Browsing by Subject "strategic niche management"
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(2022)A systemic change in the current modes of production and consumption, a so-called sustainability transition, is required to overcome large-scale society-transforming phenomena such as the climate change. This in turn demands changes in socio-technical systems, i.e., the networks of actors, institutions, technologies, material artefacts, and knowledge creation. In this thesis, the Finnish construction and housing sector is used as a case study, and an example of one socio-technical system. By focusing on the socio aspect of the socio-technical, I analyse how actors who are involved in the current system may inhibit or enable a sustainability transition. I seek to answer the following questions: what the relevant definitions of and foci for climate-wise action are among stakeholders in the sector in Finland; how actor-related barriers manifest themselves; and which actors could enable or speed up the transition. This thesis builds on sustainability transition theories, especially multi-level perspective and strategic niche management, to better understand actor roles and relationships. Based on a literature review, I define three actor-related barriers to transition (misaligned vision and focus, small network, and pro-regime actor resistance) and one potential enabler (intermediaries). These are then applied to the Finnish context. In this thesis, I employed stakeholder analysis as the methodology, interviewing a pre-defined set of 21 stakeholders. The results were analysed using content and social network analyses. The results suggest that although the understanding of climate-wise construction and housing is gaining a more holistic perspective, the three barriers all still manifest in the sector in Finland: all the stakeholders are engaged in energy-related topics, but hold differing foci on household choices, low-carbon materials and circularity; the network amongst actors seems relatively dense and inclusive, but improvement points emerge with closer examination; although results suggest that development has happened in the recent years, industries and incumbents are still considered too slow-moving. The importance of intermediation is also recognised by many but defining and picking potential intermediaries out of the crowd is a complex task. Overall, the sector may be moving forward in the transition, but the stakeholders create and uphold both barriers and opportunities in the process.
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(2020)Market reforms in the European Union (EU) are cramped between two connected, albeit divergent forces. First, policies are contested in the multilateral EU-sphere, and later refined and adjusted in heterogeneous national implementations. Neste, an industrial company, gained a monopolistic market position to a certain renewable diesel fuel in the aftermath of the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive 2 (RED II) implementation in Finland. This research aims to find out what led to this outcome. For the examination of these phenomena, this paper draws on the literature of market organization, policy implementation, and evolutionary economics, which offer us insights into market reforming in an era of marketization and climate change adaption. Also, in the course of the research text, the politically contentious nature of biofuels is unwrapped. This research aims at extending the understanding of unintended consequences of multiscalar sustainable regulations. This thesis applies an outcome explaining variant of a causal method called process tracing, which seeks to answer the question “what led to the outcome Y”. Through relevant causal process observations, this research is built into a context-specific and multifactor study. The data used here consists of secondary sources, including parliamentary reports, and the results of a stakeholder hearing that was organized around the directive implementation in Finland in 2018. Throughout the research, relevant counterfactual conditional questions are presented in light of the causal process. Asking these if-questions highlights the deliberative and political nature of the instalment of the RED II. The analysis shows that Finland’s commitment to the United Nations Paris Climate Agreement goals through the RED II is the likeliest cause for the resulting monopoly. However, we cannot fully exclude the Finnish parliament’s implicit motivation for monopoly-creation, but it is unlikely. The research also considers Neste’s successful entrepreneurial innovation activity as a contributing, although not an explaining factor. The study concludes that the outcome in question was an unintended, but not inevitable consequence of a sustainability directive implementation.
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(2018)Companies play a crucial role in transitions to more sustainable ways of production and consumption. There is a growing amount of startups globally that create radically new products, services, and business models related to issues such as energy efficiency, food waste or use of natural resources. Startups can be conceptualized as niche actors who are innovative and agile but do not have the resources for regime disruption. Incumbents on traditional fields such as construction, real estate or retail, on the other hand, tend to be path dependent, work under the rules of current regimes, and face difficulties in adopting sustainability-related innovations. However, when combining the innovation capacity of niche startups and the resources of large companies, both can achieve a larger impact. This thesis observes collaboration between startups and large companies through the framework of strategic niche management (SNM). According to SNM niche innovations can be empowered by three processes: articulation of expectations, network-building and learning on various dimensions. A multiple-case study is conducted based on interviews and observation with three large companies and three startups engaging in experimental collaboration processes facilitated by an intermediary organization. The large companies are in the field of retail and hospitality, housing development and facility management. The startups develop radically new services that reduce food waste, save energy or optimize the use of buildings. The findings of the descriptive case study depict challenges and opportunities of collaboration processes in all SNM dimensions. Theoretically, the study suggests one way of applying transition theory to the level of specific companies and their collaboration related to sustainability-related innovations. From a managerial perspective, the study offers practical insight to anyone engaging in startup–incumbent collaboration. As broad generalizations cannot be derived from a case study, more research on the role of companies in sustainability transitions is suggested.
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