Socio-cognitive evolution and co-evolution in competing technical trajectories: Biogas development in Denmark (1970–2002)

This article makes two fundamental contributions to evolutionary theories of technological changes. First, a socio-cognitive evolutionary perspective is developed that conceptualises the emergence of new technologies in the pre-market phase. This topic is underdeveloped in evolutionary economics, because of its emphasis on market selection. Second, the article addresses co-evolution between two competing technical trajectories. In the pre-market phase, this interaction occurs via expectations and social networks. The perspective is illustrated with a longitudinal case study of biogas plants in Denmark. This sustainability innovation exists in two forms: farm-scale plants and centralised plants. Both forms are carried by different populations and based on different cognitive rules.

[1]  T. P. Hughes,et al.  Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society, 1880-1930 , 1984 .

[2]  Arie Rip,et al.  Constructing Transition Paths Through the Management of Niches , 2001 .

[3]  Henrik Lund,et al.  Biogas plants in Denmark : technological and economic developments , 1999 .

[4]  G. A. Horridge,et al.  Animal species and evolution. , 1964 .

[5]  H. Simon,et al.  Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in Administrative Organization. , 1959 .

[6]  Kurt Dopfer,et al.  The economic agent as rule maker and rule user: Homo Sapiens Oeconomicus , 2004 .

[7]  J. Potts.  Knowledge and markets , 2001 .

[8]  J. Schumpeter.  The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest, and the Business Cycle , 1934 .

[9]  B. Loasby.  The evolution of knowledge: beyond the biological model , 2002 .

[10]  D. Kolb.  Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development , 1983 .

[11]  S. Rayner,et al.  Human choice and climate change , 1998 .

[12]  S. Winter,et al.  An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change.by Richard R. Nelson; Sidney G. Winter , 1987 .

[13]  K. Weick.  The social psychology of organizing , 1969 .

[14]  T. P. Hughes,et al.  Networks of Power: Electrification in Western Society , 1984 .

[15]  M. Tushman,et al.  Technological Discontinuities and Dominant Designs: A Cyclical Model of Technological Change , 1990 .

[16]  Joel Mokyr,et al.  The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress , 1991 .

[17]  Geoffrey M. Hodgson,et al.  The Ubiquity of Habits and Rules , 1997 .

[18]  S. Winter,et al.  An evolutionary theory of economic change , 1983 .

[19]  Frank W. Geels,et al.  Niches in evolutionary theories of technical change , 2007 .

[20]  Nathan Rosenberg,et al.  Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics , 1984 .

[21]  N. Meyer.  European schemes for promoting renewables in liberalised markets , 2003 .

[22]  R. Garud,et al.  Path dependence and creation , 2003 .

[23]  M. Tushman,et al.  Technological Discontinuities and Organizational Environments , 1986 .

[24]  P. David.  Why are institutions the ‘carriers of history’?: Path dependence and the evolution of conventions, organizations and institutions , 1994 .

[25]  Johan Schot,et al.  Experimenting for Sustainable Transport: The Approach of Strategic Niche Management , 2002 .

[26]  Joel Mokyr,et al.  The Lever of Riches: Technological Creativity and Economic Progress. , 1991 .

[27]  A. Kellerman,et al.  The Constitution of Society : Outline of the Theory of Structuration , 2015 .

[28]  Johan Schot,et al.  The usefulness of evolutionary models for explaining innovation. The case of the Netherlands in the nineteenth century , 1998 .

[29]  T. Pinch,et al.  The Social Construction of Facts and Artefacts: or How the Sociology of Science and the Sociology of Technology might Benefit Each Other , 1984 .

[30]  R. Lamb,et al.  Of Bicycles, Bakelites, and Bulbs: Toward a Theory of Sociotechnical Change , 1996, Inf. Process. Manag..

[31]  F. Geels.  Technological Transitions And System Innovations: A Co-evolutionary And Socio-technical Analysis , 2005 .

[32]  F. Geels.  From sectoral systems of innovation to socio-technical systems: Insights about dynamics and change from sociology and institutional theory , 2004 .

[33]  R. Raven.  Strategic Niche Management for Biomass , 2008 .

[34]  Julian Park,et al.  Learning selection: an evolutionary model for understanding, implementing and evaluating participatory technology development , 2002 .

[35]  F. Geels.  Technological transitions as evolutionary reconfiguration processes: a multi-level perspective and a case-study , 2002 .

[36]  J. Schot,et al.  Regime shifts to sustainability through processes of niche formation : the approach of strategic niche management , 1998 .