The Emergence of the Dominant Design in Socio-Technical Transitions : A Case Study of Electric Aviation in Sweden

Sammanfattning: There is currently an ongoing transition into more sustainable aviation. One of the sustainable alternatives to the conventional fossil-fueled aircraft is electric aviation. The research aim of the study could be divided into two parts. The first part was to identify the barriers to the development of electric aviation in Sweden. The second part was to ascertain if and, in that case, how the process to reach dominant design can be affected by the actors. Empirical data was mainly gathered through semi-structured interviews. In order to address the research aim, a theoretical framework built upon theories from both multi-level perspective and dominant design theory was used. There were barriers arising from Financial, Regulatory & Political, Business Model & Legitimacy, and Technical conditions. The theoretical analysis implied the existence of two socio-technical gates. These gates consist of collaboration and legitimacy aspects. Metaphorically passing through these gates would make overcoming the relevant barriers much easier. This would also align all elements of the transition, which makes it possible for the actors to affect the process of achieving dominant design.