This Thesis Has Been Submitted in Fulfilment of the Requirements for a Postgraduate Degree (E.G
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This thesis has been submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for a postgraduate degree (e.g. PhD, MPhil, DClinPsychol) at the University of Edinburgh. Please note the following terms and conditions of use: This work is protected by copyright and other intellectual property rights, which are retained by the thesis author, unless otherwise stated. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author. When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given. The co-evolution of an emerging mobile technology and mobile services A study of the distributed governance of technological innovation through the case of WiBro in South Korea Jee Hyun SUH Doctor of Philosophy The University of Edinburgh 2014 Declaration I hereby declare that this following thesis is my own work and that, to the best of my knowledge, it contains no material previously published or written by another person nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma of the university or other institutes of higher learning, except where due acknowledgement is made in the text. July 2014 Jee Hyun Suh i Abstract This thesis is a study of the development and uptake of an emerging infrastructural technology: the mobile Wireless Broadband technology and service known as WiBro in South Korea, and Mobile WiMAX internationally. WiBro has emerged through a national development effort since the early 2000s. The commercial service was launched in 2006. However, uptake fell far below initial expectations, only succeeding in niche markets. This study was motivated by concerns about the perceived gulf between development and diffusion and the ‘failure’ of WiBro. However, this study seeks to go beyond the technology-driven perspective that informs conceptions of diffusion gap: it aims to explicate the sociotechnical factors leading to such a gap. This study draws on Science and Technology Studies (STS) and in particular the Social Shaping of Technology (SST) perspective, which provides tools to scrutinize the interactions among the various interests and factors involved in the process of technological innovation. The SST perspective goes beyond approaches that treat technology as a static object to be developed and diffused. It provides tools to examine the complex and dynamic forces that develop technical capacity towards particular forms and uses. The ‘social learning’ perspective extends SST and provides concepts to explore the changing dynamics over multiple cycles of innovation. Here, Jørgensen’s concept of ‘development arena’ helps examine the interlinked, yet dispersed and multiple spaces in which differing goals, motivations and strategies of innovation players together shape technological innovation. Through comprehensive analyses of a longitudinal study of WiBro, a broader view of the process and the outcomes of technological innovation have been achieved. Rather than viewing the technology as a stable object that would progress in a linear manner through the stages of design, development, and diffusion, it has focused on the process of shaping of WiBro through multiple cycles of innovation. Several arenas of innovation were identified as diverse players sought to align their interests towards exploiting the resources, capacities, and tools for innovation that seemed to be available. In these spaces, conflicting and yet coevolving dynamics were observed: one involving coordination through alignments of multiple interests, and ii the other incorporating tensions and misalignments among the differing concerns, aims and commitments towards the innovation. The complex dynamics involved a multi-level game where the collective actions among the innovation players and their individual strategies diverged to a degree. Furthermore, changing contingencies, linked to shifting choices of innovation players, resulted in the deviation of the innovation from the initial visions and aims. The study thus illustrates the outcomes of highly divergent interactions at play in innovation process and the mutual enrollment efforts of players that constituted the distributed governance of innovation. Here the complex interplays among the innovation players involved in multi-level games produced a gap between the generic vision and the actual uptake of WiBro. Changing contingencies, especially linked to broader and evolving structures and relations - brought about the re- shaping of the generic vision of WiBro. This research therefore suggests the concept of the ‘distributed governance of innovation’ as a new mode for governance: that accommodates not only differing knowledges and interests but also the shifting choices and visions through the various cycles of technological innovation. The boundary of social learning is thus extended to incorporate diverging choices over time and across the multiple spaces of innovation. Its implications for policy include achieving reflexivity by incorporating into the policy framework the learning process that takes place as the innovation players go through the varying stages and cycles of technological innovation. iii Acknowledgement A hundred times or more I must thank people who have enabled me and helped me to embark on a journey towards a PhD in the first place, and to finally have this thesis written. It has been a long journey that would not have been possible without the sincere guidance of my supervisor, Professor Robin Williams and the loving support of my family. First, I would like to thank Professor Robin Williams for driving me forward with his enthusiasm, knowledge and insights on the themes and subjects of my research. Also, his patience, care, and support with various matters have sustained me through this journey. I would also like to thank Dr. Ian Graham for his valuable advice on my thesis, and my colleague and friend Eunsun Kim for her thoughtful encouragement. I have been grateful for the funding I received from Korea Institute for Advancement of Technology (KIAT), which not only supported me financially, but also encouraged me with good reasons to study the national case of WiBro. I also acknowledge the funding I have received from Science and Technology Policy Institute (STEPI) of Korea through their Fellowship program for graduate students. Also, I would like to thank the people from industry and others who have shared their knowledge and expertise with a novice and student by taking valuable time for the interviews. Sincere appreciation also goes to my uncle, Dong-Hee Park and my brother-in-law, Ju-Hyun Ahn for helping me gain access to key players in the field. I am most grateful to my mother, Munhee Pak, and my father, Sangtae Suh, for their limitless love and support. Also, I cannot sufficiently thank my sister, Jee-Hye, and my brother, Min-Gook. To Yongsuk, I know this journey of mine and also yours has taken much too long, but thank you so much for standing by me, encouraging me, and helping me not to get lost on the way. My daughter Yewon has been the source of my joy and love throughout this journey, and I thank her for patiently awaiting and encouraging me to this day. iv Table of Contents Declaration .................................................................................................................... i Abstract ........................................................................................................................ ii Acknowledgement ....................................................................................................... iv Table of Contents ......................................................................................................... v List of Tables ............................................................................................................... ix List of Figures .............................................................................................................. x Abbreviations .............................................................................................................. xi Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 1.1 Aims and motivations ................................................................................... 1 1.2 Overview of WiBro ....................................................................................... 3 1.3 Research questions ........................................................................................ 6 1.4 The organisation of the thesis ....................................................................... 8 Chapter 2. The social shaping of technological innovation and change .................... 11 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................. 11 2.2 Dealing with uncertainties: From diffusion to social shaping of technological innovation ............................................................................. 12 2.2.1. Patterns, modes, and rates of innovation diffusion ................ 13 2.2.2. The co-evolution of technology and society .......................... 15 2.2.3. Managing