1,721,062 research outputs found
Overview of the real-world challenges in the acceleration phase of transport electrification in Germany and California
No full text<p>This overview presents supplementary online material to Rogge and Goedeking (2024), published in Environmental Research Letters, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad2d84, and is made openly available at the Zenodo community for the EMPOCI project (https://zenodo.org/communities/empoci/). </p>
<p>It provides an overview of the real-world challenges identified in the acceleration phase of transport electrification in two jurisdictions: 56 challenges in Germany (listed in Annex 2 of the article) and 52 challenges in California (listed in Annex 3 of the article).</p>
<p>It should be cited as: Rogge, K.S. and Goedeking, N. (2024): Challenges in accelerating net-zero transitions: Insights from transport electrification in Germany and California. Environmental Research Letters, https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad2d84. Supplementary online material, Zenodo, https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10776855.</p>
<p>Acknowledgements: This research received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 852730).</p>
Final design of citizen surveys on individuals' perceptions and acceptance of SIE and EU energy transitions
No full textDeliverable D5.1 includes a description of the experimental methodology to be used and of the items to be included in the framework survey based on insights from WPs 1-4 and 6. While the general structure of the survey has been finalised, the experiments and framework survey items will continue to be updated based on general feedback and further insights from all project partners, notably from the case studies in WP3. The survey elements presented henceforward are thus subject to change. Prior to fielding the survey, pre-tests will be conducted - to be launched by the end of month 19 (MS9). Information from these pre-tests will be used to further refine the questionnaire. Also, constraints on survey length and the budget may require the questionnaire to be shortened
How actors choose between alternative technologies in sustainability transitions: Insights from the decarbonisation of heavy-duty road transport
No full textThis thesis studies how manufacturers, policymakers and the general public choose between different alternative fuel vehicle technologies in the transition to net-zero, with a particular focus on the heavy-duty vehicle sector. The technological substitution of diesel trucks is a key element in achieving greenhouse gas emission reductions, but so far none of the multiple developed alternatives, ranging from bio- and synthetic gas trucks to fuel cell and battery-electric trucks, have reached a substantial number of registrations in the EU (ACEA, 2022d). Different choices be-tween these alternatives will have different consequences for the speed of the transition and the likelihood of achieving the EU’s net-zero targets. As policies target actors rather than technologies directly, knowledge about the motivations of the key actors involved in this selection process is necessary for policymakers to effectively incentivise those low- or zero-carbon alternatives that better meet societal goals while disincentivising others (Kemp, 1994).
The later phases of transitions, from take-off through acceleration, as well as actor behaviour at the micro level, have received limited attention in transition studies so far (Markard et al., 2020; Upham, Bögel, & Dütschke, 2020). As a consequence, less is known - in comparison to the build-up of multiple niches - about the process of "narrowing down" a variety of alternative technology options and about the motivations of actors in this process. The aim of this PhD thesis is therefore to gain a better understanding of the selection process between alternative fuel technologies for heavy-duty vehicle, with a particular focus on motivations and decision-making behaviour of the actors involved. From a review of the transitions literature on technology substitution, three groups of actors with a key role in technology selection were identified: manufacturers, policy-makers, and individual citizens as recipients and part of the public discourse represented in the media. For each actor group, a research question was developed and addressed in a separate re-search paper with a distinct set of theories and methods.
Paper I analyses the strategic technology choices of European heavy-duty vehicle manufacturers and identifies four alternative fuel vehicle (AFV) innovation strategy trajectories: proactive di-versifier, focused leapfrogger, initial incrementalist, and diverse follower. The results show that these trajectory differences can be partly explained by firm-level factors, such as the manufacturers’ presence in different markets, previously established competencies, and expectations. For policymakers, these results show that a lack of early and clear policy signals can lead to firms, especially comparatively smaller ones, to initially follow a more incremental path or to wait for others to take up the risk of moving towards more disruptive technologies. Such incrementalism may be a barrier to accelerating the transition in question.
Paper II focuses on policymakers' choices between two alternatives for charging battery-electric heavy-duty trucks in eight European countries and at the EU level. The paper finds that policy-makers’ support for dynamic charging was closely linked to the evaluation of the technology by industry actors involved in the consultation and policymaking process as well as their expectations of policy developments in other countries and at the supranational level. The case for dynamic charging was further complicated by changing interests, in particular in relation to the increasingly realistic option of covering long-haul transport with stationary charging, the lack of a clear new narrative, the cross-sectoral and line infrastructure characteristics of the technology, which would require greater cooperation between previously unrelated actors, and the timing of EU infrastructure policy initiatives before relevant field trials had been completed. Consequently, the results show that with the charging discourse in Germany and the EU dominated by vehicle manufacturers who have a greater interest in stationary charging, and without clear cross-country institutional cooperation and commitment, the future of dynamic charging remains unclear despite seemingly technology-neutral policies.
Paper III examines the effect that public discourse, as represented by the media, can have on technology choice. To this end, it examines the technology attitudes of individual German citizens towards AFV technologies and finds that positive media portrayal of battery-electric vehicles (BEV) can positively influence public attitudes towards this technology. For the more overarching approach in the final paper of the thesis, the empirical context was extended to include both heavy-duty and passenger transport. In addition to the effect on attitudes, the paper also shows that, while the majority of the coverage has focused on BEVs, the media portrayed the relationship between different AFV technologies and in particular between BEVs and fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs) as uncertain, alternating between whether they were synergistic or competitive and whether one or the other would dominate in the future. Correspondingly, individual citizens had different expectations about which technology or technologies would prevail in the future. The results show that the public discourse, in which the researched strategies of manufacturers and policymakers are centrally manifested alongside the opinions of other societal actors, influences the evaluation of alternative technologies, which can, potentially feed back into decision-making through the different roles that these citizens take up in society. Policymakers need to be aware of these self-reinforcing cycles and, especially when designing technology-neutral policies, need v to take into account that both managers in manufacturing firms, the wider public, and policymakers themselves are recipients of a public discourse that can influence their attitudes beyond a purely technical comparison of the available technology alternatives.
Taken together, the studies reveal three main insights into how and why actors choose certain technology alternatives over others in the decarbonisation of heavy-duty road transport. To decide between alternatives, actors first assess the fit between alternative technologies and their own and collaborating actors’ competencies and interests. Technologies that better match these interests at a given point in time are more likely to be supported, even if their systemic contribution to the net-zero goal is not the highest. Second, actors do not focus only on the vehicle technologies themselves to make this assessment, but extend the comparison to other technologies, such as key component technologies or complementary infrastructure. For example, if the provision of infra-structure for one technology proves feasible for industry actors while another requires a government commitment that has not yet been made, as in the case of stationary versus dynamic charging infrastructure, manufacturers have an interest in building vehicles that match the infrastructure they can actively secure in order to meet relevant policy goals. Third, actors coordinate and collaborate directly with other actors to deal with uncertainties in decision-making – both through concrete joint technology development and by influencing and taking into account collective expectations.
The thesis thus contributes to the call for a more detailed study of actors in transitions and supports the previously observed importance of assuming heterogeneity of actors even within the same group, such as manufacturers or policymakers. Actors’ individual characteristics or previous experiences can result in different strategies and behaviours and thus support or hinder a transition. The thesis also adds to the literature on technology interactions in sustainability transitions from an actor perspective. The results show that even if the theoretical preconditions for choosing one technology are given in a selection environment, the preference for another alternative can effectively rule out this solution, especially when selection pressures become higher in the take-off phase of a transition. I suggest adding the conceptual layer of perceived and communicated inter-actions to account for the active ways in which actors influence technology choice, e.g. by framing two technologies as competing versus synergistic.
The results on technology choice also point to the importance of timing. If the innovation development stage of a technology is aligned with the current transition phase, the technology can more easily take advantage of windows of opportunity, such as policy changes, more readily while other technologies that can potentially contribute more (efficiently) to the net-zero goal but are not as well aligned, have a harder time being selected. The timing of actors' decisions in a transition may therefore put technologies at an advantage or disadvantage, depending on their individual level of development at a given point in time. Based on these results, I argue that future studies should conceptually and empirically distinguish more clearly between innovation and transition phases in order to better understand the factors working for or against certain technologies.
The thesis thus illustrates how an evolutionary perspective on sustainability transitions can benefit from an analysis of micro-level processes in which actors make their decisions based on both past experiences and expectations for the future, in constant interaction with the technologies they observe and other actors with whom they are connected. This complexity makes it clear that in order to understand and steer technology choices towards a net-zero future, an understanding that goes beyond the characteristics of the technology and towards the broader socio-technical system is crucial
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Get PDFThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
Variations on the Author
Get PDF“Variations on the Author” discusses two of Eduardo Coutinho’s recent films (Um Dia na Vida, from 2010, and Últimas Conversas, posthumously released in 2015) and their contribution to the general question of documentary authorship. The director’s filmography is characterized by a consistent yet self-effacing form of authorial self-inscription: Coutinho often features as an interviewer that rather than express opinions propels discourses; an interviewer that is good at listening. This mode of self-inscription characterizes him as an author who is not expressive but who is nonetheless markedly present on the screen. In Um Dia na Vida, however, Coutinho is completely absent form the image, while Últimas Conversas, on the contrary, includes a confessional prologue that moves the director from the margins to the center of his films. This article examines the ways in which these works stand out in the filmography of a director who offers new insights into the notion of cinematic authorship
Appropriate Similarity Measures for Author Cocitation Analysis
Get PDFWe provide a number of new insights into the methodological discussion about author cocitation analysis. We first argue that the use of the Pearson correlation for measuring the similarity between authors’ cocitation profiles is not very satisfactory. We then discuss what kind of similarity measures may be used as an alternative to the Pearson correlation. We consider three similarity measures in particular. One is the well-known cosine. The other two similarity measures have not been used before in the bibliometric literature. Finally, we show by means of an example that our findings have a high practical relevance.information science;Pearson correlation;cosine;similarity measure;author cocitation analysis
Knowledge dynamics and technological change: trajectories, networks and policies
Get PDFDiese Dissertationsschrift untersucht die Prozesse der Entstehung neuen Wissens und des Wissensaustausches. Neues Wissen und die Übertragung in neue Technologien oder die Verbesserung von bestehenden ist ein wesentlicher Treiber wirtschaftlicher Entwicklung. Das bisherige Verständnis über technologischen Wandel und die Rolle, die Wissensgenerierung und Wissensaustausch in diesem Prozess einnimmt, ist jedoch nicht hinreichend ausgeprägt. Bei technologischem Wandel und der Entstehung neuem Wissens wirken dynamische Prozesse und Mechanismen auf der Mikro-Ebene, die nicht-linear, akkumulativ und unter Unsicherheit ablaufen. Dabei sind heterogene Akteure und ihre Interaktionen im Innovationsprozess von zentraler Bedeutung. Akteure verfügen über unterschiedliches Wissen, welches sie in die Generierung neuen Wissens einbringen und untereinander austauschen. Daraus entstehen neue Erkenntnisse und Lösungsansätze die technologischen Wandel fördern und dadurch zu wirtschaftlichem Wachstum führen können. Am Beispiel zwei erneuerbarer Energietechnologien wird in den fünf Hauptkapiteln der Dissertation mittels Patent- und Publikationsdaten empirisch aufgezeigt, wie sich die Wissensgenerierung innerhalb von Trajektorien über die Zeit verändert, wie Politikmaßnahmen auf Netzwerke des Wissensaustausches wirken und welche Probleme bei der Analyse solcher Zusammenhänge mittels Patentdaten bestehen. Die Ergebnisse tragen maßgeblich zur ökonomischen Theoriebildung bei und lassen sich in konkrete politische Handlungsempfehlungen überführen, insbesondere zur Weiterentwicklung umweltfreundlicher Technologien, zur Vermeidung des Klimawandels und für nachhaltiges Wachstum
Dispelling the Myths Behind First-author Citation Counts
Get PDFWe conducted a full-scale evaluative citation analysis study of scholars in the XML research field to explore just how different from each other author rankings resulting from different citation counting methods actually are, and to demonstrate the capability of emerging data and tools on the Web in supporting more realistic citation counting methods. Our results contest some common arguments for the continued
use of first-author citation counts in the evaluation of scholars, such as high correlations between author rankings by first-author citation counts and other citation
counting methods, and high costs of using more realistic citation counting methods that are not well-supported by the ISI databases. It is argued that increasingly available digital full text research papers make it possible for citation analysis studies to go beyond what the ISI databases have directly supported and to employ more
sophisticated methods
- …
