Storper, Michael, Ziegler, J Nicholas, Botelho, Antonio José Junqueira, and Ornston, Darius. “On Mariana Mazzucato’s Mission Economy: a Moonshot Guide to Changing Capitalism, London, Allen Lane, 2021.” Socio-Economic Review, Volume 20, Issue 3, July 2022, Pages 1501–1511. Published: 07 September 2022. DOI: 10.1093/ser/mwac042. Oxford University Press.

1. Mismatch Between Moonshot Approach and Contemporary Problems: The book’s analogy of the Apollo Moonshot for solving today’s complex problems is seen as mismatched. The Apollo mission was a top-down, single-goal mission, which contrasts with the multifaceted nature of current societal and environmental challenges like climate change and social justice.
2. Nature of Modern Innovation: The book emphasizes large-scale, government-led technological missions, but critics argue that 21st-century innovation is more decentralized and networked. They point out that today’s innovation landscape involves open corporate labs, startups, and venture capital, differing significantly from the centralized approaches of the Apollo era.
3. Social Choice and Democratic Involvement: The book suggests a mission-oriented approach to address societal issues but doesn’t adequately address how these missions should be democratically chosen or how they can avoid being captured by special interests.
4. Complexity of Contemporary Innovation: Modern innovation is characterized as highly complex, decentralized, and uncertain, making it challenging to coordinate through large-scale, centralized missions like the Apollo program.
5. Income and Wealth Inequality: There’s a concern that while solving technological problems, such approaches might exacerbate income and wealth inequalities, especially if they create technological rents for a small group of skilled individuals or entrepreneurs.
6. Role of State Activism: While the book advocates for a revived form of state activism, there are challenges in balancing this with the need for agility and accountability in innovation agencies, especially in a globalized context with dispersed expertise.
7. Private Sector Involvement and Mission-Oriented Innovation: Questions are raised about how private firms can be incentivized to participate in a mission-oriented economy and the realistic possibility of governments setting strategic orientations for firms in rapidly changing technological landscapes.
8. Leadership and Vision in Mission-Oriented Policies: The success of such mission-oriented policies is seen as heavily dependent on capable leadership, which might come down to luck.
9. Applicability in Emerging Economies: There’s skepticism about the applicability of the book’s ideas in emerging economies, which face their own unique set of challenges, such as overcoming the middle-income trap and dealing with systemic corruption.
10. Integration with Social Policies: The book is critiqued for not adequately considering how social policies can complement innovation policies, particularly in terms of providing safety nets and fostering public support for transformative change.

These critiques highlight the complexity of applying the Apollo mission-style approach to contemporary societal and environmental issues, emphasizing the need for a more nuanced understanding of innovation, democratic participation, and the integration of social and economic policies.