From outsourcing to embeddedness: How consultants become structurally embedded in public energy governance
Pardalis, Georgios LU
; Reindl, Katharina
LU
and Palm, Jenny
LU
(2026)
In Energy Research & Social Science
138.
- Abstract
- Public authorities increasingly rely on consultants to navigate sustainability transitions, yet research typically treats consultants' influence as episodic and external to governance itself. This study asks how consultants instead become durable, structural participants in public-sector governance, shaping how energy-transition policies are designed, coordinated, and legitimized. Using Sweden's energy transition as an empirical case, we draw on 60 semi-structured interviews with consultants, public officials, and boundary-spanning coordination bodies, analyzed through a qualitative system-dynamics approach. The analysis identifies six recurring feedback mechanisms, some reinforcing consultants' role over time and others constraining it,... (More)
- Public authorities increasingly rely on consultants to navigate sustainability transitions, yet research typically treats consultants' influence as episodic and external to governance itself. This study asks how consultants instead become durable, structural participants in public-sector governance, shaping how energy-transition policies are designed, coordinated, and legitimized. Using Sweden's energy transition as an empirical case, we draw on 60 semi-structured interviews with consultants, public officials, and boundary-spanning coordination bodies, analyzed through a qualitative system-dynamics approach. The analysis identifies six recurring feedback mechanisms, some reinforcing consultants' role over time and others constraining it, showing how short-term outsourcing can evolve into lasting institutional dependence. These mechanisms show how consultants help shape which knowledge counts as credible, how governance routines are reproduced, and how public agencies' own capacity is built up or eroded in the process. Because Sweden shares its procurement architecture with much of the European Union, these mechanisms are likely to travel to other EU governance systems with similar framework-based contracting, extending the findings' relevance beyond a single national case. The findings reframe consultancy as a constitutive part of public energy governance rather than a peripheral service and translate into practical levers for managing it: procurement rules requiring knowledge transfer, transparency about who authors key analyses, and mechanisms that convert recurring outsourcing spend into permanent public expertise. More broadly, the study offers a way of understanding how public capacity, accountability, and strategic direction in energy governance are shaped by the recurring involvement of external experts. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/a94834c6-60da-4ae3-8615-71f2f6d20649
- author
- Pardalis, Georgios
LU
; Reindl, Katharina
LU
and Palm, Jenny
LU
- organization
- publishing date
- 2026-08
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- Consultancy embeddedness, Public-sector consultancy, Energy governance, Qualitative system dynamics, procurement
- in
- Energy Research & Social Science
- volume
- 138
- article number
- 104852
- publisher
- Elsevier
- external identifiers
-
- scopus:105044462776
- ISSN
- 2214-6326
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.erss.2026.104852
- project
- Electricity transition through intermediaries? Consultants in the smart grid development
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- yes
- id
- a94834c6-60da-4ae3-8615-71f2f6d20649
- date added to LUP
- 2026-07-14 16:02:32
- date last changed
- 2026-08-11 03:13:09
@article{a94834c6-60da-4ae3-8615-71f2f6d20649,
abstract = {{Public authorities increasingly rely on consultants to navigate sustainability transitions, yet research typically treats consultants' influence as episodic and external to governance itself. This study asks how consultants instead become durable, structural participants in public-sector governance, shaping how energy-transition policies are designed, coordinated, and legitimized. Using Sweden's energy transition as an empirical case, we draw on 60 semi-structured interviews with consultants, public officials, and boundary-spanning coordination bodies, analyzed through a qualitative system-dynamics approach. The analysis identifies six recurring feedback mechanisms, some reinforcing consultants' role over time and others constraining it, showing how short-term outsourcing can evolve into lasting institutional dependence. These mechanisms show how consultants help shape which knowledge counts as credible, how governance routines are reproduced, and how public agencies' own capacity is built up or eroded in the process. Because Sweden shares its procurement architecture with much of the European Union, these mechanisms are likely to travel to other EU governance systems with similar framework-based contracting, extending the findings' relevance beyond a single national case. The findings reframe consultancy as a constitutive part of public energy governance rather than a peripheral service and translate into practical levers for managing it: procurement rules requiring knowledge transfer, transparency about who authors key analyses, and mechanisms that convert recurring outsourcing spend into permanent public expertise. More broadly, the study offers a way of understanding how public capacity, accountability, and strategic direction in energy governance are shaped by the recurring involvement of external experts.}},
author = {{Pardalis, Georgios and Reindl, Katharina and Palm, Jenny}},
issn = {{2214-6326}},
keywords = {{Consultancy embeddedness; Public-sector consultancy; Energy governance; Qualitative system dynamics; procurement}},
language = {{eng}},
publisher = {{Elsevier}},
series = {{Energy Research & Social Science}},
title = {{From outsourcing to embeddedness: How consultants become structurally embedded in public energy governance}},
url = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2026.104852}},
doi = {{10.1016/j.erss.2026.104852}},
volume = {{138}},
year = {{2026}},
}