Local and global market formation : the shaping of the Swedish biogas sector

• Several studies of sustainability transitions have used the technological innovation systems approach to study market introduction of renewable new energy technologies (Negro, Hekkert et al. 2007, Alkemade and Suurs 2012, Negro, Alkemade et al. 2012, Jacobsson and Karltorp 2013, Bento and Fontes 2015, Tigabu, Berkhout et al. 2015). These studies have shown that during these early stages, the new technologies and markets tend to be relatively crude. Moreover, established infrastructure, industry structures and institutional practices are often inadequate for the new technologies. This means that the new technology alternatives are rarely competitive on regular markets, which are dominated by existing technologies. Therefore, policy makers are advised to facilitate the formation of protective spaces – niches – which allow for the new technologies to enter the market (Kemp, Schot et al. 1998, Caniëls and Romijn 2008, Smith and Raven 2012). Gathering relevant stakeholders in the formation of networks, such protective spaces will nurture experimentation activities and assist the development and diffusion of knowledge. Moreover these protective spaces will empower proponents of the new technology, helping them to attract resources and build legitimacy for the new technology.While sustainability transitions literature have investigated the early stages of market introduction of renewable new energy technologies thoroughly, the critical step from having an established position in a protected niche to facilitating a broader diffusion to an actual market has received less attention in transition studies. According to Suurs and Hekkert (2009), this step would imply different kinds of innovation system dynamics, in which market formation would be an essential process and Jacobsson (2008) plead for a different set of policy instruments to support such broader market diffusion. Still the market formation processes for renewable new energy technologies are not well understood in sustainability transitions literature.Such formation processes are however well analyzed within the business to business marketing field. Araujo (2007) states that the creation of new markets can be achieved by various activities from different actors. Such market-shaping activities stretch from traditional firm level activities such as sales to activities that involve the entire markets institution e.g. changing the rules of the market (Kjellberg & Helgesson, 2007; Mele, Pels & Storbacka, 2015). In the center of a new market is the market offer. The process of qualifying the product involves different actors’ attempts to qualify desirable attributes and characteristics related to the offer (Callon et al. 2002). This process is especially important in shaping new markets since the market offer in itself is not fixed but rather something in the making. In the center of our study is the overall research question: What actors are involved in shaping the Swedish biogas market and what qualifications does these actors attribute to the product?

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Företagsekonomi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Business Administration (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Market shaping

local market

global market

biogas

Publikations- och innehållstyp

ref (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)