Conspicuous diffusion: Theorizing how status drives innovation in electric mobility

Abstract

This paper explores how conceptions of luxury and status affect the manner in which a relatively novel technology-an electric vehicle-diffuses across societies. To do so, it combines Veblen's notion of conspicuous consumption and Roger's diffusion of innovation by proposing a new theoretical variation, which we term "conspicuous diffusion." The paper sketches natural connections between the two theories, namely how conspicuous consumption relates to technological and societal development, and how diffusion of innovation is intrinsically connected to status. In combining these approaches, we hypothesize that the success of an innovation is guided by its adherence to the canons of conspicuousness and conspicuous value, which it loses as the innovation diffuses across the population. To illustrate the explanatory power of conspicuous diffusion, we examine the status of electric vehicles in the Nordic region, based on original data from multiple methods, including expert interviews and focus groups. We find that conspicuous diffusion can explain previous failures and current successes of electric vehicle diffusion patterns. The paper concludes with recommendations for policymakers, industry, and academia.

What Do Banks, Rural Credit Institutions, and Regulators Infer from the Current Strengths and Standing of Indonesian SMEs?

“…Additionally, it will support Indonesian SMEs in overcoming future uncertainties due to their intangible endowment knowledge (Rogers, 1961). By possessing their dynamic capabilities, these SMEs could ascertain their future growth and learn how to evade failure (Noel et al, 2019). This study, therefore, concludes that Indonesian regulators should not consider more financial policies for these SMEs.…”

“…This study suggests that an omnibus law is needed to reduce the gaps between existing practices and expected outputs (Carreiro and Oliveira, 2019; Kumar and Singh, 2019;Zhang, 2018). Nevertheless, these gaps are useful for identifying, internalizing, and evaluating the inadequacies in all the existing regulations, which are accommodated in the new omnibus law (Khurshid et al, 2018;Noel et al, 2019). This study presents the following comments that explain the need for an omnibus law for Indonesian SMEs.…”

“…The most important thing for the Indonesian regulators is that they should determine what output level could be achieved nationally by this omnibus law (Carreiro and Oliveira, 2019;Kumar and Singh, 2019;Zhang, 2018). The omnibus law is to identify, internalize, and evaluate all the existing contributions (Khurshid et al, 2018;Noel et al, 2019) from all Indonesian SMEs if the regulators succeed in creating it. This study finally concludes that the Indonesian regulators should define the SMEs' production roles using an industry-wide concept as well as a revolutionary concept within this omnibus law.…”

“…This association supports the SMEs' readiness for change. It explains that this omnibus law will also support the Indonesian SMEs in realizing their best performance (Khurshid et al, 2018;Noel et al, 2019) through organizational commitment and self-efficacies. The authors argue that for innovation, most SMEs' executive officers could refer to the regulation that boosts creativity due to the relationship between knowledge and innovation (Carreiro and Oliveira, 2019;Kumar and Singh, 2019;Zhang, 2018).…”

“…This policy must create a linkage with the output of academic research to enhance Indonesian SMEs. Moreover, this policy is future-oriented, as it can transform the Indonesian SMEs by improving their dynamic capabilities, adaptive structure, competitiveness, and agility (Noel et al, 2019;Rogers, 1961;Wang et al, 2019). Likewise, this third policy has to be complemented by incorporating ICT into Indonesian SMEs.…”