A technological innovation systems approach to analyse the roles of intermediaries in eco-innovation

The literature on intermediaries faces challenges regarding how to conceptualise and empirically demonstrate the system-level impact of intermediaries. Thus, researchers and policy analysts may experience difficulties in grasping the potential contributions of intermediaries beyond individual projects and firms to aggregate levels of an innovation system. This article combines innovation intermediary and technological innovation systems literature to develop fundamentals of an approach for analysing how organisations acting as intermediaries support firms in eco-innovation and potentially contribute to technological innovation system functions. The operationalisation of the analytical approach is illustrated using case studies on a total of eight support organisations acting as intermediaries in the region of Scania, Sweden and North Rhine Westphalia, Germany. For researchers and policy analysts, the analytical approach presented in this article offers the opportunity for a step-by-step, comprehensive and transparent analysis of different types of intermediaries, their roles, and potential contributions to innovation system functions. •Innovation intermediary and Technological Innovation Systems literatures are combined.•Fundamentals of an approach to analyse the system-level impact of intermediaries are presented.•The approach is illustrated by analysing eco-innovation intermediaries in Sweden and Germany.•The contributions of innovation intermediaries to TIS functions are explored.•Intermediaries contribute to several TIS functions and particularly to resource mobilisation.