| 1. |
- Koehler, Jonathan, et al.
(författare)
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An agenda for sustainability transitions research: State of the art and future directions
- 2019
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Ingår i: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. - : Elsevier BV. - 2210-4224 .- 2210-4232. ; 31, s. 1-32
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research on sustainability transitions has expanded rapidly in the last ten years, diversified in terms of topics and geographical applications, and deepened with respect to theories and methods. This article provides an extensive review and an updated research agenda for the field, classified into nine main themes: understanding transitions; power, agency and politics; governing transitions; civil society, culture and social movements; businesses and industries; transitions in practice and everyday life; geography of transitions; ethical aspects; and methodologies. The review shows that the scope of sustainability transitions research has broadened and connections to established disciplines have grown stronger. At the same time, we see that the grand challenges related to sustainability remain unsolved, calling for continued efforts and an acceleration of ongoing transitions. Transition studies can play a key role in this regard by creating new perspectives, approaches and understanding and helping to move society in the direction of sustainability.
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| 2. |
- Aspeteg, Joakim, 1989, et al.
(författare)
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Exploiting opportunities in solar and wind power diffusion: the business models of private intermediaries
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Entrepreneurial actors play an important role in sustainability transitions, most notably by furthering new technologies and solutions (or disrupt existing ones) through their proprietary business activities. This paper focuses on one particular type of entrepreneurial actor: diffusion intermediaries, i.e. actors that act as brokers between technology adopters and the providers of resources needed to adopt and implement a technology that is available more or less “off-the-shelf”. While it is theoretically clear that they can play an important role for sustainability transitions, a more detailed understanding of what value(s) they create for their clients and how that translates into value for the diffusion process as whole is lacking. The purpose of the paper is, therefore, to investigate how diffusion intermediaries, through their business models, influence technology adoption and diffusion. The paper is based on a qualitative survey of 14 solar PV and wind power intermediaries in Sweden. The study shows that diffusion intermediaries in both fields create value primarily through coordination and technology transfer rather than match-making. Wind power intermediaries serve a more homogenous set of larger and more investment-oriented customers than solar PV intermediaries, which leads to differences in terms of value propositions: wind power intermediaries sell an expected return on investment, whereas solar PV intermediaries sell turnkey power plants. The study also reveals the inherent tradeoffs in business model design – both between different value dimensions (e.g. legitimacy vs. quality or delivery time vs technology updates) and between value creation and value capture. These tradeoffs raise interesting questions with regard to how diffusion intermediaries influence the overall diffusion process. Are the values they choose to emphasize supportive of a transition to sustainable energy system or do their business model choices lead to unintended barriers at the system level?
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| 3. |
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| 4. |
- Bergek, Anna, 1973
(författare)
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Intermediärers roller i omställningen till ett hållbart energisystem: Slutrapport
- 2019
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Projektet Intermediärers roller i omställningen till ett hållbart energisystem har studerat hur olika aktörer kan agera som intermediärer i innovationsspridningsprocessen och därigenom bidra till att hantera de utmaningar som uppstår vid investeringar i förnybar elproduktions-teknik. Projektets syfte har dels varit att utveckla kunskap om vilka typer av intermediärer som är involverade i investeringar i förnybar elproduktionsteknik och vilka roller de spelar och dels att undersöka om intermediärer kan användas som styrmedel för att öka investe-ringarnas omfattning och kvalitet. Projektet har omfattat flera delstudier: en kartläggning baserad på registerdata; intervjubaserade studier av projekteringsbolag inom sol och vind samt olika kommunala intermediära aktörer; longitudinella fallstudier av en projektutveck-lare inom sol och sex storskaliga sol- och vindprojekt; samt ett kvantitativt ”choice experi-ment”. Sammanfattningsvis visar dessa studier att (a) det finns ett ekosystem av olika slags intermediärer; (b) intermediärerna utför en mängd olika aktiviteter (framförallt på projektni-vån); (c) deras avvägningar, prioriteringar och styrmodeller är förknippade med vissa risker för enskilda projekt och energisystemet som helhet; och (d) det finns flera fördelar, men också vissa utmaningar, med att använda intermediärerna som ett styrmedel för att öka och förbättra investeringarna i förnybar elproduktionsteknik.
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| 5. |
- Bergek, Anna, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Mapping diffusion intermediaries: conceptualization and empirical application to the case of renewable energy technology in Sweden
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The innovation literature has acknowledged that intermediary actors of different types can play an important role for innovation by facilitating knowledge development and diffusion, technology transfer and market formation. So far, most studies have focused on the development of new technologies, especially in the context of open innovation, whereas the characteristics and roles of intermediaries in the diffusion of innovations is largely unexplored. The purpose of this paper is to define and operationalize the concept of ‘diffusion intermediaries’ and to map such intermediaries involved in the field of renewable energy technologies (RETs) in Sweden. Using data from the official firm registry, four main types of formal diffusion intermediaries (dedicated, unspecialized, vertically integrated and diversified) and three main categories of intermediation activities (consulting, import/sales and project development) are identified. The analysis shows that the majority of the diffusion intermediaries are not exclusively involved in intermediation activities and that a substantial share is involved only in import and sales. This raises some questions with regard to the definition of the intermediary concept. More precisely, the active involvement in the adoption process is suggested to be a key criterion to distinguish between diffusion intermediaries and distribution intermediaries. The analysis also shows that diffusion intermediation has a technology-specific component. More studies are, however, needed to further distinguish between different types of diffusion intermediaries in a wider set of empirical settings and to understand the role they play for adoption.
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| 6. |
- Bergek, Anna, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Motives to adopt renewable electricity technologies: Evidence from Sweden
- 2017
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Ingår i: Energy Policy. - : Elsevier BV. - 0301-4215. ; 106, s. 547-559
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The diffusion of renewable electricity technologies (RETs) has to speed up for countries to reach their, often ambitious, targets for renewable energy generation. This requires a large number of actors – including individuals, companies and other organizations – to adopt RETs. Policies will most likely be needed to induce adoption, but there is limited knowledge about what motivates RET adoption. The purpose of this paper is to complement and expand the available empirical evidence regarding motives to adopt RETs through a survey to over 600 RET adopters in Sweden. The main finding of the study is that there are many different motives to adopt RETs and that RET adopters are a heterogeneous group with regard to motives. Although environmental concerns, interest in the technology, access to an RE resource and prospects to generate economic revenues are important motives in general, adopters differ with regard to how large importance they attach to the same motive and each adopter can also have several different motives to adopt. There are also differences in motives between adopter categories (especially independent power producers vs. individuals and diversified companies) and between RETs (especially wind power vs. solar power). This implies that a variety of policy instruments might be needed to induce further adoption of a variety of RETs by a variety of adopter categories.
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| 7. |
- Bergek, Anna, 1973
(författare)
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Technological innovation systems: a review of recent findings and suggestions for further research
- 2019
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Ingår i: Handbook of Sustainable Innovation. - : Edward Elgar Publishing. ; , s. 200-218
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- In recent years, the technological innovation system (TIS) framework and its ‘functions approach’ has reached widespread diffusion among innovation scholars, especially those interested in sustainability transitions. It has so far been used frequently in studies of emerging sustainable technologies in the energy and transport sectors. This chapter provides some conceptual clarification regarding the functions framework, reviews the empirical findings of previous TIS studies and identifies topics to explore in future research. The review shows that a detailed understanding of the underlying mechanisms of some of the functions (‘entrepreneurial experimentation’, ‘market formation’ and ‘development of positive externalities’) is largely missing. More in-depth, qualitative analyses is therefore needed to identify causal chains of events within TISs. The review also reveals that the functions framework is not easily applicable to pure diffusion contexts, which suggests that the TIS framework should be supplemented by a ‘diffusion system’ framework.
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| 8. |
- Bergek, Anna, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Technological innovation systems in contexts: Conceptualizing contextual structures and interaction dynamics
- 2015
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Ingår i: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions. - : Elsevier BV. - 2210-4224 .- 2210-4232. ; 16, s. 51-64
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper addresses interactions between technological innovation systems (TIS) and wider "context structures". While TIS studies have always considered various kinds of contextual influences, we suggest that the TIS framework can be further strengthened by a more elaborated conceptualization of TIS context structures and TIS-context interactions. For that purpose, we identify and discuss four especially important types of context structures: technological, sectorial, geographical and political. For each of these, we provide examples of different ways in which context structures can interact with a focal TIS and how our understanding of TIS dynamics is enhanced by considering them explicitly. Lessons for analysts are given and a research agenda is outlined.
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| 9. |
- Bergek, Anna, 1973, et al.
(författare)
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Towards a sustainability transition in the maritime shipping sector: the role of market segment characteristics
- 2018
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Maritime transport is arguably a neglected empirical field within sustainability transitions research, despite the global importance of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other pollutants also from this sector. What makes this especially interesting from a sustainability transitions perspective is that low- and zero-carbon energy (LoZeC) technologies would need to be implemented in a mature, multi-segmented sector that, similar to onshore transport, is highly heterogeneous in that it includes vessels ranging from massive inter-continental freight and bulk carriers to small passenger vessels. This suggests the need for a more differentiated and nuanced perspective on socio-technical regimes as well as on the emerging technological innovation systems and their interaction with each other. More specifically, we focus on the particular task and institutional environments that characterize different market segments. In this article we analyze the evolution of battery-electric (BE) energy storage in the maritime shipping sector (MSS), employing a framework that combines the multi-level perspective (MLP) and the functions of technological innovation systems (TIS) approach. Taken together, our analysis suggests that the MSS transition process is likely to unfold along different pathways in different market segments, and that different market segments will have different impacts and influences on TIS functionality. In summary, we contribute to the sustainability transitions literature by explicitly addressing the influence of market segment characteristics on regime susceptibility and TIS functionality. From a policy perspective, this points to a need for segment-specific policy instruments.
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| 10. |
- Jacobsson, Staffan, 1951, et al.
(författare)
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Improving the European Commission's analytical base for designing instrument mixes in the energy sector: Market failures versus system weaknesses
- 2017
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Ingår i: Energy Research and Social Science. - : Elsevier BV. - 2214-6296. ; 33, s. 11-20
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. To limit global warming to 1.5-2°C, EU needs to eliminate emissions of CO 2 equivalents over the next decades, which necessitates that a range of new technologies develop, mature and diffuse on a massive scale. To create conditions for this, effective instrument mixes have to be designed and implemented. However, the choice of such mixes depends on the analytical rationale for policy intervention. The purpose of this paper is, therefore, to scrutinize the analytical base of the EU Commission, contrast it with the work of classical economists and recent innovation scholars, and draw lessons for how effective mixes of policy instruments may be identified. We show that the Commission's focus on market failures, static efficiency and technology neutrality does not cover all possible obstacles and leads it to neglect the centrality of dynamic efficiency and the structural build-up of innovation systems around new technologies.
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