Innovation and institutional change: the transition to a sustainable ...

Theoretical perspectives 29
and user preferences that have become mutually attuned. Weak and strong
linkages occur between the different elements, and are solidified by sets of
rules which act as a semi-coherent structure for the development of both
technological and social components in a system (Kemp, Rip and Schot,
2001). Actors and social groups within the system maintain, confirm and
reproduce these rules through their activities and practices which are nested
within the systems. Often these rules are taken for granted, such as the way a
prospective house buyer expects his house to be connected to the grid and to
be equipped with electricity sockets. They also involve formal rules, such as
those prescribing under which conditions an actor can enter a professional
activity (accountant, lawyer, doctor, electricity producer), or environmental
and safety standards. The multi-level perspective especially points out how
this rule-set can act as a barrier for new technologies, and that processes of
niche formation thus not only involve improving technological and
economic performance of new technologies, but also manoeuvring the new
technology in a way that it can work in the existing sociotechnical
configuration, through a process of negotiating and mobilising for changes in
the dominant rule-sets, or through a process of building alternative rule-sets.
Failure of alternative energy technologies can then occur through
mismatches with existing regime-rules, as Raven and Verbong (2004) show
in their analysis of manure digestion and heat pumps in relation to
agricultural and electricity regimes. Geels (2002a) also showed how
alternatives may succeed if existing regimes come under pressure, and if the
new technology is able to provide additional or new functionalities in coevolution
with broader societal changes.
A short synopsis: innovations and systems change
After characterisation of the way a range of theoretical streams deal with and
conceptualise innovation and systems change, this section provides a short
overview of basic insights of a range of scholars regarding the ways and
conditions under which systems change may occur.
Basanini and Dosi (2001) argue that windows of opportunity occur for
systems change because:
- New technological paradigms emerge, acting as a major source of
delocking (these can trigger emergence of a new set of business actors, a
new knowledge base, new communities of practitioners (e.g. scientists,
engineers), and new forms of corporate organisation).
- There is never a complete lock-in, as heterogeneity among actors and
imperfect adaptation of actors within organisations and networks leads
to variety. Thus, non-average actors can create effects of change.