Reverse salient
A reverse salient refers to a component of a technological system that, due to its insufficient development, prevents the system in its entirety from achieving its development goals. The term was coined by Thomas P. Hughes,[1] in his work Networks of power: Electrification in western society, 1880-1930.[2]
Technological systems and their evolution
Technological systems may refer to a
Hughes
The development of technological systems is therefore reliant on reciprocated and interdependent cause and effect
Reverse salients in technological system evolution
A reverse salient is the inverse of a
Because reverse salients limit system development, the further development of the system lies in the correction of the reverse salient, where correction is attained through incremental or radical innovations. The reverse salient denotes a focusing device, in the words of Nathan Rosenberg,[6] for technological system stakeholders, which strive to remove it through innovation. It is possible that the reverse salient is not able to be corrected within the bounds of the existing technological system through incremental innovations. Consequently, radical innovations may be needed to correct the reverse salient. However, radical innovations can lead to the creation of new and different technological systems, as witnessed in the emergence of the alternating current system that overcame the problem of low cost electricity distribution, which the direct current system could not.[1]
Hence, the reverse salient is a useful concept for analyzing technological system evolution,[7] because often the analysis of technological systems centers on the factors that limit system development. More than technical components, these factors may also be social components. Subsequently, reverse salients may be more applicable in certain contexts to denote system performance hindrance than similar or overlapping concepts such as bottleneck and technological imbalance or disequilibrium.[8]
The reverse salient refers to an extremely complex situation in which individuals, groups, material forces, historical influences, and other factors have idiosyncratic, causal forces, and in which accidents as well as trends play a part. On the contrary, the disequilibrium concept suggests a relatively straightforward abstraction of physical science.[1] Additionally, while the reverse salient and bottleneck concepts share similarities and have been used interchangeably in particular contexts, the reverse salient often refers to the sub-system that not only curbs the performance or output of the collective system but also requires correction because of its limiting affect. This is not necessarily the case with bottlenecks, which are geometrically too symmetrical[1] and therefore do not represent the complexity of system evolution. For instance, a particular system's output performance may be compromised due to a bottleneck sub-system but the bottleneck will not require improvement if the system's present output performance is satisfactory. If, on the other hand, a higher level of performance would be required of the same system, the bottleneck may emerge as a reverse salient that holds the system back from attaining that higher output performance.
Reverse salient examples
While numerous studies illustrate technological systems that have been hampered by reverse salients, the most seminal work in this field of study is that of Hughes,
Since Hughes' seminal work, other authors have also provided examples of reverse salients in different technological systems. In the ballistic missile technological development, where the systemic objective has been to increase missile accuracy, MacKenzie[9] has identified the gyroscope sub-system as a technical reverse salient. Takeishi and Lee[10] have argued that music copyright managing institutions have acted as a social reverse salient in the evolution of the mobile music technology system in Japan and Korea, where the objective was to proliferate mobile music throughout the end-user market. And further, Mulder and Knot,[11] see the development of the PVC (polyvinyl chloride) plastic technology system to have been sequentially hampered by several states of reverse salience, including: difficulty to process PVC material, quality of manufactured products, health concerns for individuals exposed to effluent from PVC manufacturing facilities, and finally the carcinogenic nature of vinyl chloride.
Analytical measure of reverse salience
The magnitude of reverse salience emerges as an informative parameter in technological systems analysis as it signifies not only the technological disparity between sub-systems but also the entire system's limited level of performance. Notwithstanding its importance, the literature studying technological system evolution has remained limited in terms of analytical tools that measure the state of reverse salience. Dedehayir and Mäkinen[12][13] have subsequently proposed an absolute performance gap measure of reverse salience magnitude. This measure evaluates the technological performance differential between the salient sub-system (i.e. the advanced sub-system) and the reverse salient sub-system at a particular point in time. In turn, by evaluating a series of performance differentials over time, the performance gap measure helps reflect the dynamics of change in the evolving technological system through changing reverse salience magnitude.
Origin of term
According to Thomas Hughes, the name "reverse salient" was inspired by the Verdun
; moreover, "reverse salient" is not a military term in general usage.References
- ^ a b c d e f g h Hughes, T. P. (1983). Networks of power: Electrification in western society, 1880-1930. USA: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
- ^ Melvin Kranzberg, "History & Technology: Kranzberg's Laws" Society for the History of Technology, 1986
- Tushman, M.L.& Murmann, J.P. 1998, "Dominant Designs, Technology Cycles, and Organizational Outcomes", Research in Organizational Behavior, vol. 20, pp. 231-266.
- ^ Sahal, D. 1981, Patterns of Technological Evolution, Addison-Wesley, London.
- ^ a b Hughes, T.P. 1987, "The Evolution of Large Technological Systems" in The Social Construction of Technological Systems, eds. W.E. Bijker, T.P. Hughes & T.P. Pinch, The MIT Press, USA, pp. 51-82.
- ^ Rosenberg, N. (1969). The direction of technological change: Inducement mechanisms and focusing devices. Economic Development and Cultural Change, 18, 1-24.
- ^ Dedehayir, O. 2009, "Bibliometric study of the reverse salient concept", Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, Vol 2, No 3.
- ^ Rosenberg, N. (1976). Perspectives on technology. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ MacKenzie, D. (1987). Missile accuracy: A case study in the social processes of technological change. In W. E. Bijker, T. P. Hughes & T. J. Pinch (Eds.), The social construction of technological systems (pp. 195-222). USA: The MIT Press.
- ^ Takeishi, A., & Lee, K. (2005). Mobile music business in japan and korea: Copyright management institutions as a reverse salient. Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 14, 291-306.
- ^ Mulder, K., & Knot, M. (2001). PVC plastic: A history of systems development and entrenchment. Technology in Society, 23, 265-286.
- ^ Dedehayir, O. & Mäkinen, S.J. 2008, "Dynamics of Reverse Salience as Technological Performance Gap: An Empirical Study of the Personal Computer Technology System", Journal of Technology Management and Innovation, vol. 3, no. 3, pp. 55-66.
- ^ CITER
- ^ "AmericanHeritage.com / "We Get the Technology We Deserve"". www.americanheritage.com. Archived from the original on 2008-03-29.