The institutional complexity of the energiewende, A longitudinal study on framing and negotiation processes of the German energy transition (1990-2016)

• Applicant: Dr. Stephan Bohn
• Subject Area: Accounting and Finance
• Term: from 2016 to 2020
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 315217379

This research project aims to expand the institutional complexity debate by connecting it with the framing approach and the German energy transition. Two research gaps in context to the organizational handling of conflicting institutional demands were addressed. Firstly, studies on institutional complexity have predominantly focused on two competing demands, but excluded further demands as well as the real complexity of the organizations environment. Secondly, the complexity approach is lacking of addressing the interrelationship and feedback effects between the institutional environment and the organizational response. Using the case of the German energy transition, the project is questioning how energy companies frame the German energy transition and topics like atomic phase-out and climate protection. Further on, the negotiation processes between energy companies, political parties and NGOs to the meaning and the content of the energy transition will be investigated (frame struggle). For example, which influence has the framing of energy companies to the understanding of the energy turnaround and the related institutional demands and which feedback effects arise from such processes in the organization? The project extends the institutional complexity debate by developing a model and hypotheses to the processual handling of institutional complexity and to the interrelationship between organizational response and institutional environment. The proposed project makes a significant contribution to the institutional complexity debate as well as it has practical implications by focusing on the tradeoffs of the energy transition and on associated organizational handling strategies.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants