Economic strategy alignment. The shift towards societal missions and goals in economic strategy from a business-perspective

Abstract

Economic innovation policy has seen a shift from a top-sector-oriented focus to a mission-driven focus to help realize national societal goals. This directly affects businesses and this research aims to examine how businesses in the province of Noord-Brabant (still) identify themselves with this renewed policy. In order to investigate this, all relevant strategies in the province are discussed and compared and interviews are held with a multitude of different organizations and businesses in the province, contributing to data triangulation and triangulation of sources. The main insights are that a shared mindset between businesses and mission-driven strategies proves to be a large contributor to alignment regarding societal missions and transitions. Also, in order to optimize this alignment, regional development agencies need to keep close to business context and support businesses in order to achieve profitable long-term business cases and -models. This will help to accelerate the shift and further contribute to societal missions and transitions. To achieve this, extensive work is still required. The results of this thesis can be used in order to further guide the shift to mission-driven policy and to understand how businesses experience this shift and economic strategies.