A relational approach on market innovation: a transformation from manned to unmanned vessels and autonomous shipping (Esitys 32nd IMP (Industrial Marketing and Purchasing) Conferencessa, 20.8.-3.9. 2016, Poznan Poland)

Abstract

<p>The literature on innovation is characterized by the dominance of technological aspects of innovation. Literature features linear models that describe innovation development as a technological challenge of subsequent stages whereas considerations on market aspects are more implicit and scattered. Consequently, the purpose of this article is to further understanding on the issue of how new needs and more widely new markets evolve and are created for the new technology. The study adopts the concept of market innovation in building a market-oriented, multi-level, and multi-actor analytical perspective on evolving needs, respectively evolving solutions and the emergence of markets. The market innovation is captured through theoretical development and a qualitative exploratory case study that focuses on the dawn of development in which autonomous shipping is to become reality in a global marine industry. The study conceptualizes the development of autonomous shipping as a market innovation and focuses on the related innovation drivers and barriers on micro, meso and macro levels of context. These generated insights comprise a basis for theorizing an integrative research framework on market innovation and critically assess and refine the suitability of the prevailing analytical concepts and perspectives on innovation to improve their capability to capture the market dimension of innovation.<br /></p>