IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/tefoso/v137y2018icp147-159.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Strategies for developing transformative capacity in urban water management sectors: The case of Melbourne, Australia

Author

Listed:
  • Brodnik, Christoph
  • Brown, Rebekah

Abstract

Individuals and organisations are pivotal in changing dominant practices in industry sectors by creating system-level conditions that facilitate transformative change. Yet, the types of agency processes best suited to develop such conditions are not well researched. This paper addresses this gap by empirically investigating how institutional entrepreneurs developed transformative capacity in a successful case of dominant practice change: stormwater management with Water Sensitive Urban Design (WSUD) in the urban water management sector in Melbourne, Australia. We identify ten key strategies that institutional entrepreneurs employed to support the successful introduction, diffusion and establishment of WSUD. By interfacing these strategies with a transformative capacity framework, we describe which combinations of strategies are most relevant for developing different transformative capacity domains across three different phases. The paper contributes to theory on transformative capacity in socio-technical and socio-ecological systems research by providing practical guidance on how transformative capacity can be build up and by distinguishing and describing three distinct phases of transformative capacity development (Introductory Capacity, Diffusional Capacity, Establishment Capacity).

Suggested Citation

  • Brodnik, Christoph & Brown, Rebekah, 2018. "Strategies for developing transformative capacity in urban water management sectors: The case of Melbourne, Australia," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 147-159.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:137:y:2018:i:c:p:147-159
    DOI: 10.1016/j.techfore.2018.07.037
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0040162516304693
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.07.037?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:bla:jomstd:v:47:y:2010:i:s1:p:814-836 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Smith, Adrian & Raven, Rob, 2012. "What is protective space? Reconsidering niches in transitions to sustainability," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 1025-1036.
    3. Fuenfschilling, Lea & Truffer, Bernhard, 2014. "The structuration of socio-technical regimes—Conceptual foundations from institutional theory," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 43(4), pages 772-791.
    4. Dasaratha Rama & Bernard Milano & Silvia Salas & Che-Hung Liu, 2009. "CSR Implementation: Developing the Capacity for Collective Action," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 85(2), pages 463-477, April.
    5. Lisa-Britt Fischer & Jens Newig, 2016. "Importance of Actors and Agency in Sustainability Transitions: A Systematic Exploration of the Literature," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-21, May.
    6. Juha‐Antti Lamberg & Kalle Pajunen, 2010. "Agency, Institutional Change, and Continuity: The Case of the Finnish Civil War," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(5), pages 814-836, July.
    7. Bos, J.J. & Brown, R.R., 2014. "Assessing organisational capacity for transition policy programs," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 188-206.
    8. Julie Battilana & Bernard Leca & Eva Boxenbaum, 2009. "How actors change institutions : Towards a theory of institutional entrepreneurship," Post-Print hal-00576509, HAL.
    9. Jan Rotmans & Derk Loorbach, 2009. "Complexity and Transition Management," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 13(2), pages 184-196, April.
    10. Christoph Brodnik & Rebekah Brown & Chris Cocklin, 2017. "The Institutional Dynamics of Stability and Practice Change: The Urban Water Management Sector of Australia (1970–2015)," Water Resources Management: An International Journal, Published for the European Water Resources Association (EWRA), Springer;European Water Resources Association (EWRA), vol. 31(7), pages 2299-2314, May.
    11. Werbeloff, Lara & Brown, Rebekah R. & Loorbach, Derk, 2016. "Pathways of system transformation: Strategic agency to support regime change," Environmental Science & Policy, Elsevier, vol. 66(C), pages 119-128.
    12. Farla, Jacco & Markard, Jochen & Raven, Rob & Coenen, Lars, 2012. "Sustainability transitions in the making: A closer look at actors, strategies and resources," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 79(6), pages 991-998.
    13. Jolly, Suyash & Raven, R.P.J.M., 2015. "Collective institutional entrepreneurship and contestations in wind energy in India," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 999-1011.
    14. Aldrich Howard E, 2011. "Heroes, Villains, and Fools: Institutional Entrepreneurship, NOT Institutional Entrepreneurs," Entrepreneurship Research Journal, De Gruyter, vol. 1(2), pages 1-6, March.
    15. Markard, Jochen & Raven, Rob & Truffer, Bernhard, 2012. "Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of research and its prospects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 955-967.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ethmadalage Dineth Perera & Magnus Moglia & Stephen Glackin, 2023. "Beyond “Community-Washing”: Effective and Sustained Community Collaboration in Urban Waterways Management," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(5), pages 1-21, March.
    2. Rey-Moreno, Manuel & Medina-Molina, Cayetano, 2020. "Dual models and technological platforms for efficient management of water consumption," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).
    3. Alina Irina Popescu, 2020. "Long-Term City Innovation Trajectories and Quality of Urban Life," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-19, December.
    4. Tally Katz‐Gerro & Jordi López Sintas, 2019. "Mapping circular economy activities in the European Union: Patterns of implementation and their correlates in small and medium‐sized enterprises," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 485-496, May.
    5. Felix R. B. Twinomucunguzi & Philip M. Nyenje & Robinah N. Kulabako & Swaib Semiyaga & Jan Willem Foppen & Frank Kansiime, 2020. "Reducing Groundwater Contamination from On-Site Sanitation in Peri-Urban Sub-Saharan Africa: Reviewing Transition Management Attributes towards Implementation of Water Safety Plans," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(10), pages 1-21, May.
    6. Audley Genus & Marfuga Iskandarova & Chris Warburton Brown, 2021. "Institutional entrepreneurship and permaculture: A practice theory perspective," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 1454-1467, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Jain, Sanjay, 2020. "Fumbling to the future? Socio-technical regime change in the recorded music industry," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    2. Kejia Yang & Johan Schot & Bernhard Truffer, 2020. "Shaping the Directionality of Sustainability Transitions: The Diverging Development Patterns of Solar PV in Two Chinese Provinces," SPRU Working Paper Series 2020-14, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    3. Ignė Stalmokaitė & Johanna Yliskylä-Peuralahti, 2019. "Sustainability Transitions in Baltic Sea Shipping: Exploring the Responses of Firms to Regulatory Changes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(7), pages 1-23, March.
    4. Contesse, Maria & Duncan, Jessica & Legun, Katharine & Klerkx, Laurens, 2021. "Unravelling non-human agency in sustainability transitions," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 166(C).
    5. Attila Havas & Doris Schartinger & K. Matthias Weber, 2022. "Innovation Studies, Social Innovation, and Sustainability Transitions Research: From mutual ignorance towards an integrative perspective?," CERS-IE WORKING PAPERS 2227, Institute of Economics, Centre for Economic and Regional Studies.
    6. Sunio, Varsolo & Gaspay, Sandy & Guillen, Marie Danielle & Mariano, Patricia & Mora, Regina, 2019. "Analysis of the public transport modernization via system reconfiguration: The ongoing case in the Philippines," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 130(C), pages 1-19.
    7. Weigelt, Carmen & Lu, Shaohua & Verhaal, J. Cameron, 2021. "Blinded by the sun: The role of prosumers as niche actors in incumbent firms’ adoption of solar power during sustainability transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    8. Jonas Heiberg & Christian Binz & Bernhard Truffer, 2020. "Assessing transitions through socio-technical network analysis – a methodological framework and a case study from the water sector," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 2035, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Aug 2020.
    9. Geels, Frank W., 2020. "Micro-foundations of the multi-level perspective on socio-technical transitions: Developing a multi-dimensional model of agency through crossovers between social constructivism, evolutionary economics," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 152(C).
    10. Rakas, Marija & Hain, Daniel S., 2019. "The state of innovation system research: What happens beneath the surface?," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    11. Verena Radinger-Peer & Gesa Pflitsch & Helga Kanning & Daniel Schiller, 2021. "Establishing the Regional Sustainable Developmental Role of Universities—From the Multilevel-Perspective (MLP) and Beyond," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-21, June.
    12. Zolfagharian, Mohammadreza & Walrave, Bob & Raven, Rob & Romme, A. Georges L., 2019. "Studying transitions: Past, present, and future," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 48(9), pages 1-1.
    13. Aditi Khodke & Atsushi Watabe & Nigel Mehdi, 2021. "Implementation of Accelerated Policy-Driven Sustainability Transitions: Case of Bharat Stage 4 to 6 Leapfrogs in India," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(8), pages 1-25, April.
    14. Fuenfschilling, Lea & Truffer, Bernhard, 2016. "The interplay of institutions, actors and technologies in socio-technical systems — An analysis of transformations in the Australian urban water sector," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 103(C), pages 298-312.
    15. Sibylle Bui, 2021. "Enacting Transitions—The Combined Effect of Multiple Niches in Whole System Reconfiguration," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-21, May.
    16. Ron Boschma, Lars Coenen, Koen Frenken, Bernhard Truffer & Lars Coenen & Koen Frenken & Bernhard Truffer, 2016. "Towards a theory of regional diversification," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 1617, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Jul 2016.
    17. Mock, Mirijam & Omann, Ines & Polzin, Christine & Spekkink, Wouter & Schuler, Julia & Pandur, Vlad & Brizi, Ambra & Panno, Angelo, 2019. "“Something inside me has been set in motion”: Exploring the psychological wellbeing of people engaged in sustainability initiatives," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 1-11.
    18. Kuokkanen, A. & Nurmi, A. & Mikkilä, M. & Kuisma, M. & Kahiluoto, H. & Linnanen, L., 2018. "Agency in regime destabilization through the selection environment: The Finnish food system’s sustainability transition," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 47(8), pages 1513-1522.
    19. Befort, N., 2020. "Going beyond definitions to understand tensions within the bioeconomy: The contribution of sociotechnical regimes to contested fields," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 153(C).
    20. Wesseling, Joeri H. & Bidmon, Christina & Bohnsack, René, 2020. "Business model design spaces in socio-technical transitions: The case of electric driving in the Netherlands," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 154(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:tefoso:v:137:y:2018:i:c:p:147-159. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00401625 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.