How institutional logics hamper innovation: The case of animal testing

•Changing institutional logics is as important for success of innovation as the buildup of innovation systems.•Understanding the institutional logic reinforcing established practices can elucidate barriers to innovation.•Adding an analysis of institutional logics to an innovation system analysis presents a more encompassing analysis.

For radical innovation to become successful the substitution of established practices are essential. Nevertheless, in the innovation literature novelty is often at the center and only little attention is paid to the influence of established technologies and underlying routines. This paper aims to contribute to this gap by increasing the understanding about the effect of persistence of established practices on the innovation process. We do this by using a framework that combines the Technological Innovation System approach with an analysis of the institutional logics reinforcing the established practice. The studied case concerns the innovation process to animal-free medicine development. Despite the fact that the substitution of animal tests is called for since the 1980s and animal-free methods are available, animal tests are still being used in medicine development. This study shows that adding institutional logics to the innovation systems analysis creates a much better understanding of the speed and direction of radical innovation.