Assessment of a national system of sustainable innovation in residential construction: a case study from The Netherlands

This paper provides an assessment of the performance of a national system of sustainable innovation using a case study of the Dutch residential building industry. This project covered a 16-year period. Normally, a nation's population of commercial firms and research institutions should have the lead in the development of a sustainable innovation organisation, with the government in a supporting role. However, our study showed that the government took a central role with just a few specialised firms in a supporting role, and with a majority of the firms in industry acting passively. Despite this contradiction, the innovation system functioned very well, and showed significant results.