A multi-level perspective on the introduction of hydrogen and battery-electric vehicles

Alternative vehicles powered by electricity or hydrogen hold the potential to solve a number of challenges that relate to automobile use, such as climate change, deterioration of local air quality, security of energy supply, and high fuel prices. This article addresses the question as to how a transition to vehicles powered by hydrogen or electricity could take place. Recognizing that transitions result from joint development of technology and society, a co-evolutionary, multi-level perspective is adopted. The perspective is used to analyze the dynamics of the relationship between car manufacturers and consumers and developments that put pressure on this relationship. Building on the analysis, two sets of scenarios for a transition to battery-electric and fuel cell vehicles are identified. In one set of scenarios, tightening emissions regulation stimulates carmakers to scale up experiments with alternative vehicles, moving them into the commercialization phase. In the other set, rising fuel prices prompt carmakers to first extend their current product line-up with plug-in versions, and later with battery-electric and fuel cell vehicles. The two scenarios have different implications for the actors involved and for the requisite supporting infrastructure.     

Developing transition pathways for a low carbon electricity system in the UK

This paper describes the approach to developing transition pathways for a low carbon electricity system in the UK, being pursued in a major new inter-disciplinary research project. The project aims (a) to learn from past transitions to help explore future transitions and what might enable or avoid them; (b) to design and evaluate transition pathways towards alternative socio-technical energy systems and infrastructures for a low carbon future; and (c) to understand and, where appropriate, model the changing roles, influences and opportunities of large and small ‘actors’ in the dynamics of transitions. The paper describes the approach, which builds on the work of Dutch researchers on transitions and transition management using a multi-level framework of niches, socio-technical regime and landscape, as well as on other parts of the innovation systems literature. It also describes its application to several outline transition pathways to a low carbon energy system in the UK. The pathways embrace both the evolution of the physical and institutional infrastructure changes and the roles of both large actors, e.g. multinational energy supply and distribution companies, national governments, major investors, and small actors, e.g. households, innovators and entrepreneurs.     

Analysing the breakthrough of rock ‘n’ roll (1930–1970) Multi-regime interaction and reconfiguration in the multi-level perspective

The breakthrough of rock ‘n’ roll was part of broader transformations in the American music industry, involving changes in music instruments, music recording technology, audiences, radio programming and music styles. These transformations will be analysed as sociotechnical transition, using the multi-level perspective. One characteristic of the case is interactions between multiple regimes: radio and recording. Another characteristic is the presence of strong cultural components, with rock ‘n’ roll as proxy. These characteristics lead to theoretical adjustments in the multi-level perspective. Further analysis also suggests a particular transition path of reconfiguration, in which multiple niche-innovations cumulatively transform the regime.     

A multi-level analysis of sustainable mobility transitions: Niche development in the UK and Sweden

A wide range of intractable problems such as polluting emissions, noise, accidents, resource depletion, and inaccessibility of amenities are associated with the current transport regime. Given the slow movement towards a more sustainable mobility system, more radical, systemic innovation - a ‘transition’ - is required. Broadly speaking, this may be achieved via three routes: technological change, modal shift, and reduced travel demand. Drawing on concepts from the transitions literature (e.g., [Geels, F.W.: Technological Transitions and System Innovations: A Co-evolutionary and Socio-Technical Analysis, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2005.]), we conceptualise each of these routes as a bundle of niche activities within an Area of Innovation, deviating to differing degrees from the current mobility ‘regime’. We present empirical evidence and indications of ongoing development of niches in these three areas within the UK and Sweden, and explore processes of co-evolution, divergence and tension within and between niches. Findings indicate recent market penetration of novel transport technologies, more advanced than modal shift or demand management activities; however, different transport technologies are more successful in each country. We also identify examples of a close relationship between development of radical vehicle/fuel technologies and provision of mobility services; and information technology as a driver in all three areas of innovation. We conclude that future innovation in transport depends on diversity, hybridisation, and co-evolution of niches. Finally, policy implications are discussed.     

Exploring sustainability transitions in the electricity sector with socio-technical pathways

This paper analyses sustainability transitions in the electricity system, using recent theories on socio-technical pathways. The paper describes three possible transition pathways and indicates the implications for (grid) infrastructures. The ‘transformation pathway’ is characterised by a further hybridization of the infrastructure; in the ‘reconfiguration pathway’, internationalisation and scale increase in renewable generation lead to the emergence of a ‘Supergrid’. The ‘de-alignment and re-alignment pathway’ is dominated by distributed generation and a focus on more local infrastructures. We suggest that this pathway, which involves a major restructuring of the electricity system, is less likely than the other two. The de-alignment and re-alignment pathway is therefore more dependent on external developments and/or strong policy interventions. All pathways, however, require major investments in infrastructure and innovative technologies.     

Strategic niche management of social innovations: the case of social entrepreneurship

Strategic niche management (SNM), a tool to understand and manage radical socio-technical innovations and facilitate their diffusion, has always departed from a technical artefact. Many radical innovations, however, do not revolve around such an artefact. Social entrepreneurship is a new business model that combines a social goal with a business mentality and is heralded as an important new way to create social value such as sustainability. This study examines if and how SNM can be applied to such a social innovation. It identifies theoretical and practical limitations and proposes solutions. The main conclusion is that SNM can be used to analyse radical social innovation, although it requires rethinking the initial entry point for research and management. Exemplifying quotes are proposed as an alternative. Second, this paper suggests using values to describe niche–regime interaction as a better way to anticipate future niche–regime interactions.     

Conditions and intervention strategies for the deliberate acceleration of socio-technical transitions: lessons from a comparative multi-level analysis of two historical case studies in Dutch and Danish heating

ABSTRACT

Policy-oriented transition frameworks such as Strategic Niche Management, Transition Management, and Technological Innovation Systems offer limited analytical traction on deliberately accelerated socio-technical transitions. Using the Multi-Level Perspective as guiding framework, we therefore inductively explore the political acceleration of socio-technical transitions by investigating two deliberately accelerated heating transitions: the transition from coal and oil to natural gas in the Netherlands (1948–1973), and the transition from oil to district heating in Denmark (1945–1990), to draw lessons about the conditions and intervention strategies that facilitate rapid socio-technical change. We find that both cases were characterised by weakened regimes, stabilised niche-innovations, focusing events, and consensus between policymakers and business actors. User resistance was also low in both cases, partly because of public policies. Different focusing events in each case produced problem-driven versus opportunity-driven transition pathways; the former destabilised existing regimes but generated future-oriented uncertainty, while the latter facilitated rapid closure.     

Technological start-ups in the innovation system: an actor-oriented perspective

The functional approach of the Technological Innovation System (TIS) has become important in innovation theory to understand the dynamics of technological innovations. Until now, TIS has mainly been applied top-down from a policy perspective. The aim of this study was to investigate whether TIS can be used in the management domain, from an actor-oriented perspective, to explain the dynamics in which technological start-ups are involved when developing innovations. We interviewed the founders of 24 technological start-ups about their experiences with the developmental processes of their innovations. Our results highlight that the functions of TIS provide a useful framework to structure the interactions of technological start-ups. Especially the functions ‘Resource Mobilisation’ and ‘Legitimation’ appeared to be important functions for start-ups when developing an innovation. Our findings show that TIS is a promising framework for the strategic management domain that can offer guidance in the development of innovations.     

Modeling technological innovation risks of an entrepreneurial team using system dynamics: An agent-based perspective

Continuous technological innovation has been playing a vital role in ensuring the survival and development of an enterprise in today's economy. This paper studies the problem of technological innovation risk-based decision-making from an entrepreneurial team point of view. We identify the differences between this team decision-making and a traditional individual decision-making problem, where decisions are mainly affected by the decision-maker's risk and value perceptions, and risk preferences. We create a modeling framework for such a new problem, and use system dynamics theory to model it from the agent-based modeling perspective. The proposed approach is validated by a case study of the technological innovation risk decision-making in a Chinese automobile company.     

Assessing complementarity in organizational innovations for technological innovation: the role of knowledge management practices

We empirically investigate the pattern of complementarity among four organizational practices. Firm-level data were drawn from the Community Innovation Survey, carried out in Luxembourg. Supermodularity tests confirm the crucial role of organizational innovation in raising firms’ technological innovation. The pattern of complementarity across organizational practices differs according to the type of innovation (i.e. product or process), as well as according to whether the firm is in the first stage of its innovation process (i.e. being innovative or not) or in a later stage (i.e. sales of new products).     

“循序渐进”还是“平行推进”?——论体制转轨最优路径的理论与政策

本文认为目前在改革理论和政策研讨中颇为流行的“循序渐进”概念并不能确切地说明体制转轨过程中的各种问题 ,因为各种体制之间是相互依存、相互制约的 ,不可能改好了一个再改下一个 ,否则会出现体制“不协调成本”。文章提出了“平行推进”的概念 ,作为改革政策制定的基本思路 ,它可以说明为什么在体制转轨过程中 ,某些体制的改革“超前”和“滞后”(瓶颈 ) ,都是无效率的。在所有领域 (包括政治体制和社会政策 )都同时积极推进改革 ,同时考虑各种体制之间在转轨过程当中 (也就是在没有彻底完成改革之前 )的相互协调 ,应是体制改革的基本政策方法。     

Specifying “regime” — A framework for defining and describing regimes in transition research

It is more and more agreed by research and policy that a long-term sustainability of industrialized societies cannot be achieved without fundamental changes at the level of different societal subsystems, such as the agricultural, transportation or water management systems. This view has lead to an increase in the amount of research carried out about the so-called “transitions”. Transitions comprise long-term, fundamental change in societal subsystems and are seen as encompassing co-evolutionary and mutually reinforcing processes in the economic, technological, institutional and socio-cultural domains. Transition research aims at understanding transitions and at finding methods that facilitate change directed towards societal goals (so-called “transition management”).This paper adds to the growing body of concepts of this young research strand. It suggests a framework for defining and describing “regimes”, the systems resulting from the broad and interdisciplinary view taken by transition research. The concept “regime” is of central importance for transition research, since it defines the level of societal systems on which transitions are mainly analysed. What actually is “the regime” to be researched and possibly managed is however usually not given through clear system boundaries but is a matter of framing and deliberation. In order to guide processes of regime identification, the paper develops five defining characteristics of regimes and gives a definition based on them. Further a method useful to structure and graphically represent knowledge about a regime is introduced. Such a structuring of knowledge is an important first step to understand how a regime “works”.     

Socio-ecological regime transitions in Austria and the United Kingdom

We employ the concepts of socio-ecological regime and regime transition to better understand the biophysical causes and consequences of industrialization. For two case studies, the United Kingdom and Austria we describe two steps in a major transition from an agrarian to an industrial socio-ecological regime and the resulting consequences for energy use, land use and labour organization. In a first step, the coal based industrial regime co-existed with an agricultural sector remaining within the bounds of the old regime. In a second step, the oil/electricity based industrial regime, agriculture was integrated into the new pattern and the socio-ecological transition had been completed. Industrialization offers an answer to the input and growth related sustainability problems of the agrarian regime but creates new sustainability problems of a larger scale. While today's industrial societies are stabilizing their resource use albeit at an unsustainable level large parts of the global society are in midst of the old industrial transition. This poses severe problems for global sustainability.     

Financial innovations and the future of monetary policy in Nigeria

This paper examines the implications of financial innovations on Nigeria’s monetary policy, using: trend analysis, error correction mechanism, and a structural model estimated with generalized method of moments. The study found that financial innovation improves the interest rate channel of monetary policy transmission, and the efficiency of the financial system. However, it increases the output gap and adds an element of uncertainty in the monetary policy environment as it increases the cost of implementing monetary policy and impinges on the potency of the operating target through its impact on the stability of the money multiplier, money velocity, and demand for money.     

The sustainability and transition of economic growth in China：from a perspective of factor structure

After more than 20 years＇ high speed growth, the sustainable growth of Chinese economy faces serious limitation of resources and factors now and in the future. In order to maintain the economic growth. China has to trans-form the way of economic growth, Based on the analysis on the related theories of economic growth and the structural transformation in factors of production, this paper proposes that the transformation of the economic growth way has to impel the optimization and the promotion of the utilization structure of factors of production. Finall.v, based on the analysis of the necessity to change the pattern of economic growth, this paper proposes＇ the strategic measures to promote the continuous economic growth and the transformation of patterns of economic growth.     

Conceptual niche management of grassroots innovation for sustainability: The case of body disposal practices in the UK

The grassroots has recently been identified as an alternative site for the development of innovations that may contribute to shifts towards more sustainable systems of consumption and production. While the characteristics of these innovations have been elaborated, it remains unclear how these alternative ideas and practices can be purposively supported to populate incumbent systems. This is especially so in light of the difficulty the grassroots face in connecting forcefully with the mainstream.This article will address this issue by outlining an adaptation of conceptual niche management - an approach that focuses on the embedding of guiding principles used to fulfill basic societal needs - that is sensitive to grassroots innovation. The framework will be applied to the current UK body disposal system to illustrate how such transformative sustainability ideas may be capitalised on.     

Enabling sustainability transitions in Asia: The importance of vertical and horizontal linkages

The phrase “sustainable development” appears increasingly in national policies in Asian countries and there are many successful ‘sustainability experiments’ documented at local level throughout the region. We explore why, despite the efforts made at the national level and the good practices at local level, underlying trends are away from sustainability. Drawing on the multi-level perspective on system innovation, we argue that linkages between different levels in socio-technical systems are critical to explaining the emergence of sustainable development pathways. The absence of these linkages in many Asian contexts is an important factor obstructing sustainability transitions in Asia. We argue that while the importance of vertical linkages is recognized and theorized in the multi-level perspective, the horizontal and the temporal dimensions are under-explored. We develop a set of propositions for exploring linkages in socio-technical systems, supporting these with empirical examples from the region.     

Economic transition,dualism and informality in India: Nature and patterns of household-level transitions

We examine the Indian economy during a peak period of high growth between 2005 and 2012 to analyse the nature and patterns of household-level transitions across different sectors, characterised by varying degrees of formality/informality and various production structures and labour processes. We find that even within this brief period, there has been a huge volume of household-level transitions across sectors. However, the overall economic structure, and its segmentations, has continued to be reproduced, along with a regeneration of ‘traditional’ non-capitalist informal spaces. To ascertain the nature of household-level transitions in terms of economic well-being, we employ a counterfactual analysis. We find that majority of transitions in the economy have been ‘unfavourable’ in nature, with large proportion of households undergoing sectoral transitions that are not optimal for them, given their socio-economic characteristics. Furthermore, the likelihood of ‘favourable’ versus ‘unfavourable’ sectoral transition, on average, significantly varies with household characteristics, some of which, like social caste, are structurally given and cannot be optimally chosen by households. Drawing upon this analysis, we reflect on the competing strands of literature that seek to explain the persistence of informality. Our analysis highlights the complexity of India's contemporary development trajectory, whereby the pre-existing economic structure is reproduced, paradoxically, through a continuous reshuffling and reconstitution of economic spaces, accompanied by significant volume of ‘unfavourable’ household-level sectoral transitions.     

Strategic management implications for the adoption of technological innovations in agricultural tractor: the role of scale factors and environmental attitude

Technological innovations in agricultural tractors have revolutionised farming, increased labour productivity and reduced operator's hazards. The purpose of this paper is to analyse the relation between agricultural tractors’ technological innovations and farm size, as well as users’ attitude on environmental impact of agricultural tractors according to their age and years of activity in the farm. Results, concerning Italy, highlight that high technological innovations of tractors are associated to larger farms, which are managed professionally by more efficient and sophisticated agricultural machineries. Empirical evidence also shows that the older the tractor adopters are and the longer they have been working in agriculture, the higher is their commitment to environment protection and safe working conditions. These results could be important for critical strategic management implications to spur technological innovation in agricultural tractors that better satisfy farmer's needs and to support the fruitful adoption of innovations for an efficient and safe modern agriculture.     

Managing knowledge sharing in distributed innovation from the perspective of developers: empirical study of open source software projects in China

Knowledge sharing is the key factor that influences the performance of open source software (OSS) projects, which are the representative cases of distributed innovation. This paper aims to explore the mechanism of knowledge sharing in OSS projects from the perspective of developers in China. A quantitative method with the analysis of 403 valid questionnaires is adopted. A series of hypotheses about how distributed innovation (independent variables) influences knowledge sharing (mediating variable) and then affects the performance of OSS projects (dependent variable) are tested and approved. On the one side, we argue that developers will actively affect knowledge sharing in terms of participative motivation, social network and organisational culture. On the other hand, users may also affect the knowledge sharing when considering innovation willingness and capacity. It is interesting to find that social network is the most important factor in Chinese cases. It is strongly recommended to strengthen the collaboration between software companies and OSS communities.