The Nexus Between Innovation, Value Chains, and Social Sustainability in the Context of a Bioeconomy Upgrading

ABSTRACT The transition to a bio‐based economy promises a path toward reducing greenhouse gas emissions while creating new business opportunities. However, a sustainable transition implies shifting from high‐volume, low‐value biomass technologies to advanced biotechnologies that minimize biomass requirements and negative environmental impacts while maximizing economic value‐added. This accelerated innovation process, which we define as a bioeconomy upgrading, will likely reshape value chain structures and affect benefits distribution. Yet, previous studies have ignored the relationship between value chains and technological change in the bioeconomy. Using a qualitative approach based on value chain mapping, we develop an overarching conceptual framework based on six representative models of bio‐based value chains to study the nexus between innovation, value chains, and social sustainability in the transition to a bioeconomy. This framework is illustrated with up‐to‐date business examples and validated through an expert survey. We find that a bioeconomy upgrading is associated with shorter and more vertically coordinated value chains, a leading role by big firms, and higher levels of research cooperation among firms. Finally, we argue that these changes in the organizational structures coming from accelerated bio‐based innovation may expose the most vulnerable value chain actors to new risks and thus propose some lines of thought regarding the potential distributional effects.