From hierarchies to markets and partially back again in electricity: responding to decarbonization and security of supply goals

Electric power sectors around the world have changed dramatically in the last 25 years as a result of sector liberalization policies. Many electricity sectors are now pursuing deep decarbonization goals which will entail replacing dispatchable fossil generation primarily with intermittent renewable generation (wind and solar) over the next 20–30 years. This transition creates new challenges for both short-term wholesale market design and investment incentives consistent with achieving both decarbonization commitments and security of supply criteria. Thinking broadly about the options for institutional change from a Williamsonian perspective – thinking like Williamson – provides a useful framework for examining institutional adaptation. Hybrid markets that combine ‘competition for the market’ that relies on competitive procurement for long-term purchased power agreements with wind, solar, and storage developers, ideally in a technology neutral fashion, and ‘competition in the market’ that relies on short-term markets designed to produce efficient and reliable operations of intermittent generation and storage, is identified as a promising direction for institutional adaptation. Many auction, contract, and market integration issues remain to be resolved.

Reports From the Field: Building a New Social Contract for Community Engagement Through Musical Virtual Hangouts

This field report provides insight into the nature and reach of a community engagement program called Virtual Hangouts developed by the community office of the New World Symphony (NWS), in Miami, Florida (USA). Functioning under the umbrella of a larger, digitally oriented program called “Connect,” the case presented here is productive and instructive, not simply because it provides insight into some forms of participatory culture within a traditionally highly autocratic environment—the symphony orchestra—but, more complicatedly, because of what it tells us about what can be accomplished regarding institutional adaptation and what forms of resistance are created along the way. This brief account explores virtually oriented community engagement from a social capital formation lens and how institutions such as the NWS establish policy frameworks to orient projects such as these in areas that are not usually explored by traditional organizations.

A Managerial Coevolution Perspective in an Emerging Economy: Evidence From Turkey

The goal of this research is to conceptually unlink the relationship of MNEs, institutions and economic development, in order to shed light on how MNEs contribute to a country’s institutional development and its economic development. To achieve this goal, this paper employs a coevolutionary approach, adopting and nurturing MNEs, institutions and economic development. The paper’s goal is divided into two steps: The first step consists of the synthesis of the literature that is relevant with the coevolutionary approach, while the second involves the application of the synthesis to the emerging economy of Turkey for the period 1990–2011. Building on this foundation, the present exploratory paper’s findings indicate the following: First, economic development is a function of a dynamic process which encapsulates all the regulative and normative aspects of an economy and the interaction of exogenous and endogenous forces. Second, the Turkish economy, during the 1990– 2001 and the 2008–2011 periods experienced institutional avoidance. Furthermore, during 2002– 2007, the economy underwent a profound co–evolution process, which was accompanied with signs of institutional adaptation.