Concentration of power: A UK case study examining the dominance of incumbent automakers and suppliers in automotive sociotechnical transitions

Abstract

Abstract Sustainable transition scholarship has recently challenged the stereotypical characterisation of sociotechnical transitions, by revisiting the concept of creative destruction. The central counterargument is that new paradigms do not destroy old ones, but rather extend and complement them. Based on a case study of the UK’s automotive industry, this article argues that established firms lead the industry in technological innovation, in large part due to regional regulatory frameworks and preferential state accumulation projects. That article then goes on to examine the ‘power flows’ surrounding incumbent firms as the primary agents of creative accumulation within global production networks. By exploring revealing linkages between evolving government-industry relations, the motorsport sub-sector, and component suppliers, this article renders a more nuanced understanding of incumbent firms as empowered, multi-level agents of innovation. Finally, this article evaluates the UK’s incremental, ‘zero-carbon’ pathway and raises some concerns about the regime’s current sociotechnical configuration, and its fitness to achieve its stated goals.