03/03/2021
A model of innovation areas to account for gradual changes in the automotive sector.
The complex relationship between stability and change is a core analytical focus of transformation research. In transition studies – one important research strand in transformation research – socio-technical regimes are identified as a central concept to account for relatively stable conditions of certain socio-technical configurations.
With regard to mobility, transition researchers have identified a socio-technical automotive regime that is dominated by the passenger car and individual mobility.Three ideal-type innovation areas.
Production systems, fuel and road infrastructure, transport systems, markets, user behaviour, regulations and policies, science, research and development as well as cultural and symbolic connotations stabilise the socio-technical automotive regime. Innovation is seen as a key lever for challenging the unsustainable features of the automotive regime. Nykvist and Whitmarsh have developed a model of innovation areas to account for gradual changes in the automotive sector.
The model consists of three ideal-type innovation areas.
* Innovation area 1: focuses on new technologies, which include both efficiency improvements of existing technologies as well as new vehicle technologies and alternative drive engines. The extent to which the current automotive regime will be challenged depends on the extent to which new infrastructures, technological developments and behavioural changes are shaped.
* Innovation area 2: entails a shift from a product-based to a service-based mobility system. New forms of mobility like car-sharing and carpooling enable a more efficient consumption of resources and energy.
* Innovation area 3: describes new mobility management and more local and greener lifestyles that reduce mobility needs and resource consumption. Proposed measures towards slower and active mobility include road tolls, taxes on vehicles and fossil fuels, a new kind of urban and spatial planning and the development of public transport.
In describing drivers of change, transition studies have focused mainly on niches, pioneers of change and voluntary instruments to guide transitions. Niches are protected spaces that serve as places for radical innovation, or behavioural patterns and actions that deviate from the existing regime. In the mobility sector, such niches include, for example, cycling/walking mobility lifestyles, autonomous driving or Fuel Cell Vehicles.
Many transition researchers advocate for strengthening niche innovations rather than exerting political or economic pressure since stricter regulations can be introduced more easily if alternatives, such as new technologies or other modes of transport, are available.
Reference and published by Elsevier B.V.