GPs are from Mars, Administrators are from Venus: The Role of Misaligned Occupational Dispositions in Inhibiting Mandated Role Change

Research on mandated occupational role change focuses on jurisdictional conflict to explain change failure. Our study of the English National Health Service highlights the role of occupational dispositions in shaping how mandated role change is implemented by members of multiple occupational groups. We find that tension stemming from misaligned dispositions may emerge as members of different occupations interact during their role change implementation efforts. Depending on dispositional responses to tension, change may fail as members of the different occupations avoid interactions. This suggests that effective role change can be elusive even in the initial absence of conflicting occupational interests

Governance-technology co-evolution and misalignment in the electricity industry

This paper explores some reasons why the alignment between governance and technology in infrastructures may be unstable or not easy to achieve. Focusing on the electricity industry, we claim that the decentralization of governance – an essential step towards a decentralized technical coordination - may be hampered by if deregulation magnifies behavioural uncertainties and asset specificities; and that in a technically decentralized system, political demand for centralized coordination may arise if the players are able to collude and lobby, and if such practices lead to higher electricity rates and lower efficiency. Our claims are supported by insights coming from approaches as diverse as transaction cost economics, the competence-based view of the firm, and political economy.Governance; Technology; Coherence; Competence; Transaction costs; Regulation.

The role and function of systemic collaborative intermediary organisations in urban system change: the case of the Cities Alliance

Misaligned, single actor and sector driven approaches result in urban system fragmentation which creates barriers to achieving the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. The study argues for the alignment of the interests, resources and behaviours of actors to work together across local, national, regional and global urban system levels. This is an essential precondition for transitioning towards urban sustainability. It builds on the argument that systems change when developments at all levels link up and reinforce each other. The study contributes to the literature on the role of cross-sector collaboration and collaborative governance in urban sustainability transitions in three ways by: (1) extending the understanding on how intermediary functions are applied to scale urban collaborative governance; (2) developing the concept of a SCIO and a conceptual model for urban system change and describing the role of SCIOs to operationalise the conceptual model; and (3) contributing to the emerging understanding of how to make an abstract global agenda on collaboration, SDG Goal 17, more concrete by discussing the case of a global urban intermediary and multi-stakeholder partnership. It distinguishes between universal and systemic intermediary functions and discuss how these are applied across horizontal and vertical scales to foster collaborative governance and alignment. This contributes towards the understanding of how multi-level urban governance is organised and highlights the challenges and limitations encountered in scaling urban collaborative governance

How fluidity drives the evolution of group norms in open online communities: A dialectical model

This paper develops a dialectic process model to explain how group norms evolve in self-organizing open online communities. Archive data collected from a celebrity fandom community is used for a netnography study that is complemented by an interview with the community administrator. The analysis of the data reveals that the fluidity of online communities triggers changes on norm conformity leading to increased peer to peer moderations. That raised contradictions on norm schema (clarity and alignment with the community identity). I find drivers that affect the resolution of norm contradictions. This paper develops an iterative model to explain how norm contradictions are continuously raised due to fluidity and resolved by community members. The findings have theoretical and practical implication on the sustainability and fluidity of online communities from group norm perspective

Problematizing fit and survival: transforming the law of requisite variety through complexity misalignment

The law of requisite variety is widely employed in management theorizing and is linked with core strategy themes such as contingency and fit. We reflect upon requisite variety as an archetypal borrowed concept. We contrast its premises with insights from the institutional literature and commitment literature, draw propositions that set boundaries to its applicability, and review the ramifications of what we call “complexity misalignment.” In this way we contradict foundational assumptions of the law, problematize adaptation- and survival-centric views of strategizing, and theorize the role of human agency in variously complex regimes

The processes and practices of sustainable cities

As concentrations of population and consumption, cities are fundamental to the sustainable transition that is urgently needed to resolve the ecological crisis we are facing. Cities have responded to this challenge with a large number committing to sustainable visions and/or initiatives such as the Global Covenant of Mayors (GCoM), C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group or ICLEI Local Governments for Sustainability network. Whilst there are pockets of best practice we are not seeing the speed or scale of change required in terms of resource use, carbon emissions or well-being. There is an implementation gap between cities’ long-term sustainable visions and the short-term actions realised to achieve them; cities are struggling to achieve long-term goals in the face of short-term pressures. To accelerate sustainable urban transitions a greater understanding of the regime-level processes that enable or constrain translation between long-term visions and short-term action is required. Transition research to date has neglected regime processes, especially non-technical institutional processes and cultural-cognitive habits and heuristics, as well as the role of power and agency. This thesis aims to critically explore the processes of regime-level change to gain insights into how urban transitions occur and under what circumstances they can be accelerated. To achieve this a novel analytical framework is proposed, with transition theory as the foundation, additionally drawing on institutional and quasi-evolutionary theory. This framework is tested using three leading sustainable cities case studies, London, New York and Copenhagen, including interviews with sustainable city network actors. Analysis using the framework generates important insights into how urban transitions might be steered and accelerated. In particular that normative institutional processes are an effective means for regime actors to coordinate power, affect resource allocation, and impact selection pressures and adaptive capacity. The findings suggests that unless the institutional and quasi-evolutionary processes that drive action are re-configured in line with sustainable city visions then progress will be limited

Marginalization of end-use technologies in energy innovation for climate protection

Mitigating climate change requires directed innovation efforts to develop and deploy energy technologies. Innovation activities are directed towards the outcome of climate protection by public institutions, policies and resources that in turn shape market behaviour. We analyse diverse indicators of activity throughout the innovation system to assess these efforts. We find efficient end-use technologies contribute large potential emission reductions and provide higher social returns on investment than energy-supply technologies. Yet public institutions, policies and financial resources pervasively privilege energy-supply technologies. Directed innovation efforts are strikingly misaligned with the needs of an emissions-constrained world. Significantly greater effort is needed to develop the full potential of efficient end-use technologies

Exploring the Dialectics Underlying Institutionalization of IT Artifacts

We examine the relationship between information and communication technology for development (ICT4D) and local historically embedded institutions. We argue that, to understand the process of implementing IT artifacts, one needs to consider not only technical feasibility and economic viability but also institutional permissibility. We present a novel theoretical framework based on dialectics and institutional theory and apply it to a case study that contributes a dialectics-centered framework illustrated with empirical data from the informal sector in Latin America. The analysis demonstrates the institutionalization of IT artifacts as a conflicted and contested process and that historical institutions may enable some forms of institutionalization while resisting others contrary to social norms. We examine the emergence of contradictions, active praxis, and the resulting outcomes before concluding that, for IT artifacts to contribute to development, one must emphasize the embedded institutional arrangements and contestation that historically embedded institutions present. We conclude the paper by discussing the theoretical and practical implications

Approach towards an operational tool to apply institutional analysis for the assessment of policy feasibility within SEAMLESS-IF

Environmental Economics and Policy,