From experiments to organizational change: Learning from urban logistics projects in Groningen and Bergen

Cities are increasingly employing experimentation to address complex sustainability challenges. Experimentation, premised on learning-by-doing, offers organizations the space to test interventions and learn from them. However, it is not clear whether and how experiments bring about organizational changes through learning. This paper seeks to scrutinize the relationship between experimentation, learning, and organizational change, and asks: To what extent does learning from experimentation bring about organizational change? Drawing on the literature on urban governance and sustainability transitions in the context of experimentation and learning, we conduct a cross-case comparison of four urban logistics experiments in the cities of Bergen and Groningen. Our findings show that whilst experiments indeed generate learning, this is not sufficient to bring about organizational change. Learning from the experiments themselves needs to be coupled with persistent relational work within and between organizations, in order to turn experimentation into actual organizational change. • Conceptual clarity on the relation between experiments, learning and organizational change • Uses urban logistics experiments in Bergen and Groningen • Experiments generate some form of learning; is not the same as change • Relational work crucial in reinforcing and embedding learning