INTRODUCTION This article contributes to theorizing about the role policy learning in policy development—with specific reference to innovation policy. Over the past three decades scholars have synthesized various perspectives on policy learning (Bennett & Howlett, 1992; Bradford & Wolfe, 2017; Moyson et al., 2017). Others have incorporated insights from that synthesis into the analysis of innovation policy (Borrás, 2011; Koschatzky, 2009; Nauwelaers & Wintjes, 2008).