Entrepreneurship, responsible innovation and institutional reform: The case of Maasvlakte 2

The paper deals with the tension between accountability and sustainability in relation to institutional domains and it discusses the conditions under which these two principles can be reconciled effectively and legitimately, enabling responsible innovation. The Rotterdam Port Authority serves as a case, with special attention to its latest construction project: Maasvlakte 2. This port extension project, initiated and shaped as a showpiece of sustainable engineering, will be analysed, on the one hand, as an example of sustainable and responsible development, and, on the other hand, as a source of lessons for such development. The implementation of dialogue processes in which the content of sustainability is substantiated turns out to be essential in order to engage in responsible port development.