An institutional perspective on sustainability transitions

This chapter introduces an institutional perspective on sustainability transitions. Sustainability transitions entail the destabilization and de-institutionalization of existing socio-technical regimes in various industries and the creation and diffusion, hence institutionalization, of new, potentially more sustainable socio-technical configurations. Institutional theory thus provides excellent insights into such processes of institutional change, explaining both the durability of current regimes as well as sources of innovation and change. The chapter reviews some of the basic assumptions in research on sustainability transitions and discusses their relationship with and consequences for processes of institutional change. It also outlines different avenues of research in institutional theory that offer fruitful explanations for transition dynamics – for example, organizational fields, institutional logics, institutional work or institutional complexity

Digital sustainability : Tackling climate change with bits and bytes

Recent studies suggest that firms can reduce their impact on the natural environment through the creative deployment of technologies that create, use, transmit, or source electronic data. While this work on digital sustainability is promising, so far it remained unclear how firms can leverage digital technologies as part of their sustainability management. We address this issue by providing an integrative picture of how to leverage digital technologies to tackle climate change across levels. We develop this picture in three steps. First, we argue for three key levels of sustainability management - the single firm, competitor and research organizations, and institutional actors. Second, we identify key functions that current digital technologies provide - (certified) measurement and information, motivation, and transaction - and assess key promises and downsides with respect to their potential to tackle climate change. Third, we develop a multi-level framework of digital sustainability enablers

The structuration of socio-technical regimes - Conceptual foundations from institutional theory

In recent years, socio-technical transitions literature has gained importance in addressing long-term, transformative change in various industries. In order to account for the inertia and path-dependency experienced in these sectors, the concept of the socio-technical regime has been formulated. Socio-technical regimes denote the paradigmatic core of a sector, which results from the co-evolution of institutions and technologies over time. Despite its widespread acceptance, the regime concept has repeatedly been criticized for lacking a clear operationalization. As a consequence, empirical applications tend to depict regimes as too 'monolithic' and 'homogenous', not adequately considering persistent institutional tensions and contradictions. These are however crucial for assessing transition dynamics. In this paper, we revisit two concepts from institutional theory that enable an explicit identification of socio-technical regimes and more generally a specification of the 'semi-coherence' of socio-technical systems. First, we will show that 'levels of structuration' can be conceptualized as degrees of institutionalization, thereby treating institutionalization as a variable with different effects on actors, the stability of the system and thus the potential for change. Secondly, we draw on the institutional logics approach to characterize the content of various structural elements present in a system and to trace conflicts and contradictions between them. We illustrate this approach with an empirical in-depth analysis of the transformation of the Australian urban water sector since the 1970ies

Local initiatives and global regimes - Multi-scalar transition dynamics in the chemical industry

The breaking with regime logics is one of the key leverage points to enable a socio-technical transition. Understanding how, and under what conditions, this may happen is thus an important task for transition studies. Recent research on socio-technical regimes has shown that they may be less geographically bound than previously assumed. Regimes may instead be replicated and reinforced globally through networks of multi-national companies (MNCs), international interest organizations, and other actor groups. This paper studies the dynamics of such multi-scalar transitions by focusing on the interrelation of local sustainability initiatives and global regimes. Using the case of the chemical industry, we illustrate how sustainability initiatives taken by a few subsidiaries of global corporations in Sweden are closely intertwined with the global regime and vice versa. We show that global regimes are locally embedded as well as globally institutionalized and that sustainability initiatives must therefore challenge both, highly institutionalized local as well as global socio-technical configurations at once. Four main multi-scalar transition dynamics are identified; institutional contradictions, internal competition, inadequate networks, and inconsistent aims and expectations. Each of these dimensions contributes to shaping pathways for local transitions in industries that are dependent on developments outside their immediate boundaries

The interplay of institutions, actors and technologies in socio-technical systems - An analysis of transformations in the Australian urban water sector

Literature on socio-technical transitions has primarily emphasized the co-determination of institutions and technologies. In this paper, we want to focus on how actors play a mediating role between these two pillars of a socio-technical system. By introducing the theoretical concept of institutional work, we contribute to the conceptualization and empirical assessment of agency processes in socio-technical systems. We illustrate this approach by analyzing recent developments in the Australian urban water sector, where seawater desalination technology has experienced an unexpected, but rapid diffusion to all major cities, often interpreted as a reaction to a major multi-year drought. However, the drought broke and left all but one plant unused. This has led many commentators wonder how such a massive investment - which is likely to limit alternative development trajectories in the sector for the coming decades - could have happened so quickly and why other, potentially more sustainable technologies, have not been able to use the momentum of the crisis to break through. A comparative analysis between seawater desalination and its main rival wastewater recycling in regard to processes of institutional work provides valuable insight into how technology, actors and institutions mutually shaped each other

The rise of online platforms and the triumph of the corporation

Rather than viewing online platforms as digital marketplaces, we analyze platforms as corporations and platform participants as a workforce. Online platforms perform very similar functions as any other corporation, but in different ways (applying terms and conditions as a legal framework and data, reviews, and algorithms for decentralized control) and mostly in different contexts (informal labor markets, sharing communities, social media) than traditional corporations did hitherto. The corporation perspective helps us to understand the transformative power of platforms, while at the same time shedding light on the historical continuation of the corporation as a basic institution in society. We argue that platforms’ transformative capacity lies in their continuous development of new institutions that they impose on their workforce and their clientele, codified in terms and conditions. It is the re-coding capacity that provides platforms the ability to continuously adapt the course of institutionalization in largely autonomous manners

The Rise of Online Platforms and the Triumph of the Corporation

Rather than viewing online platforms as digital marketplaces, we analyze platforms as corporations and platform participants as a workforce. Online platforms perform very similar functions as any other corporation, but in different ways (applying terms and conditions as a legal framework and data, reviews, and algorithms for decentralized control) and mostly in different contexts (informal labor markets, sharing communities, social media) than traditional corporations did hitherto. The corporation perspective helps us to understand the transformative power of platforms, while at the same time shedding light on the historical continuation of the corporation as a basic institution in society.  We argue that platforms’ transformative capacity lies in their continuous development of new institutions that they impose on their workforce and their clientele, codified in terms and conditions.  It is the re-coding capacity that provides platforms the ability to continuously adapt the course of institutionalization in largely autonomous manners