Technological Change and Industrial Transformation Routledge Studies in Innovation, Organizations and Technology Series

Industrial transformation is a research and teaching field with a focus on the phenomenon and mechanisms of industrial development and renewal. It concerns changes in economic activities caused by innovation, competition and collaboration, and has a rich heritage of evolutionary economics, institutional economics, industrial dynamics, technology history and innovation studies. It borrows concepts and models from the social sciences (sociology, history, political sciences, business/management, economics, behavioural sciences) and also from technology and engineering studies.

In this book, the authors present the key theories, frameworks and concepts of industrial transformation and use empirical cases to describe and explain the causes, processes and outcomes of transformation in the context of digitalization and sustainability. They stress that industrial transformation consists both of Darwinian "survival of the fittest" selection, and of intentional pursuits of innovation, and of industrial capabilities creation. The work argues that managing the global trends of transformation is not only about new technology and innovation: existing institutional settings and dynamic interactions between technological change, organizational adaptation and economic activities also have a profound impact on future trajectories.

The areas under investigation are of great relevance for strategic management decisions and industrial and technology policies, and understanding the mechanisms underlying transformation and sustainable growth.

(1) Why this book? (2) What do we know about industrial transformation? (3) How digital platforms transform industries (4) Digital transformation of the Home Help Service sector through welfare technology (5) Doing more by knowing less: The evolution of the division of innovative labour in software creation (6) Rags to riches: digitalization and the transformation of the Icelandic film industry (7) What prevents Machine Learning from transforming industries? (8) “Own it” or “share it”: Transformations of regulatory and community norms in the Swedish housing market (9) Industrial Transformation in the Anthropocene (10) Is the oil and natural gas industry transforming? Evidence from the offshore Arctic (11) The industrial transformation of the Swedish heat pump sector (12) Conclusions

Vicky Long is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Learning (CIEL) research, Halmstad University, Sweden, and an Associated Researcher at the Ratio Institute. Her current research centres on the digital transformation of Intellectual Property Rights-related appropriability regimes.

Magnus Holmén is a Professor in Innovation Sciences at Halmstad University, Sweden, where he is the Research Director of the Centre for Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Learning (CIEL) research. His current research interests include innovation processes, business model innovation, industrial transformation and digitalization.