Successful establishment of innovation systems for low visibility breakthrough innovations: The role of system builders, proximal institution and legitimacy

Technological innovations system (TIS) is used widely in the study of development and diffusion of breakthrough innovation (BTI), particularly in the field of sustainable technologies. The current scholarship does not clearly address the critical first step namely the establishment of the system where no functioning TIS is in existence; hence, it is incomplete. Literature also alludes to the important role of system builders in the establishment of a TIS pointing to the need for systematic empirical research designed to shed light on the role played by system builders. We examine the establishment of two distinct TIS for Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), a low visibility BTI that has created a new industry with high impact in the development of more sustainable products in the automotive, aeronautical, and healthcare sectors among others, and attributes and strategies of two system builders in establishment and operation of two systems. By providing a comparative case study between the two main centres where the technology was developed, we also examine how the proximal formal and informal institution affect system builders' capacity to establish a TIS and the relationship between institution and legitimation. The research develops a descriptive theory on the orchestrated establishment of TIS.