Thesis
How are absorptive and desorptive capacities developed in the UK energy supply sector? : the role of transition intermediaries
- Creator
- Rights statement
- Awarding institution
- University of Strathclyde
- Date of award
- 2023
- Thesis identifier
- T16787
- Person Identifier (Local)
- 201891160
- Qualification Level
- Qualification Name
- Department, School or Faculty
- Abstract
- The 2050 net zero goal committed by the UK Government represents a great challenge for the energy supply industry. This sector has been dominated by incumbent firms traditionally interested in maintaining business as usual and with little capabilities to lead the technological leap necessary to decarbonise operations. For such reasons, radical innovation can be found in socio-technical niches. A sheltered space, shielded from incumbents’ influence, where innovation actors have the freedom to learn how a new technology works in a process full of uncertainties. To meet the net zero goal, the UK energy supply industry must find a way to increase the sluggish adoption of innovation in incumbents, alongside reducing the high failure rate of niches. This thesis points out that the fundamental driver of change may be transition intermediaries, which can support the enhancement of capabilities in both niches and incumbents to respectively diffuse and adopt new technologies. This thesis examines how this triad of actors can propel a socio-technical transition in the UK energy supply sector. Methodologically, this investigation proposes a new conceptual framework to analyse the development of absorptive capacity in incumbent firms and desorptive capacity in socio-technical niches through the influence of transition intermediary functions. Following this approach, this thesis makes an important contribution by inserting the Resource-based View of the Firm theory into the transition literature. The study identified that transition intermediaries provide critical resources for strengthening capabilities for diffusing and adopting technology innovation. The results contribute to explaining how intermediary functions push actors to deviate from incremental trajectories. The findings are valuable to the transition literature because they explain how different actors collaborate to produce technological innovation, replacing the Schumpeterian notion of creative destruction. For practitioners, the significance lies in the impact that the intermediary functions have on innovation management at both levels of adoption (incumbents) and diffusion (niches) of new technologies during the turbulent time of a socio-technical transition.
- Advisor / supervisor
- Hannon, Matthew (Researcher in energy economics)
- Tapinos, Efstathios
- Resource Type
- DOI
关系
项目
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PDF of thesis T16787 | 2023-12-12 | 公开 | 下载 |