Interplay of Policy Experimentation and Institutional Change in Transformative Policy Mixes: The Case of Mobility as a Service in Finland

Calls have been made for new ways of thinking about innovation policy to address pressing global sustainability problems. ‘Transformative innovation policy’ (TIP) is proposed as one such way. Given the newness of thinking on TIP, empirical insights are needed into how ongoing efforts by public administrations link to TIP, and how policy experimentation connecting to TIP intertwines with formal institutional change and policy mixes. We connect literatures on policy experimentation, institutional change and policy mixes for sustainability transitions to create an analytical framework on the interplay between these elements, which we apply to an in-depth case study of the development of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in Finland. The findings show how a potentially disruptive innovation, MaaS, can be traced back to a longer process of administrative reorientation and restructuring, i.e. gradual transformation in formal institutions, and has benefitted from cycles of policy experimentation, new vision building and learning, combined with a sequence of policy strategies and major regulatory change. The evolving ‘transformative’ policy mix has influenced transition by supporting niche development through policy experimentation as well as changing the established mobility regime through formal institutional change.