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Rethinking Sociotechnical Transitions and Green Entrepreneurship: The Potential for Transformative Change in the Green Building Sector

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  • David Gibbs
  • Kirstie O'Neill

Abstract

This paper explores the development of green entrepreneurship and its potential role in transformative change towards a green economy. It achieves this through a study of the green building sector in England and Wales, based on qualitative empirical data from fifty-five semistructured interviews with businesses in the green building sector and with support organisations, including banks, financial sources, and business advice and support. The paper both critiques and synthesises two bodies of literature— entrepreneurial research and sociotechnical transitions theories, specifically the multilevel perspective (MLP)—to better understand the role of green entrepreneurs in facilitating a shift towards a green economy. This analysis embeds green entrepreneurs in a wider system of actors, rather than reifying the lone entrepreneurial hero, in order to explore how green entrepreneurs facilitate sustainability transitions. The paper challenges the notion that green entrepreneurs are an unproblematic category. We discovered that individuals move between ‘green’ and ‘conventional’ business, evolving over time, such that this is a fluid and blurred, rather than static, state. Moreover, while the green economy and the green building sector are often referred to as coherent sectors, with agreed and consistent practices, our evidence suggests that they are far from agreed, that business models vary, and that there are significant contradictions within so-called green building practices. The paper contributes to the development of sociotechnical transitions theory and suggests that the MLP needs to incorporate complexity and multiplicity within niches, that niches may be inherently conflictual rather than consensual, and that the concept of ‘protection’ for niches is problematic.

Suggested Citation

  • David Gibbs & Kirstie O'Neill, 2014. "Rethinking Sociotechnical Transitions and Green Entrepreneurship: The Potential for Transformative Change in the Green Building Sector," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 46(5), pages 1088-1107, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:envira:v:46:y:2014:i:5:p:1088-1107
    DOI: 10.1068/a46259
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Birtchnell, Thomas & Böhme, Tillmann & Gorkin, Robert, 2017. "3D printing and the third mission: The university in the materialization of intellectual capital," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 240-249.
    2. Baoshan Ge & Dake Jiang & Yang Gao & Sang-Bing Tsai, 2016. "The Influence of Legitimacy on a Proactive Green Orientation and Green Performance: A Study Based on Transitional Economy Scenarios in China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 8(12), pages 1-20, December.
    3. Jenny Pickerill, 2017. "Critically Interrogating Eco-Homes," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 41(2), pages 353-365, March.
    4. Christopher M. Chini & James F. Canning & Kelsey L. Schreiber & Joshua M. Peschel & Ashlynn S. Stillwell, 2017. "The Green Experiment: Cities, Green Stormwater Infrastructure, and Sustainability," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(1), pages 1-21, January.

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