Learning from the scale-up of low-tech: uncovering a new form of expansive diffusion

The scale-up of the French low-tech movement is in demand from the field (Mateus & Roussilhe, 2023) but tricky. The movement is made of objects to diffuse and it is also rooted in alternative way-of-doing, thus aiming to propose an answer to technocritical analysis. Without this "way-of-doing" element, low-tech innovations lose their potential for responsible transformation. The diversity of the movement is amplified when it comes to its scale-up: the dominant way to scale-up an innovation is through product diffusion in a market perspective, but this pathway is unacceptable in regard of the technocritic legacy of the movement. In the field, multiple forms of scale-up are experimented, whether based on objects or on the diffusion of values, way-of-doing or organizing at a greater scale. The case study of the scale-up of the low-tech movement based on objects diffusion is a key point to explore this paradoxical scaleup. Three domains of literature enrich the understanding of the issue. Firstly, the literature from the low-tech movement predicts a slow object-centred diffusion due to the incompatibility with global capitalist system (Girard et al., 2023). Meanwhile, some authors from the movement insist on the diffusion of other components of the movement, like the empowerment these innovations serve (Mateus & Roussilhe, 2023). Secondly, we explore further the mechanisms of diffusion of innovation with the diffusionist approach (Rogers, 2003), then the micro-mechanisms linking innovation and actors (Akrich et al., 2002) and finally the macro-mechanisms articulating multiple sociotechnical dimensions to the innovation (Kemp et al., 1998). It teaches us that low-tech objects will either be slow or original, and that sociotechnical dimensions associated with the innovation can diffuse around it. This is confirmed by literature on other alternative innovation movements clos to low-tech (grassroot (Hossain, 2018), open (Ogink et al., 2023), under constraints). Thirdly, we explore the other side of the tension between object approach and movement approach through the literature on social movement scale-up. To better understand the scale-up of the low-tech product-movement, we look at the social and technical elements and we ask: what are the forms, dimensions and actors of low-tech scale-up that are based on object-centred diffusion? Due to the youth of the movement, we conducted an exploratory qualitative case study. We use case study research methodology (Eisenhardt, 1989) to do a longitudinal analysis of the diffusion of a solar oven in France and what it triggers. We build our case study on long term observation and participation in the studied ecosystem (2020-2025), completed by interviews of key actors and secondary data. As expected, we find a bad fit with the model of diffusion by increased production of artefacts. Another model of diffusion of small production capacities appears, but with limits and slowness. A third type of diffusion is uncovered: the expansive diffusion where sociotechnical dimensions are strongly designed during the diffusion process, with new actors involved, and it influences back the low-tech movement. These findings have multiple managerial implications: 1) a further detailed model of the dimensions explored should help low-tech innovators to manage the enlarged exploration during their innovation's diffusion; 2) the new dimensions open the diffusion to new stakeholders, which opens co-design questions for managers ; 3) new stakeholders will benefit from an understanding of the product-movement relationship that is at the core of the expansive diffusion.