Regional preconditions and sustainability transition pathways: Insights from circular, bio-based and resource-efficient building material innovations in Vietnam

High urbanization dynamics and major construction activities in its cities have highlighted the need for more sustainable building practices in the Global South. While local innovation processes take place at the grassroots level, they often struggle to break through. The study follows the main research question of how regional preconditions characterize the innovation, diffusion and transition dynamics of different “green” building material technologies in different spatial settings of Vietnam. We seek to understand the relations between local socio-technical configurations and the diversity of innovations and potential transition pathways. This is particularly relevant for southern contexts where scholars have noted a greater regime heterogeneity. Instead of black boxing “green innovations” and “the Global South”, we study place- and technology-specific effects of regional configurations as preconditions for the development and diffusion of circular, bio-based and more resource-efficient building material innovations in three regions of Vietnam (Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City). To understand the region- and technology-specific characteristics, we build a framework that differentiates three main dimensions of regional preconditions, institutional factors, the technical specialisation and material flows, and thirdly, market networks and demand. The results show that some preconditions vary for different material innovations and regions while others take effect across technologies, regions or scales. This creates highly differentiated opportunity-spaces for different innovations that can be addressed with targeted and diversified transition strategies that address (trans) regional preconditions on different scales and for different emergent technologies and regions.