The Role of Policy Intervention for Technology Management: The Case of Swedish Hybrid-Electric Vehicle Technology

Abstract

This chapter deals with how policy and strategic actions interact in the development of a technological field. As a company experiments with and evaluates various technological solutions, and continuously matches these with problems posed by specific market niches, the firms do this not as an isolated strategic activity, but in continuous interaction with numerous actors and processes. This implies that technology management has to be seen in a context of the working of the entire technological system and that technological innovation often needs policy interventions of various kinds. Our analysis illustrates how policy action comes into play in the emergence of a technological field, leading to implications for firms’ technology management processes. We have chosen to focus our analysis on sustainable technologies in the auto sector, being a case where firms are dominant players, on a global market, but where they need to interact with market demands as well as with policy interventions. Our focus is on Sweden, where the auto sector is a dominant part of the national industry, and where sustainability issues have been placed in the forefront of policy debates.