Prof Frank Boons

Professor Frank Boons is a leading scholar at the University of Manchester, focusing on the innovation processes surrounding contested sustainability issues. His research conceptualizes innovation in consumption and production practices as an embedded phenomenon, emphasizing the processual nature of sustainable innovation over traditional systems of innovation. By examining longitudinal cases across various contexts—including regional industrial clusters, urban regeneration, industrial sector evolution, and sustainable business model development—he aims to develop analytical tools to understand innovation as a sequence of events. His methodology incorporates quantitative techniques such as social network analysis, sequence analysis, and predictive analytics, combined with interpretive approaches to generate meaningful insights. With over 20 years of experience as an economic sociologist in environmental sciences, Professor Boons currently serves as associate editor for the Journal of Industrial Ecology (Business and Environment) and as a subject editor for the Journal of Cleaner Production (Governance of Material and Energy Flows).