In this paper we study to what extent electric propulsion is disrupting 'the order' in the automotive industry with six extensions to Christensen's notion of disruptive innovation (1997). For decades the automotive sector has relied on the internal combustion engine (ICE) as the established propulsion technology, but due to environmental regulation and geo-political scarcity problems associated with fossil fuel use, electric propulsion is increasingly applied as sole or additional power source. We elaborate the Christensen typology, rooted in industrial analysis, with a regime evolution framework based on changes in technology and the institutional context of production and use, with special attention to consumer perspectives and government regulation. We offer a hypothesis for structural conditions for market disruption and test this hypothesis against the development trajectory of full-electric vehicles (FEV). Drawing on evidence from a range of recent FEV studies, our analysis suggests that the disruptive niche of full-electric mobility is currently insufficient to displace the ICE regime.
Sustainability assessment (SA) is an increasingly popular term referring to a broad range of approaches to align decision-making with the principles of sustainability. Nevertheless, in public and private sectors sustainability results are still disappointing, and this paper reflects on this problem and proposes a way forward. We argue that, because sustainability issues are generally wicked problems (i.e. a ‘complex of interconnected factors in a pluralistic context’), effective assessments need to be reflexive about the definition of the issue and about the criteria for sustainable solutions. Based on a distinction of policy problems, we characterize SA as a form of problem structuring, and we distinguish three typical ways of problem structuring, corresponding to three different ways of integrating reflexivity in the assessment. We illustrate these routes in three examples. We discuss the way reflexivity is integrated in each example by discussing the mix of methods, SA process and epistemological balance. Rather than merely calling for more stakeholder participation, our aim is to call for more reflexivity integrated into the SA approach, and we conclude by proposing a process map for reflexive sustainability assessment to support this.
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