Seminar series
Date:
Wednesday 30 May
Speaker:
Caetano Penna (University of Sussex
Title:
The co-evolution of societal problems, innovation and incumbent
industries: Ups and downs in the issue lifecycle trajectory of American
auto-safety (1900-2000)
Abstract:
Grand societal challenges form a new topic on the innovation studies
agenda. To address this topic, analysis should not only address the
emergence of solutions and innovations, but also the dynamic of
problems, particularly in relation to social and political mobilization. To
understand the co-evolution of problems and solutions and the role of
incumbent industries, the paper combines insights from innovation
studies and issue lifecycle theory into a new framework. This dialectic
issue lifecycle (DILC) model conceptualizes the interactions between
problem-related pressures and responses from incumbent industries
with an ideal-type five-phase framework. The usefulness of this model
is illustrated with a longitudinal case study of the auto-safety problem
and responses from the American car industry. We use combined
quantitative-qualitative methods. Although the industry long denied the
influence of car design on fatalities, it reluctantly changed its position in
the mid-1960s (under pressure from public opinion and regulations),
and implemented more comprehensive changes (in beliefs, mission,
and innovation strategies) in the late-1980s when safety became part
of consumer preferences. Using the case study, we identify a cyclical
issue lifecycle path, in which the problem cycles backwards and
forwards through phases until it reaches resolution.
Bios:
Caetano C.R. Penna (1980) is DPhil candidate at SPRU (Science
Policy Research Unit), at the University of Sussex (UK). He received
his MA in Technological Governance from Tallinn University of
Technology (Estonia) and now studies the co-evolution of technologies
and industries in relation to societal issues. His current work focuses on
the car industry and combines quantitative and qualitative methods.
Caetano draws on fields like evolutionary economics, business and
society, innovation management, and public policy studies. He is
supervised by Professor Frank W. Geels.
Frank W. Geels (1971) is Professor at SPRU (Science Policy
Research Unit), at the University of Sussex (UK). He is interested in
socio-technical transitions, the emergence of new technologies, coevolution of technology and society, industrial change and corporate
strategy, sustainable development, and the role of cultural dynamics
and expectations. He is well-known for his theoretical work on the multilevel perspective and strategic niche management, and performed a
dozen of historical case studies to test and elaborate these theories.
His work is inter-disciplinary and mobilises insights from science and
technology studies, evolutionary economics, business studies,
(neo)institutional theory and sociology.