Abstract

     The expedite to network economy during the COVID-19 pandemic has raised the question of how to induce and sustain a societal and industrial transformation towards a more networked world. Among the driving forces behind network economy, the commercialization of 5G, the fifth generation of mobile technologies, is especially noteworthy. How does 5G induce such a transition? How do countries respond? are questions deserving more investigation. However, most discussions of 5G have been confined to standardization or standard-setting. To take into accounts interactions between technology and economy, we adopt Geels’ (2002) multi-level perspective to put 5G transition in the social-technical context. We choose China as an influential case and deploy mixed methods to analyze a variety of data sources. The results show a rich picture of technological transition, including: 1) 5G standard-setting as a transition trigger in the global level; 2) IoT incubation in the niche level; and 3) regime configuration in the national level. We help transcend the limitation of standardization studies, extend the scope of transition studies into network economy, and introduce more industrial dynamics.

Introduction

     The expedite to network economy during the COVID-19 pandemic has raised the question of how to induce and sustain a societal and industrial transformation towards a more networked world. Network economy is not a new thing since the world has been deeply embedded in a fabric interwoven by network infrastructure (Zammuto et al., 2007). What is new is that the pandemic has triggered transformations not only in a global scale, but also in a massive scope on every aspect of political, economic and social life. We have seen the rise of pandemic information systems, the move to on-line education, the increase in flexible work arrangements, and the intensification of network economy across many sectors (Whitelaw et al., 2020). The pandemic will end eventually, but the momentum it generated might have long-lasting effects. Network economy will continue making new ways of organizing and working possible (Brynjolfsson and McAfee, 2014), connecting humans and machines via a vast array of internet of things (IoT) applications (Shafique et al., 2020), and incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) as a component to augment and automate increasingly more functions and processes within as well as across organizations (Kellogg et al., 2020). It is therefore foreseeable a transition towards a more networked economy and society.

Conclusion and discussion

     Through the case study, we analyze changes in the three levels during 5G transition, which suggest: 1) 5G standard-setting as a transition trigger in the global level; 2) IoT incubation in the niche level; and 3) regime reconfiguration in the national level. These changes, however, must be put under the scrutiny of alignment to make linkages between them. According to Kemp et al. (2001), “It is the alignment of developments (successful processes within the niche reinforced by changes at regime level and at the level of the sociotechnical landscape) which determine if a regime shift will occur”. The alignment is important for stability and sustainability of both regime reconfiguration and actors’ construction and response. Therefore, we can observe how this alignment helps reinforce regime reconfiguration and stabilize a new regime.