Industry Dynamics and Path Dependencies

Author(s):  
Jörg Sydow ◽  
Georg Schreyögg ◽  
Takahiro Endo

Industry dynamics are about stability and change on the field level of analysis. This chapter uses the lens of path dependence to study the emergent field of renewable energy. On this level of analysis, path dependence theory has to address not only technological but also organizational and institutional dynamics that intricately interact. More specifically, by means of such a multi-dimensional lens, this chapter will look at the increasing generation of electric energy through wind power to illustrate different industry dynamics in four countries. The United Kingdom and Japan will illustrate the persistence of an established path in generating electric energy through fossil fuels and nuclear, while the German and, more tenuously, Chinese cases serve as examples for path-breaking change and the conditions making the emergence of renewables, and in particular wind energy, possible.

Author(s):  
Vonia Engel ◽  
Teresa Noronha ◽  
Cidonea Machado Deponti

This chapter is the result of an interuniversity exchange doctoral research project carried out in the Algarve region, Portugal, in 2017. Its objective was to discuss the economic trajectory of Portugal and its implications for those political strategies encouraging technological innovation. The empirical research used interviews and the analytical results were based on the path dependence theory. The outcomes of this study point to the dependence of the Algarve region from external investments.


2012 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-79 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timo Fleckenstein

While new institutionalism with its path-dependence theory has proved to be an especially powerful device for explaining the stability and inertia of public policies, its focus on the stickiness of institutions has contributed to conceptual deficits in grasping and explaining actually occurring policy change which have attracted much criticism. With reference to the critical case of German labour market reforms, policy learning is identified as a key mechanism in the paradigmatic transformation of social policy. Pursuing the argument that learning does not happen in a vacuum and is institutionally embedded, policy learning is conceptually enriched with insights from new institutionalism to develop an institutional account of learning. Such an approach to policy learning and a stronger emphasis on ideas address the stability bias in new institutionalism and its path-dependence theory by accounting for knowledge-based institutional change.


2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guilherme Bergmann Borges Vieira ◽  
Roberto Birch Gonçalves ◽  
Gabriel Sperandio Milan ◽  
Francisco José Kliemann Neto

2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (61E) ◽  
pp. 281-295
Author(s):  
Daniela García Sánchez ◽  
Daniel Avendaño Leadem

Costa Rica’s world known renewable energy model relies heavily on large scale hydropower, a source surrounded by strong environmental and social questionings. This condition of dependence has its own reinforcing processes that hinder advancements of alternative renewable technologies. In today’s carbon-constrained world, new approaches – and new geographies – are required to ensure the availability and accessibility of sustainable energy services. Using path dependence theory developed within evolutionary economic geography and neoinstitutionalist school of thought, the present research offers an explanation of the specific path driven by the impact of historical events that favor hydropower in Costa Rica’s energy transition.   


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