From experiments to organizational change: Learning from urban logistics projects in Groningen and Bergen

Subina Shrestha, Håvard Haarstad, Ward Rauws and Paul Buijs

Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 2025, vol. 213, issue C

Abstract: Cities are increasingly employing experimentation to address complex sustainability challenges. Experimentation, premised on learning-by-doing, offers organizations the space to test interventions and learn from them. However, it is not clear whether and how experiments bring about organizational changes through learning. This paper seeks to scrutinize the relationship between experimentation, learning, and organizational change, and asks: To what extent does learning from experimentation bring about organizational change? Drawing on the literature on urban governance and sustainability transitions in the context of experimentation and learning, we conduct a cross-case comparison of four urban logistics experiments in the cities of Bergen and Groningen. Our findings show that whilst experiments indeed generate learning, this is not sufficient to bring about organizational change. Learning from the experiments themselves needs to be coupled with persistent relational work within and between organizations, in order to turn experimentation into actual organizational change.

Keywords: Urban experimentation; Learning; Governance; Sustainability transitions; Urban logistics; Organizational change (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:213:y:2025:i:c:s004016252500054x

DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2025.124023

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