Technological innovation system

The technological innovation system is a concept developed within the scientific field of innovation studies which serves to explain the nature and rate of technological change. A Technological Innovation System can be defined as ‘a dynamic network of agents interacting in a specific economic/industrial area under a particular institutional infrastructure and involved in the generation, diffusion, and utilization of technology’. The approach may be applied to at least three levels of analysis: to a technology in the sense of a knowledge field, to a product or an artefact, or to a set of related products and artifacts aimed at satisfying a particular (societal) function’. With respect to the latter, the approach has especially proven itself in explaining why and how sustainable (energy) technologies have developed and diffused into a society, or have failed to do so. Technology improves throughout the years, and so do we. Background The concept of a technological innovatio

Three Essays on Methodologies for Dynamic Modeling of Emerging Socio-technical Systems

Mohammad Amin Dehdarian

Socio-technical energy transitions are long-term and major transformations in incumbent energy infrastructures. They include fundamental changes in technologies as well as institutions and social patterns. Transition studies are primarily focused on frameworks for analyzing the entire transition process by investigating the historical cases of transitions. A multi-phase approach to transition posits this process begins with a pre-development phase characterized by technological and institutional lock-ins, and resistance from incumbent actors. This period is critical for a forward-looking approach to transitions, since early developments shape path-dependent and irreversible processes leading to the emergence of new transition pathways. However, our understanding about the mechanisms and dynamics of this phase is still very limited. This is mainly due to lack of data, weak conceptualization and the necessity of developing new methods proper to deal with these limitations. This dissertation develops methodologies for investigating some complex questions arising in the pre-development phase, by focusing on the case of smart grid development. The first essay uses insights from modeling interventions in complex systems and builds a System Dynamics model to investigate the cost allocation problem of smart metering roll-out. The second essay takes ideas from Technological Innovation System approach and develops a method to analyze the emergence of spatial diversity in smart grid development by combining Social Network Analysis and Agent-Based Modeling. The third essay builds on ideas from network theory and evolutionary modeling to develop a method for identifying the main path of knowledge development and analyzing knowledge trajectories in smart grid initiatives.

EPFL2017

Diving into the dynamics of product evolution

Olivier Waeber

Three distinct stages describe the technological evolution of a product over time: ferment, convergence on a dominant design and an era of incremental change. Until recently, the era of incremental change has been characterized as stable and one that involves low levels of technological innovation. However, recent studies have indicated that this era of incremental change may actually be quite disruptive. This raises the question as to which processes and mechanisms in new product development during the era of incremental change trigger high levels of innovation. First, this dissertation offers a conceptual study about how collaboration practices with suppliers characterized by a relatively high intensity shift the technological evolution away from the era of incremental change towards the stage of ferment. Second, a quantitative study of the medical technology industry in Europe reveals that involving suppliers in new product development during the era of incremental change may trigger technological novelties that are incorporated into new product architectures; A new product architecture shifts the technological evolution towards the era of ferment. According to the results of the second study, it appears that only by improving products based on established architectures are firms unable to innovate new technologies. Additionally, the stage of convergence on a dominant design has mainly been examined on the basis of technological convergence. However, a possible convergence on a dominant design away from the stage of ferment also involves a cognitive variable. Third, this study observes the cognitive variable while examining the nascent smartwatch market. Within a nascent market, firms within previously distinct domains compete with one another. Firms lack a better understanding of customer preferences and develop initial products based on assumptions that are rooted within their previous industry. This qualitative study illustrates that firms from the same prior industry conceptualize their products in a similar way with regard to nascent product features. Overall, this dissertation more deeply explores the product life-cycle of technological development, provides a better understanding of the dynamics during the era of incremental change, demonstrates how the technological life-cycle of a product may shift from one stage to the other and supplies additional explanations concerning how a dominant design may emerge out of the ferment stage of technological development.

EPFL2017

Fluid Dynamics and Outliers

Bernard André Vincent Calisti

The current craze for unicorns and other hyper growth companies brings a novel interest in what makes the exceptional performance of a firm. Literature about technological innovation explains the bond between the performance level reached by a company and its ability to promote radical innovations. But if the theory of disruption enables to validate various levels of innovation, it faces difficulties to define more accurately the drivers of hyper growth. This thesis comprises five main moments to better understand what drives fast growing young technological companies. To survey this question we have defined one single scientific field, namely microfluidics, focusing on active clusters and spinoffs from the same parent in this sector. The first phase aims at highlighting evolutionary prospects about scientific enhancements in microfluidics leading to successful innovations. It shows that there is no innovation âdue to succeedâ and that technical innovations do not make progress as linearly as usual technological trees found in academic literature could suggest. That leads to a kind of rewriting in the evolution of inkjet technology. The second phase intends to explore performance among groups of spinoffs from the same parent. We consider the 2 European clusters in microfluidics. It appears that all these firms are developing, but they do not reach the same degree of performance. From far, yet, the differences in performance do not clearly appear. To explain variations, we study each spinoffâs growth during the 5 first years after launching before comparing with the growth during the 5 first years of the mother company. We have to look in details to the European clusters, to see also technology variants. A fractal approach is thus enabling to understand that performance of firms is like hidden in technology layers. The third moment elaborates on the relationship between a superior technology and an outstanding performance level. In the case of spin off performance we are not at a stage where we could put the phenomenon under equation! That is why it was appropriate to survey the scientific and technological clusters in Europe from a case study perspective. It appears then that seemingly similarly disrupting technologies do not end up capturing similar value. In fact, slight differences in the technologies used are leading to massive differences in performance. We discover in the end that one single variable is rooting Outstanding Performance. In a fourth phase we restate the initial question to better understand what makes Outliers and Outstanding Performance. Where we show that exceptional value capture is coming from exceptionally fitting of the technology considered to a very specific application. Outstanding Performance is thus attached to an extraordinary EBITDA. The last moment of the dissertation is devoted to ultimately check findings. The whole checking process eventually led to the conclusion that outliers and outstanding performance are permanently referring to a kind of âuniquenessâ embedded in the various cases of exceptional value capture. Such a unique feature, qualifying outliers among technological startups, makes by itself a research topic. As more and more attention is given to specific statistical populations, not only could this research contribute to improve the knowledge about hyper growth companies but it could also impact methods in statistics; and beyond methods: statistics themselves as a discipline.

EPFL2017

Diving into the dynamics of product evolution

Olivier Waeber

EPFL2017

Fluid Dynamics and Outliers

Bernard André Vincent Calisti

EPFL2017