Alternative socio-technical system development in innovation ecosystems

The doctoral project of Sophie-Marie Ertelt bridges sustainable transitions, sociotechnical development, as well as, innovation and, ecosystem studies to addresses the challenges that arise from the development, management, and deliberate acceleration attempts of path-breaking systemic innovations that enable a transition to a low-carbon society. After decades of making little or even negative aggregate progress when it comes to reducing carbon emissions, the current socio-technical regime of road freight transport is in a transformative stage, faced with the challenge of addressing its substantial contribution to climate change.

The empirical focus of the research thus, sits at the intersection of the various disruptive changes that currently propel this transformation such as the electrification of road freight transport systems, and the development of required charging infrastructure in combination with the primary technological drivers of Industry 4.0 such as AI (e.g., autonomous vehicles), digitization (e.g., Freight broker IT platforms) and “smart” service-based business model innovations (e.g., Transport-as-a-service) orchestrated with intelligent systems of data sharing and IT.

Consequently, this project aims to develop advanced knowledge on how such a transition of a whole sector can unfold and the role systemic innovations and technological drivers could play to contribute to more socially, economically, and ecologically sustainable solutions, increase circularity, and overall efficiency of the logistics systems. The project is carried out in close collaboration with private- and public-sector stakeholders along the freight transport value chain including the freight owners, haulers, technology and service suppliers, local/regional authorities, transportation agencies, electricity suppliers, as well as, environmental and community groups.