Enacting EdTech Uncertainties: How uncertainties give rise to actions that shape the EdTech market

Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to study what uncertainties there are in the complex Swedish EdTech market for instructional tools, what supplier actions they give rise to, and how these actions shape the market. To find this out, a qualitative abductive study was conducted, where the primary data source was semi-structured interviews with eight EdTech suppliers of instructional tools. We find that the market consists of high uncertainties that give rise to direct, indirect, and avoidance actions from suppliers. These actions then contribute to suppliers shaping the market in five different ways. First, suppliers engage in norm-creation by influencing other actors' behaviors based on successful direct actions. Second, suppliers engage in direct actions that shape the market, one customer at a time. Third, suppliers shape the market (consciously or not) by working with partners that are often incumbents with potential incentives to performatively shape market practices. Fourth, suppliers shape the market through indirect actions by supporting the trade organization that educates and legitimizes the market. Lastly, suppliers shape the market by attempting to avoid uncertainties, which in turn opens up the scope for how the market is perceived. Many of these practices reduce uncertainties in the market, but also have the potential of increasing them through the interrelatedness of different market practices.