Value Change in Mission-Oriented Seaweed Innovation

Abstract According to the neo-Schumpeterian mission-oriented innovation policy framework, innovation efforts are to be aligned with public values. This implies that innovation policy should ensure that the direction of innovation is aligned with non-economic values and goals. Through conceptual analyses of value and sustainability theories and Schumpeterian conceptions of value that undergird the mission-oriented policy approach, this article uses the case of seaweed innovation in Norway to discuss the role of values and value change in public-private innovation efforts in a context of mission-oriented innovation. In this case, innovation involves giving determinate meaning to concepts such as “sustainability”. Acts of giving meaning to values reside neither fully in top-down direction setting nor bottom-up experimentation. The theory of mission-oriented innovation needs to take into account how innovation can be aligned with values that are subject to change.