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This paper aims to fill a research gap in the area of consumer-citizen attitudes to business models for decentralized energy storage, at the level of households and buildings. The study focuses on the interaction of such attitudes and their underlying motivation factors with socio-cultural, contextual factors. Self-determination theory (SDT) is used as a theoretical framework, to connect interpersonal and contextual factors, addressing the question of how contexts influence the motivation to support energy storage. Drawing on SDT, this study examines the role of autarky (independence from the energy system), autonomy (control over energy management) and relatedness (degree of sharing required) in this regard, embedded and interpreted in the socio-cultural local context of two demonstration sites in Sweden and Portugal. A mixed method approach is used. Quantitative survey data provides information on local social and cultural dimensions, followed by stakeholder consultation workshops that elicit participants’ views on different models of decentralized energy storage. The findings raise questions of how to improve autarky and autonomy for prosumers, while keeping the need for time investment low and provide flexibility regarding the required degree of interaction between prosumers. Implications for business models and policy support for citizen-centered sustainable urban energy systems are derived.

While the role of agency is widely acknowledged in socio-technical transition research, there remains a research gap on agency in transitions and a call for studies using an actor-centred approach to transition studies. In response to this call, this paper addresses the role of actors and, particularly, organisations in transitions. It examines the role of organisational change in socio-technical sustainability transitions and, more specifically, how transition initiatives may trigger and support these changes in organisations and systems. For this purpose, the paper draws on literature from both transition studies and organisational change management (OCM) to build a multi-scale, integrative theoretical heuristic. This addresses drivers and barriers for organisational change as an integral part of transition processes, connecting the micro level of the individual, the meso level of the organisation and the macro level of the broader system in which the organisation is located. With the goal of illustrating the links between OCM and transition studies, this paper empirically examines the impact of Region 2050, a large, multi-organisation transition initiative in Sweden, in terms of creating change within the organisations involved. The main focus is on how the organisations acquire the new knowledge and capabilities required for improving regional planning for sustainability. The empirical study identifies leverage points at the micro-, meso- and macro-levels, which may be used in order to change strategic planning processes. Three different theoretical concepts from transition studies and OCM that could help to foster long-term planning are also identified: (1) the macro-level of institutional plurality and its connection to the meso- (organisational) level; (2) collaboration as a key success factor on the organisational level; and (3) at the micro-level, the roles of individuals as change agents and boundary spanners. Overall, the case highlights the merits of the OCM literature for transition studies and their emphasis on understanding interacting processes operating at multiple scales.

This paper explores a case of reputation and stakeholder management in sustainability transitions. We use the case of aviation biofuel (biokerosene) to explore the complications around signalling in strategic niche management processes. Biokerosene is currently supplied at several Scandinavian airports in a low percentage blend, either as standard or upon request, although trials suggest that modern jet engines can reliably handle much higher percentage blends. Airlines, airports and biokerosene suppliers cooperate in a process of mutual strategic positioning that supports confidence-building and market development, while at the same time being intended to encourage positive stakeholder perceptions. A key challenge for the sector, however, is that signalling biokerosene as a response to aviation-related climate emissions is complicated by mixed societal perceptions of biofuel sustainability; and the policy and material conditions for affordable, sustainable, large scale supply of biofuel are lacking. Thus while parts of the sector would like to more clearly signal the value of existing and greater biokerosene use, interrelationships between reputational risks, supply constraints and economics limit this. By bringing stakeholder management theory to strategic niche management, we present a view of the latter as in part reputationally driven, in response to the uncertain legitimacy of a technology at an early stage in its market development.