growth and, as such, has been included as an essential element of the
Lisbon Strategy launched in 2000, further defined by the Barcelona
Research Council in 2002.
Moreover, “change” may be incremental and, therefore, refers to improvements
to products or processes; modular, whereby, parts of the
product or process are novel or even radical, referring to totally new
products and processes, which require a fundamentally new approach
to organization (cf. Garcia & Calantone, 2002 for various definitions in
literature).
The introduction of EVs to market leads to a Technology Innovation
System (TIS). TIS are defined as socio-technical systems, which aim to
enhance the development, diffusion and use of a particular technology
(Bergek et al., 2008). The technology definition is used as a differentiation,
as technology innovations will most probably trigger or require
innovation in processes (management, operational, cultural etc.).
“Technology” may refer to a knowledge field or a product (Carlsson
et al., 2002). This is the case of EVs. Typically, a TIS may cut across national,
regional and sectoral boundaries (Hekkert et al., 2007; Markard
& Truffer, 2008) and this characteristic reflects on both the deployment
of the technology and the interdependency of actors and their interrelations.
However, their analysis at a specific level, application or “node” is
important in understanding key mechanisms. This is the case of studying
EVs potential uptake as a city logistics application