How socio-technical regimes affect low-carbon innovation : Global pressures inhibiting industrial heat pumps in the Netherlands
(2022) In Energy Research and Social Science 89.- Abstract
This paper shows that the socio-technical barriers that sustainable innovations face, may stem from global regimes. Existing transitions approaches like the Technological Innovation System (TIS), overlook the impact of global regimes on radical innovation. Building on institutional theory, we therefore develop a theoretical framework that captures TIS-regime interaction, allowing us to analyze the impact of globalized industries on the development and diffusion of promising radical low-carbon innovations. This is applied to a qualitative case study of how the global industrial processing regime influenced the Dutch industrial heat pump (IHP) TIS over the past 30 years. We identify several mechanisms through which the regime's coercive,... (More)
This paper shows that the socio-technical barriers that sustainable innovations face, may stem from global regimes. Existing transitions approaches like the Technological Innovation System (TIS), overlook the impact of global regimes on radical innovation. Building on institutional theory, we therefore develop a theoretical framework that captures TIS-regime interaction, allowing us to analyze the impact of globalized industries on the development and diffusion of promising radical low-carbon innovations. This is applied to a qualitative case study of how the global industrial processing regime influenced the Dutch industrial heat pump (IHP) TIS over the past 30 years. We identify several mechanisms through which the regime's coercive, normative and mimetic institutional pressures inhibit TIS development. Takeovers by multinational owners for example translated into corporate strategies focused on short-term economic valuation with no priority to sustainability. TIS actors respond to and strategically deal with these pressures. We show that the institutionalization of a new logic in the global regime can outpace the rate of technological development of the radical innovation, causing it to become less attractive over time despite technological performance increases. The impact of global regimes limits the effectiveness of national policy support for a TIS.
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- author
- Wesseling, Joeri ; Kieft, Alco ; Fuenfschilling, Lea LU and Hekkert, Marko
- organization
- publishing date
- 2022-07
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Global regimes, Institutional isomorphism, Institutional logics, Isomorphic pressures, Sustainability transitions, Technological innovation systems
- in
- Energy Research and Social Science
- volume
- 89
- article number
- 102674
- pages
- 15 pages
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:85131432575
- ISSN
- 2214-6296
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.erss.2022.102674
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- additional info
- Funding Information: The IHP benefited substantially from the Dutch policies aimed at supporting energy efficiency (F4: guidance of the search), and the focus on CO 2 emission reduction created competition for the IHP from other technologies, thereby slightly undermining its legitimacy (Function 7: creation of legitimacy). Subsidies (SF6: mobilization of resources) support IHP development from pilot project (F2: knowledge development) to demonstration (F1: entrepreneurial activities), and market implementation (F5: market formation). 5 5 These technological advances aim to reduce costs and increase temperature lifts, increasing the range of industrial process applications. The payback time for lower-temperature processes is already around five years, and companies with such processes are thereby obligated by law to implement them; this law is increasingly being enforced (F5: market formation). Government organizations, sector organizations, consultants, and research institutes frequently organize meetings and symposia and address questions from industrial companies, often for free (F3: knowledge diffusion). Hence, all seven system functions were supported by the policy. Funding Information: This project was funded by the Dutch program MVI Energie in 2016. We thank the ISPT for their support in the data collection process. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors
- id
- 8ce4bdb2-4c0e-4bef-9d05-5ebe4982b8d9
- date added to LUP
- 2022-12-09 11:04:59
- date last changed
- 2024-01-18 07:12:26
@article{8ce4bdb2-4c0e-4bef-9d05-5ebe4982b8d9,
abstract = {{<p>This paper shows that the socio-technical barriers that sustainable innovations face, may stem from global regimes. Existing transitions approaches like the Technological Innovation System (TIS), overlook the impact of global regimes on radical innovation. Building on institutional theory, we therefore develop a theoretical framework that captures TIS-regime interaction, allowing us to analyze the impact of globalized industries on the development and diffusion of promising radical low-carbon innovations. This is applied to a qualitative case study of how the global industrial processing regime influenced the Dutch industrial heat pump (IHP) TIS over the past 30 years. We identify several mechanisms through which the regime's coercive, normative and mimetic institutional pressures inhibit TIS development. Takeovers by multinational owners for example translated into corporate strategies focused on short-term economic valuation with no priority to sustainability. TIS actors respond to and strategically deal with these pressures. We show that the institutionalization of a new logic in the global regime can outpace the rate of technological development of the radical innovation, causing it to become less attractive over time despite technological performance increases. The impact of global regimes limits the effectiveness of national policy support for a TIS.</p>}},
author = {{Wesseling, Joeri and Kieft, Alco and Fuenfschilling, Lea and Hekkert, Marko}},
issn = {{2214-6296}},
keywords = {{Global regimes; Institutional isomorphism; Institutional logics; Isomorphic pressures; Sustainability transitions; Technological innovation systems}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Energy Research and Social Science}},
title = {{How socio-technical regimes affect low-carbon innovation : Global pressures inhibiting industrial heat pumps in the Netherlands}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2022.102674}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.erss.2022.102674}},
volume = {{89}},
year = {{2022}},
}