Transition Research Seminar 7.6.2018

Time: Thursday 7 June 2018, 13:00 – 16:00
Place: Aalto University, School of Business, Main Building, 3rd Floor, Fazer Hall (C-331), Runeberginkatu 14-16, Helsinki

The Transition Research Seminar is an academic event that is primarily directed at researchers and stakeholders in transition management.

Programme

  • How organizations shape the ongoing energy transition through system building and political action
    Dr. Jochen Markard, Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule ETH Zürich 

    Energy sectors are changing fundamentally in many places around the world. Among others, this transition is driven by the ambition to combat climate change. A key element of the ongoing energy transition is the expansion of new renewable energy sources such as wind, solar or biomass and the decline of fossil or nuclear power generation. As a consequence, new industries emerge, established business models lose profitability, incumbent firms are confronted with disruptive change, consumers turn into ‘prosumers’, load curves and electricity prices shift, and policies change.

    In this talk, I present findings from past and ongoing studies that are interested in how organizations shape energy transition processes. I focus on two phenomena. The first is about firms creating technology standards, platforms for knowledge exchange or joint pilots in order to build innovation systems around new energy technologies (‘system building’). The second is about organizations seeking to influence policy making in order to shape the course of the energy transition (‘politics’).Conceptually, I approach these issues from a transition studies perspective. Sustainability transition studies is an emerging and rapidly growing field of research addressing fundamental and long-term changes in existing sectors such as energy or transport. It brings together researchers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds who work with systems approaches that highlight the interrelatedness of technological, organizational, institutional, and socio-political change. I will argue that transition studies can particularly benefit from extant research in management studies and vice versa.

    Dr. Jochen Markard works as a senior researcher at the Group for Sustainability and Technology within the Department of Management, Technology, and Economics at ETH Zurich. He is also a board member of the sustainability transitions research network (STRN). In his research, Jochen studies the interaction of technology, actors and strategies, policies and politics. He applies concepts from innovation and transition studies, management studies, and political sciences. His overall ambition is to contribute to theory development and a better understanding of complex phenomena in the field of sustainability transitions.

  • Patterns of learning from experimentation in smart energy in Finland
    Professor Eva Heiskanen, University of Helsinki

 

  • Energy transition of multinational energy utilities: a configurational study
    Professor Jouni Juntunen & Dr. Samuli Patala, Aalto University

 

Moderator: Professor Armi Temmes, Smart Energy Transition Consortium Leader, Aalto University


This research seminar is organized by the Smart Energy Transition project funded by the Strategic Research Council of Finland. The seminar is also a part of the Organization & Management Research Seminar series at Aalto University School of Business.

Registration is not required. The participants are able to bring their own food and drinks into the lecture hall.

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