Encouraging and Ensuring Successful Technology Transition in Civil Aviation

Abstract

Technology transitions are essential to transforming air traffic management to meet future capacity needs. Encouraging and obtaining equipage adoption is one crucial aspect of technology transitions. We propose an approach for developing appropriate strategies to persuade aviation stakeholders to transition to new technologies. Our approach uses cost, benefit, and value distribution across stakeholders and over time to determine which strategies are most appropriate to persuading aircraft operators to adopt new equipage. Equipage that may show an overall positive value can nevertheless fail to provide value to individual stakeholders. Such imbalances in value distribution between stakeholders or over time may lead to stakeholder intransigence and can stymie efforts to transform air traffic management systems. Leverage strategies that correct these imbalances and accelerate the realization of value for all stakeholders can enhance cooperation and increase the likelihood of a successful transition to the new technology. We demonstrate the application of the approach using the case of automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B). The approach is also applicable to a wide range of industries beyond aviation, such as the energy sector and telecommunications.