

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Abstract

This paper conceptualizes the upscaling challenge in transformative innovation Policy (tiP) as a distinct governance problem. While experimentation is central to tiP, much of the literature focuses on pilots, policy labs, and bounded policy trials, paying less attention to how experimentation can be institutionalized once the objective is system-level change. We argue that pilots remain useful for testing narrowly specified interventions. however, they offer an incomplete institutional solution for transformative programmes that support socio-technical and territorial change. scaling changes actor behavior, accountability demands, coordination requirements, and the political basis of legitimacy; it also unfolds over timeframes in which technologies, markets, and initial assumptions may change substantially. however, allowing experimentation to continue while scaling up raises the issue of governance, namely, how tiP can be governed in a way to balance these tensions and allow experimentation to continue without impeding the scaling-up process or vice versa. to address this gap, we develop a framework that contrasts agency-led, ecosystem-led, and hybrid governance solutions and investigate the extent to which these solutions support (or not) this dual objective of continued experimentation while scaling up. these solutions are being discussed across different institutional contexts using four european cases: slovenia’s smart specialization strategic partnerships, sweden’s ViNNVÄXt, the Dutch innovation Performance contracts, and Denmark’s innovation Networks. across institutionally different settings, these cases reveal common governance mechanisms: brokerage, diagnostic monitoring, tailored support, and mutually reinforcing top-down and bottom-up coordination. On this basis, we introduce transformative partnerships as an institutional form that embeds experimentation in governance rather than treating it as an isolated pilot. the paper contributes by specifying scaling as a governance issue in tiP and by identifying institutional design features that enable experimentation to become cumulative, adaptive, and durable.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Transformative Innovation Policy, governance of experimentation, transformative partnerships, policy coordination, European innovation programmes
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Greenwich Business School > Networks and Urban Systems Centre (NUSC) Greenwich Business School Greenwich Business School > School of Business, Operations and Strategy
Last Modified:	06 Aug 2026 07:37
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/53999

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