Field of work
Professor Coenen is an economic geographer and scholar in innovation studies. His research interests converge around the geography of innovation: Why is it that some regions and cities in the world stand out in their ability to foster and diffuse novelty? What explains this spatial concentration of innovation in an era of globalization? How can regions and cities improve their capacity to innovate? In particular he is interested in addressing this broad set of questions on innovations related to pressing societal challenges such as climate change. Professor Coenen is well-known internationally for his work on regional and urban innovation and, in particular, his pioneering research on the geography of environmental innovation and sustainability transitions. He is author of more than 50 scientific papers published in leading international journals such as Research Policy, Environment and Planning A and Economic Geography. His work has had considerable scientific impact with over 9000 citations in Scholar Google. Most of his research has been supported through competitive grants, financed e.g. by JPI Urban Europe, the European Framework 7 Program, the Swedish Energy Agency and Nordic Energy Research. Previously, Lars was full professor at CIRCLE, the Centre for Innovation, Research, and Competence in the Learning Economy at Lund University, where he was heading up a research group dealing with innovation and sustainability transitions. During his time at CIRCLE in Sweden, Professor Coenen has been a frequent scientific advisor for the Swedish Innovation Agency, VINNOVA. From 2017-2020 he has been the inaugural ‘City of Melbourne Chair of Resilient Cities’, at the Melbourne Sustainable Society Institute of the University of Melbourne, Australia.
Publications
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Mission-Oriented Innovation Districts: Towards challenge-led, place-based urban innovation
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Sustainability transitions to circular cities: Experimentation between urban vitalism and mechanism
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Faster, broader, and deeper! Suggested directions for research on net-zero transitions
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Progress in Economic Geography: Inaugural editorial
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Negotiating contested values: Building a new university embedded in and responsible for its region
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Enhancing the sustainability dimension in Smart Specialisation strategies: a framework for reflection
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Mission incomplete: Layered practices of monitoring and evaluation in Swedish transformative innovation policy
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Assessing change agency in urban experiments for sustainability transitions
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Municipal experimentation in times of crises: (Re-)defining Melbourne's innovation district
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Koronapandemiens følger for grønn omstilling i norsk næringsliv
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Beyond automobility? Lock-in of past failures in low-carbon urban mobility innovations
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Universities’ contribution to culture and creativity-led regional development: Conflicting institutional demands and hybrid organizational responses
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Effectuated sustainability: Responsible Innovation Labs for impact forecasting and assessment
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Contemporary financial capitalism and sustainability transitions in urban built environments
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Smart Specialization in Australia: Between Policy Mobility and Regional Experimentalism?
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Marked eller «Mission Economics»?
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Addressing sustainability challenges and Sustainable Development Goals via Smart Specialisation. Towards a theoretical and conceptual framework
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Realising the transition to bioenergy: Integrating entrepreneurial business models into the biogas socio-technical system in Uganda
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Increasing the speed, scope, and level of decarbonization for meeting the Net-zero 2050 challenge. Implications for sustainability transitions research
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Lock-in, paradox and regional renewal
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Regional foundations of energy transitions
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Are rapid and inclusive energy and climate transitions oxymorons? Towards principles of responsible acceleration
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Business model innovation and scalability in hybrid affordable housing organisations: empirical insights and conceptual reflections from Melbourne, Australia
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Place-Based Directionality of Innovation: Tasmanian Salmon Farming and Responsible Innovation
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Understanding how city networks are leveraging climate action: experimentation through C40
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Scaling-up nature-based solutions. Lessons from the Living Melbourne strategy
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Future-proof cities through governance experiments? Insights from the Resilient Melbourne Strategy (RMS)
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Geographies of transition—From topical concerns to theoretical engagement: A comment on the transitions research agenda
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Metropolitan governance in action? Learning from metropolitan Melbourne’s Urban Forest Strategy
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Regional Innovation
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Evolving geographies of innovation: existing paradigms, critiques and possible alternatives
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Reconfiguring urban governance in an age of rising city networks: A research agenda
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Impacts of urban living labs on sustainability transitions: mechanisms and strategies for systemic change through experimentation
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Urban experimentation & sustainability transitions
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A Decade of C40: Research Insights andAgendas for City Networks
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Situating C40 in the Evolution of Networked Urban Climate Governance
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Innovation policy for system-wide transformation: The case of strategic innovation programmes (SIPs) in Sweden
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Governing socio-technical change: Orchestrating demand for assisted living in ageing societies
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Governing system innovation: assisted living experiments in the UK and Norway
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Technological innovation systems for biorefineries: a review of the literature
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The role of trials and demonstration projects in the development of a sustainable bioeconomy
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Unpacking resource mobilisation by incumbents for biorefineries: the role of micro-level factors for technological innovation system weaknesses
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Enabling the transition to a bio-economy: innovation system dynamics and policy. Summary report from an f3 project
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Path creation as a process of resource alignment and anchoring: Industry formation for on-site water recycling in Beijing
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Bioeconomy in Denmark
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The circular bioeconomy in Scandinavia
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Value chain structures that define second generation bio-refineries in Europe
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Advancing regional innovation systems: What does evolutionary economic geography bring to the policy table?
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A co-evolutionary approach to transformative change in health care – The case of active ageing
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The geography of sustainability transitions: Review, synthesis and reflections on an emergent research field
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Commercializing Clean Technology Innovations – The Emergence of New Business in an Agency-Structure Perspective
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Methods and applications of regional innovation systems analysis
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Innovation Policy for Grand Challenges. An Economic Geography Perspective
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Engaging with changing spatial realities in TIS research
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Technology Opportunities in Nordic Energy System Transitions (TOP-NEST): Final report
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Institutional context and cluster emergence: the biogas industry in southern Sweden
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Coordination, timing and scale in policy mixes for sustainable transitions: the pulp and paper industry in Sweden
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Path Renewal in Old Industrial Regions: Possibilities and Limitations for Regional Innovation Policy
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Broadening the national focus in technological innovation system analysis: The case of offshore wind
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The role of transnational dimensions in emerging economy 'Technological Innovation Systems' for clean-tech
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Demonstrasjonsprosjekters rolle i overgangen til bærekraftig energi og transport: Policy brief fra prosjektet InnoDemo
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The role of policy instruments for an environmentally sustainable and competitive food industry: Sweden in a comparative perspective. A Literature Review
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Regional pathways and innovation policies: A comparative analysis across different types of regions in norway
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Why space matters in technological innovation systems-Mapping global knowledge dynamics of membrane bioreactor technology
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The role of policy instruments for a sustainable and competitive pulp and paper industry: Sweden in a comparative perspective. A literature review. NIFU Working Paper
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Betydelsen av politiska styrmedel för ökad hållbarhet och konkurrenskraft i massa- och pappersindustrin: Sverige i ett jämförande perspektiv. En litteraturgenomgång
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Toward a spatial perspective on sustainability transitions
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Toward a spatial perspective on sustainability transitions
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What Does Evolutionary Economic Geography Bring To The Policy Table? Reconceptualising regional innovation systems
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Commercializing clean technology innovations – the emergence of new business in an agency-structure perspective
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Renewal of mature industry in an old industrial region: regional innovation policy and the co-evolution of institutions and technology
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Systematic anchoring of global innovation processes and new industry formation - the emergence of on-site water recycling in China
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Betydelsen av politiska styrmedel för ökad hållbarhet och konkurrenskraft i massa- och pappersindustrin: Sverige i ett jämförande perspektiv
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Role of demonstration projects in innovation: transition to sustainable energy and transport
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What does evolutionary economic geography bring to the policy table? Re-considering regional innovation policy
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Advancing sustainable urban transformation
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The Emergence of the Norwegian Solar Photovoltaic Industry in a Regional Perspective
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Konstruksjon av regionale konkurransefortrinn i ulike typer norske regioner
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What Does Evolutionary Economic Geography Bring To The Policy Table? Reconceptualising regional innovation systems
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Toward a spatial perspective on sustainability transitions
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Sustainability transitions in the making: A closer look at actors, strategies and resources
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Places and Spaces of Sustainability Transitions: Geographical Contributions to an Emerging Research and Policy Field
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Environmental Innovation and Sustainability Transitions in Regional Studies
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From regional development coalitions to commercial innovations. NORDREGIO Report 03/2005