Abstract
The role of social movement organizations in legitimating new and poorly understood technologies, and introducing them into incumbents systems is an understudied phenomenon. We extend theory in this area by tracing social movement organizations actions, changes in the institutional environment, as well as introduction and eventual successful incorporation of wind energy technology in the electric ...
Abstract
The role of social movement organizations in legitimating new and poorly understood technologies, and introducing them into incumbents systems is an understudied phenomenon. We extend theory in this area by tracing social movement organizations actions, changes in the institutional environment, as well as introduction and eventual successful incorporation of wind energy technology in the electric utility industry in the state of Colorado. Our findings suggest that legitimating new
technologies and introducing them into established systems requires collective support by a variety of key constituents. In order to gather support for a new technology, social movement organizations employ several strategies to gain assistance of key constituents, including incumbents, customers, and regulatory agencies. Leveraging exogenous jolts and educating relevant actors and customers about unsolved problems provide a social location for new technologies. Surprisingly, regulated electric utilities, which were previously strongly embedded in conventional ways of doing business, started to partner with social movement organizations. Our results suggest that the public articulation of the problem and provision of credibility through environmental oriented organizations facilitate the implementation of new technologies for regulated incumbents. Thus, local social movement organizations have the ability to alter the traditional business model of incumbent firms by generating new business opportunities for incumbents, and bring about change in the institutional environment in order to legitimate new technologies.
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