The road towards autonomous driving – A differentiated view of institutional agency in path transformation

Bibliographic Data

ID21363799
AuthorsJohan Miorner (0000-0003-0092-5532, Lund University, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume74
Issue5
Pages283-295
Publication date2020-10-19
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueNorsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0029-1951 • E-ISSN: 1502-5292
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00291951.2020.1770852
OpenAlexW3037167340
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited73

The purpose of the article is to contribute to conceptual and empirical understandings of institutional agency in path transformation. Previous studies of links between institutional change and industrial transformation have focused mainly on the institutionalization of new practices and influence of territorially defined institutional preconditions, leaving a need to disentangle different types of institutional agency and the rationales behind actors’ activities. The author elaborates on different dimensions of the institutional environment in which path transformation occurs and proposes a new analytical framework for investigating the role of institutional agency in path development. The framework identifies different types of institutional agency, respectively targeting the ‘legitimation’, ‘anchoring’ and ‘enabling’ of new paths. It is applied to a case study of the automotive industry in the NUTS2 region West Sweden, based on the development of self-driving cars. The analysis reveals that actors utilized the relationship between existing institutions when formulating strategies, rather than primarily targeting institutional change. The author concludes that actors deploy a combination of different types of institutional agency that exhibit varying spatial patterns, and discusses the implications for how the relationship between the past, present and future is understood in path development research

Agency (philosophy) · Business · Conceptual framework · Economic geography · Economic system · Economics · Empirical research · Epistemology · Institutional change · Institutional theory · Institutionalisation · Legitimation · Path (computing) · Path dependence · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Computer Science · Global trade, sustainability, and social impact · Law · Management and Organizational Studies · Public Administration · Qualitative Comparative Analysis Research

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