Institutional entrepreneurship in the emerging renewable energy field: incumbents versus new entrants

Abstract

An underexplored issue in the institutional entrepreneurship (IE) literature is the difference between incumbents and new entrants in promoting institutional change for innovative technologies. We study the IE activities: cooperation, framing, and political tactics in the case of biomethane development in the Netherlands, during 2006-2012. While for decades biogas farmers have been unable to build a supporting institutional framework, incumbents recently arranged substantial government support. Our theoretical contribution lies in defining dimensions of the three core IE activities. We present empirical evidence that new entrants and incumbents employ all three activities, but in distinct ways. Thus, the incumbents’ IE activities lead to more substantial institutional change than new entrants’ activities. As a consequence, production shifts from electricity to gas and the scale of installations increases. We conclude that incumbents can accelerate institutional change, however their focus on large-scale installations makes it difficult for biogas farmers to contribute to biomethane production.