ABSTRACT

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.

摘要

本文的目的是有助于在路径转换中对机构代理的概念和经验理解。先前有关制度变迁和产业转型之间联系的研究主要集中在新实践的制度化和领土界定的制度前提的影响上，因此有必要弄清各种类型的制度代理和行为者活动背后的原理。作者详细阐述了发生路径转换的制度环境的不同维度，并提出了一个新的分析框架，以研究机构代理在路径发展中的作用。该框架确定了不同类型的机构代理，分别针对新路径的“合法性”，“锚定”和“授权”。基于自动驾驶汽车的开发，它被用于瑞典西部NUTS2地区的汽车工业案例研究。分析表明，行为者在制定战略时利用了现有制度之间的关系，而不是主要针对制度变化。作者得出结论，行动者部署了表现出不同空间格局的不同类型机构代理的组合，并讨论了在路径开发研究中如何理解过去，现在和未来之间的关系的含义。而不是主要针对制度变革。作者得出结论，行动者部署了表现出不同空间格局的不同类型机构代理的组合，并讨论了在路径开发研究中如何理解过去，现在和未来之间的关系的含义。而不是主要针对制度变革。作者得出结论，行动者部署了表现出不同空间格局的不同类型机构代理的组合，并讨论了在路径开发研究中如何理解过去，现在和未来之间的关系的含义。