Abstract
An electric road system (ERS) is a transportation solution that provides electricity for fully electric vehicles while in motion. This solution might contribute to sustainable transportation by overcoming range anxiety problems that fully electric vehicles, especially heavy vehicles, have encountered due to battery technology limitations. However, large-scale ERS implementations are challenging, both technically and socially. An ERS is not only an engineering project, but also a complex technology innovation system composed of multiple subsystems and stakeholders, which requires an interdisciplinary means of aligning relations, problems, and solutions. In the policy analysis domain, researchers have developed actor analysis methods to support policy making processes. Actor analysis methods can provide an analytical reflection in solving complex multi-actor policy making challenges that ERSs are also facing. To uncover the complexity of multiple subsystems and stakeholders involved in an ERS, this paper applied a method to align system characteristics with the stakeholders’ perceptions to understand multi-stakeholder contexts in complex technology innovation projects. Desk research was first conducted to summarise ERS characteristics. Then, the dynamic actor network analysis method framework was adopted to establish an action, factor, goal (AFG) list, which was revised by independent researchers. Next, the AFG list was used to collect the perceptions of the ERS stakeholders, expressed as AFG selections and causal links through stakeholder interviews. The resulting AFG list was iterated through two rounds of interviews and then validated in a Swedish ERS case workshop. The results from this methodology showed that the actor analysis method can not only be applied to policy analysis domains, but can also be applied to technology innovation complex systems, using the electric road system as a case study, to help uncover the ERS complexity from the concerns of stakeholders and to secure a pathway towards sustainable technology implementation.
Highlights
In recent years, many disruptive technologies have been introduced
This paper mainly addresses the following question: To what extent is the actor network analysis method applicable to complex technology innovation projects? Under what circumstances can such a methodological approach contribute to revealing the stakeholders’ concerns and complex challenges of an early-stage electric road system (ERS)? To answer these questions, the authors performed a system-level analysis to illustrate and generalize the system features of current ERS projects into the action, factor, and goal list, which stakeholders can use to describe their perceptions of ERS
This case study demonstrates the applicability of the proposed adoption of an actor network analysis framework in a complex technology innovation project using ERS cases
Summary
While new technologies can benefit society in various ways, social adaptation and user acceptance are challenging. These challenges are usually analysed through system-level analysis methods involving different stakeholders. Electric vehicles (EV) have been adopted as a potential solution to achieve an environmentally sustainable transport system in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol [2]. An electric road system (ERS) is defined as a transportation system where vehicles receive dynamic power transfer while in motion [5]. In order to encourage the future implementation of ERSs and achieve a sustainable transportation system in the long-term, the authors selected an ERS project as a case study to uncover the complexity and stakeholder influences at the early stage of such a project
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