Knowledge types to progress the development of sustainable technologies: a case study of Swedish demonstration plants

Abstract

Knowledge development and diffusion through demonstration plants are necessary to progress the development of sustainable technologies, yet current literature lacks detailed insights into which knowledge types are critical in facilitating this progress, and what the roles of different knowledge types are. We draw on knowledge-based theory and investigate four Swedish demonstration plants for advanced biofuels using case-study research. The findings underscore the need for and production of domain-specific, procedural and general knowledge to progress sustainable technology towards commercialization, with each type having a rather specific role and purpose. However, in the plants studied, there is a tendency to focus strongly on the generation of technical, domain-specific knowledge at the expense of procedural knowledge. This deficiency frequently creates problems since a lack of procedural knowledge on how to commoditize and commercialize technologies hinders efforts to move past the demonstration stage to large-scale commercialization. Based on these findings, the paper proposes novel approaches for dealing with these problems, and for managing knowledge more generally.