Fumbling to the future? Socio-technical regime change in the recorded music industry

Abstract

In this paper, I draw on the institutional entrepreneurship and sociotechnical imaginaries literature to develop a prospective and actor-centric approach to understanding technological transitions. Empirically, I examine the initiatives that newcomers and incumbents engaged in between 1990 and 2005 to transition the socio-technical regime associated with recorded music. My account reveals the limited ability of these actors to effectively migrate the regime despite initiating several efforts to do so – a pattern of behavior I term the fragility of institutional entrepreneurship. I identify underlying factors for why this is the case and suggest that these can contribute to a regime remaining in a state of flux for an extended period of time. I also demonstrate the emergence of provisional regimes or temporary settlements between actors that either gain traction or are themselves transformed over time. In specifying the micro-processes that unfold as part of such transitions, I provide a complementary perspective to the current theorizing around socio-technical regime migration, and contribute fresh insights to the institutional entrepreneurship and sociotechnical imaginaries literature.