Page - (000197) - in Knowledge and Networks

191© The Author(s) 2017 J. Glückler et al. (eds.), Knowledge and Networks, Knowledge and Space 11, DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45023-0_10 Chapter 10 Platforming for Path-Breaking? The Case of Regional Electromobility Initiatives in Germany Jörg Sydow and Friedemann Koll Electromobility Ante Portas? Formulating platform policies, or “platforming” for short, is becoming increasingly popular in both innovation research and practice, where they are used for either inducing regional knowledge-creating processes or overcoming the closed nature of regional clusters that have, or have been, developed (Asheim, Boschma, & Cooke, 2011; Cooke, 2011). Platforming is the process of arriving at “regional resource configurations based on the past development trajectories but presenting the future potential to produce competitive advantage existing in the defined resource configu- rations” (Harmaakorpi, 2006, p. 1089). It focuses on injecting diversity or, more precisely, what is commonly called “related variety” (Boschma & Frenken, 2011b; Frenken, van Oort, & Verburg, 2007), into regional developmental processes in terms of knowledge resources, agents, activities, and relations. To this end, plat- forming sets out from the already existing knowledge base of a particular region but is commonly understood as a strategy that is more combinative than cumulative, as one designed to foster cross- sectorial coordination and learning aimed at cross-fer- tilization. But can such platforming be used to break away from an established regional knowledge path? That is, can it be used to reconstitute choice for the actors who follow the current path but succeed in deviating from it in some significant way? This definition of path- breaking builds on the increasing convergence in theo- rizing path dependence, at least in organization science and regional studies. J. Sydow (*) School of Business & Economics, Freie Universität Berlin, Boltzmannstr 20, 14195 Berlin, Germany e-mail: joerg.sydow@fu-berlin.de F. Koll School of Business & Economics, Path Dependene Research Center, Freie Universität Berlin, Garystr 21, 14195 Berlin, Germany e-mail: friedemann.koll@yahoo.com