Stakeholder involvement in industry-level technology roadmapping: A political perspective

Technology roadmapping (TRM) is a popular and helpful planning instrument that can stimulate industry change. It benefits from stakeholder engagement to identify application areas, identify scenarios, and create ownership. However, few studies have looked at TRM and stakeholder management. Moreover, stakeholder management research has generally applied a rational and functional view. In contrast, we focus on the role of the TRM orchestrator and use a political lens. Specifically, we study the TRM orchestrator's micropolitical behaviors and focus on the use and impact of influence tactics such as gatekeeping, framing, coalition building, and promising to foster the creation of shared perceptions, reduce resistance, and muster support for the new technology. Based on the results of a practical case of smart urban lighting, we show how this political lens complements the stakeholder view. The findings help better understand the TRM process and outcomes. Drawing on our results, a new integrated framework is developed. • A political perspective on technology roadmapping helps understand stakeholder management processes and outcomes. • Framing, coalition building, gatekeeping, and promising are important influence tactics in TRM context • Hiding and compromise were identified as additional tactics in the practical case of urban smart lighting.