Håkon Osland Sandvik is defending his thesis for the degree philosophiae doctor (PhD) at the University of South-Eastern Norway.
The doctoral work has been carried out at the USN School of Business in the program Marketing Management.
- Read the thesis here (to be published)
You are invited to follow the trial lecture and the public defence.
Summary
Autonomous solutions such as self-driving vehicles and unmanned vessels have received tremendous media-hype over the recent decade, promising to revolutionize industries. However, despite the huge potential benefits, their wide-spread industrial adoption is pending, which begs the question “why”?
While technology development is indeed important, it turns out it is only half the story. Turning an invention into an innovation also requires successful commercialization.
Overarchingly, this thesis opens an academic discussion that places commercialization in the forefront autonomous solutions research.
The thesis aims to advance understanding of how autonomous solution providers commercialization process unfolds.
Findings reveal autonomous solution providers face complex and interrelated commercialization challenges because existing industrial markets are rigged towards traditional man-driven solutions, which works against autonomy.
- Customers misinterpret the value of autonomous solutions.
- Regulations stifle investments in autonomous solutions.
- Ecosystems does not support wide-spread delivery and operation of autonomous solutions.
Providers therefore engage in a full-fledged commercialization process that runs in parallel with technology development and aims to create new market structures tailored for autonomous solutions. Some highlights include:
- Providers leverage commercial pilots to influence an increasing range of stakeholders, such as customers, ecosystem actors, and institutional actors.
- Autonomous solutions providers work to disrupt the traditional “economy of scale” thinking, by developing a logic that scales by numbers instead of size.
Finally, the thesis holds important policy implications and suggestions for the actors promoting and supporting radical innovations such as autonomous solutions.
- Innovation policy must change from viewing commercialization as a final dissemination step coming after technology development (stage-gate systems), to instead recognizing the need to support commercialization activities in the early innovation phases. This will reduce the risk of failure.