Various researchers and policy analysts have made empirical studies of innovation systems in order to understand their current structure and trace their dynamics. However, policy makers often experience difficulties in extracting practical guidelines from studies of this kind. In this paper, we operationalize our previous work on a functional approach to analyzing innovation system dynamics into a practical scheme of analysis for policy makers. The scheme is based on previous literature and our own experience in developing and applying functional thinking. It can be used by policy makers not only to identify the key policy issues but also to set policy goals.

Research on sustainability transitions has expanded rapidly in the last ten years, diversified in terms of topics and geographical applications, and deepened with respect to theories and methods. This article provides an extensive review and an updated research agenda for the field, classified into nine main themes: understanding transitions; power, agency and politics; governing transitions; civil society, culture and social movements; businesses and industries; transitions in practice and everyday life; geography of transitions; ethical aspects; and methodologies. The review shows that the scope of sustainability transitions research has broadened and connections to established disciplines have grown stronger. At the same time, we see that the grand challenges related to sustainability remain unsolved, calling for continued efforts and an acceleration of ongoing transitions. Transition studies can play a key role in this regard by creating new perspectives, approaches and understanding and helping to move society in the direction of sustainability.

Incubators have become a ubiquitous phenomenon in many parts of the world and are viewed as a tool for promoting the development of technology-based growth firms. Considering the large faith and the considerable amounts of money invested in incubators, the identification of best practice incubator models is of importance. Previous incubator assessment literature has tended to emphasise the measurement of incubator outcomes. In this paper, we argue that best practise identification requires a holistic approach, where the goals of the incubators are taken into account and the performance of different incubators are put in relation to their incubator models. In this context, the aim of this paper is to develop a framework that can serve as a basis for identifying best practice incubator models and for more rigorous evaluations of incubator performance. The framework suggested includes three distinguishing model components: selection, business support and mediation. We distinguish between ideafocused selection and entrepreneur-focused selection as well as between "picking-thewinners" and "survival-of-the-fittest" selection. Business support is seen as a continuum from "laissez-faire" to "strong intervention". Mediation strategies vary in terms of the type of innovation system in focus: technological, regional or cluster. The framework is applied to 16 Swedish incubators.

This paper analyses the development and diffusion of technologies that utilise renewable energy sources in Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands. The analysis enlarges the life cycle model of industry evolution to one where the focus is on the formation and evolution of new technological systems. Particular focus is on explaining success and failures in shifting from a formative phase into one characterised by positive feedbacks. A set of challenges is identified for policy makers attempting to influence the process of transforming the energy sector.* This paper provides a synthesis of work undertaken within the framework of the project "Shaping and exploiting technological opportunities -the case of the Swedish capital goods industry"s venture into renewable energy technology". The Swedish Energy Agency kindly financed our work, which was undertaken under the auspices of IMIT. Funding was also received from Gothenburg Energy Ltd. Research Foundation for one of our case studies. The study would have been impossible to undertake without this support and without the time generously given to us by a large number of people in Swedish, German and Dutch firms, research institutes and other organisations. We are also grateful to Jan Finn, Volkmar Lauber, Ole Jess Olsen, Adrian Smith and two anonymous referees for useful comments on an earlier draft.2

This paper addresses interactions between technological innovation systems (TIS) and wider "context structures". While TIS studies have always considered various kinds of contextual influences, we suggest that the TIS framework can be further strengthened by a more elaborated conceptualization of TIS context structures and TIS-context interactions. For that purpose, we identify and discuss four especially important types of context structures: technological, sectoral, geographical and political. For each of these, we provide examples of different ways in which context structures can interact with a focal TIS and how our understanding of TIS dynamics is enhanced by considering them explicitly. Lessons for analysts are given and a research agenda is outlined.