What drives technology transitions? An integration of different approaches within transition studies

ABSTRACT

This paper aims to provide a deeper understanding of transition drivers by reviewing four major strands of inquiry in transition studies: Multi Level Perspective (MLP); Strategic Niche Management (SNM); Transition Management (TM); Technological Innovation Systems (TIS). To the best of our knowledge, none of these contributions have so far provided a clear-cut classification of main drivers of transitions, as evidenced by the difficulty of practitioners in reaching goals as entrepreneurs, or policy makers in supporting economic growth. We believe that these theoretical streams share views relating the origin and drivers of transitions and that the analysis of the multi-level developments and systemic sub-processes by using the Integrative Propositional Analysis (IPA) allows for a more comprehensive identification of transition drivers. By mapping causal relationships within each perspective and by developing an integrative framework that takes in due account of overlaps between theories, we derived a new conceptual structure for the identification of transitions’ drivers.

KEYWORDS:

• Technology transitions
• transition studies
• integrative propositional analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Eva Panetti is a Ph.D. candidate at the Department of Economics, Management and Institutions of the Federico II University of Naples and Research Fellow at the Department of Management and Quantitative studies of Università di Napoli Parthenope. Eva Panetti is also a visiting Ph.D. student at the Industrial Performance Centre of Massachussetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where she conducts her research on the measurement of local innovation systems’ performance. She was researcher at the Interdepartmental Research Centre L.U.P.T. ‘Raffaele d’Ambrosio’ and member of CERITT (Research Centre for Innovation and Technology Transfer) and of the Management Committee of OPI (Permanent Observatory on Innovation). She took part as a member of research projects on innovation management financed by Italian Ministry of University and by Campania Region and teacher in MBAs in the field of management and marketing. Her main research interests regard local innovation systems, innovation management, port management and transition studies.

Adele Parmentola is an Associate Professor at Università di Napoli Parthenope where she teaches Management, Innovation Management and Marketing. She earned her PhD in Management from Università Parthenope. As a Visiting Scholar of Wharton Business School, she studied the internationalisation process of Chinese multinationals in Western countries. She collaborates to many research projects on the topic of innovation and internationalisation. In particular she is member of research projects financed by Italian Ministry of University and by Campania Region aimed at developing local innovation systems in weak regions such as Southern Italy. Her main research interests regard university spin-off, local innovation systems, international and innovation strategy of emerging countries companies. She is author of many publications regarding the creation of local innovation systems in emerging countries like China, Dubai, Iran and Taiwan or in the weak Italian regions.

Steven E. Wallis earned his Ph.D. in 2006 at Fielding Graduate University, focusing on the rigorous analysis and integration of conceptual systems. He has a decade of experience as a facilitator and organisational development consultant in Northern California. At Capella University, Steve mentors doctoral candidates. As Director for the Foundation for the Advancement of Social Theory (FAST) he supports emerging scholars working to identify rigorous paths for the validation of theory through critical metatheory and metapolicy analysis. An interdisciplinary thinker, his academic publications cover a range of fields including ethics, management, organisational change, and policy. His recent book ‘Avoiding Policy Failure’ shows how a systems view of policy models can be used to estimate the effectiveness of policies before implementation as well as improving policies for reducing cost and improving results. Recently, Dr. Wallis was appointed to the Fulbright Specialist Roster. The Fulbright Specialist programme supports US Scholars in projects to help improve the capacity of academic institutions outside the US.

Marco Ferretti is Full Professor in Management at the Department of Management and Quantitative Studies of Università`di Napoli Parthenope where he is Vice Director and teaches, among others, Innovation Management, Business Planning and Venture Capital. He is also Professor of Management at the L.U.I.S.S and former director of the MBA of Stoà from 1997 to 2005. He was member of the Board of Directors of the research consortium CAMPEC (ENEA and CNR) and has a significant international experience having earned his MBA at the Sloan School of Management of MIT and worked for international organisations as UNIDO, IDRO (Industrial Development and Renovation Organisation of Iran), University of Boston and MIT. He is the scientific director of the project Smart Tunnel on port systems, which involves Grimaldi Spa, Vitrociset Spa, Tecnosistem Spa, as well as CNR and the Università degli Studi di Salerno. He is one of the appointed experts from MIUR and he is engaged as a member of evaluation committees for a number of research projects. Prof. Ferretti's main fields of study regard innovation strategic management and local innovation systems, internationalisation of firms and development of academic spin-offs through venture capital. Prof. Ferretti is the author of numerous publications on national and international journals.

ORCID

Eva Panetti http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8018-8300

Adele Parmentola http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2715-2544

Marco Ferretti http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5316-3928