Exploring the micro-level of technological innovation systems: Expectations as a key to understanding actor strategies in the field of "green" vehicles.

Innovation at several levels is necessary in order to transform the current automotive based transportation system into a more sustainable one. Alternative propulsion systems, like fuelcell, battery-electric or hybrid vehicles were proposed, as green alternatives to the dominant fossil fuel based mobility system. In particular the technological innovation systems approach (TIS) provides novel insights for the design of strategies and instruments to support sustainable innovation activities. The functional strand of the TIS approach has improved our understanding of the processes of change within TIS, by identifying several \u91motors of change\u92. However by applying this framework we still do not fully understand the causes which start and reinforce these \u91motors of change\u92, due to the lack of a micro foundation. We therefore suggest focusing on the actors and their strategies, since the strategies pre-determine if the actors contribute to the system. Furthermore we argue that strategies have to be based on expectations, since strategies are always future oriented. Therefore we analyzed actor strategies in the field by analyzing the expectations they are based on. The results of our strategy analysis of two major automotive manufacturers and the German government support the hypothesis that different types of actors relate their strategies to different kind of expectations. Furthermore our results indicate that not only technological expectations are being crucial for causing the dynamics of a TIS, but also expectations at the regime and socio-technical landscape level