Different home-country institutional environments, different expectations? A comparative case study on the socio-technological expectations of automobile manufacturers in the context of climate change

Abstract

Climate change is currently a mainstream environmental and political issue and has triggered heterogeneous business responses. The ramifications of this issue and the existence of the multiple low emission technological options, none of which is superior to the rest, has brought a great deal of uncertainty for automobile manufacturers. Under such uncertainties car manufacturers face greater challenges when making a rational, objective calculus of their interests and appropriate strategic responses, that results in technological diversity of powertrain options.Given this background, the aim of the thesis is to explain the influence of home-country institutional environments on automobile manufacturers’ socio-technologic expectations by employing a synchronic, latitudinal analysis.

In the conceptual framework of this thesis the Institutional perspective is applied and institutional environments are conceptualized as state approaches to business regulations in environmental protection and dominating techno-economic beliefs. The firm-specific expectations are structured according to the Мulti-level framework on expectations and strategies developed by Budde et al. (2012) that draws to a great extent on the MLP on socio-technic transitions.The comparative case study design is employed, using a synchronic, latitudinal analysis. The empirical evidence is collected from three companies in the automobile industry from three different home countries - Volkswagen from Germany, Ford from the US, and Toyota from Japan, that are delineated in three case studies accordingly. Results of the comparative assessment reveal that the companies differ to a great extent in their socio-technological expectations. The conclusions suggest that home country institutional environments have the greatest influence in generating divergence on landscape and niche level expectations.