Incumbent organisations shaping emerging technological fields: cases of solar photovoltaic and electric vehicle charging

ABSTRACT

We explore how large incumbent organisations shape emerging technological fields while establishing a position and business opportunities for themselves during technological shifts. We draw from innovation studies that increasingly emphasise the ability of incumbent organisations to survive technological transformations and studies on emerging technological fields to identify ways in which incumbent organisations shape novel fields during their emergence. Through longitudinal case studies of two emerging fields, we examine how incumbents shape the emerging technological fields of solar energy and electric vehicles. We discuss the interlinked and cumulative business and discursive activities utilized by the incumbents as well as the mechanism through which they influence the legitimacy, expectations and field boundaries of the emerging technological fields. Our study draws attention to the fact that incumbents enter emerging fields at an earlier stage and in more diverse ways than has previously been noted.

KEYWORDS:

• Incumbent organisations
• emerging technological field
• field shaping
• business development process

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of the paper was presented at the STS Conference 2014 in Graz and at the TIM division of Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2015 in Vancouver. We are grateful for all the comments from conference participants and three anonymous reviewers from AOM. We would also like to thank Professor Nina Granqvist from Aalto University, Professor Volker Hoffmann from ETH Zurich and Energy Management research group from Grenoble Ecole de Management for their insightful comments on the earlier versions of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Eeva-Lotta Apajalahti (M.Sc. Econ.) is Doctoral Candidate at the Department of Management Studies at Aalto University School of Business. Her doctoral thesis focuses on the role of large incumbent energy companies in the energy system transition.

Armi Temmes (Dr.Sc. Agr. For.) is Professor of Practice at Corporate Sustainability at Aalto University School of Business. She has experience on paper industry, industrial R&D, and environmental and corporate responsibility management in manufacturing industry. Her present research interests include environmental innovations in transportation and smart energy transitions.

Tea Lempiälä (Dr.Sc. Econ.) is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of Management Studies at Aalto University School of Business. Her research areas include innovation practices, emergence of novelty and change and paradoxical tensions at organizational life.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Marcus Wallenberg Foundation Grant on Social construction of markets for new energy solutions; the Strategic Research Council at the Academy of Finland [293405]; the Foundation for Economic Education [53238, 84340, 29556].