Introductory paragraph:

Large-scale government programmes and centrally directed industrial policies to address well-defined societal goals – mission-oriented innovation policies (hereafter referred to as ‘missions’) – are now prominent on many governments' agendas. This new-found enthusiasm that a ‘visible hand’ should – or perhaps even must – drive the economy forward has, until recently, escaped significant critical scrutiny. There is a dearth of academic studies examining how, when and why such missions often risk failure.