Innovation studies, social innovation, and sustainability transitions research: From mutual ignorance towards an integrative perspective?

•Develops a definition of goal-oriented transformative change (GOTC).•Discusses conceptual underpinnings of innovation studies, social innovation, and sustainability transitions research.•Identifies a gap: none of these three strands of the innovation literature can capture all fundamental aspects of GOTC.•Widens the extant conceptual models’ scope to explore the co-evolution of technology, economy, and society to understand GOTC.•Develops four building blocks for an integrative framework to guide, analyse and assess GOTC.