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Move your money? Sustainability Transitions in Regimes and Practices in the UK Retail Banking Sector

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  • Seyfang, Gill
  • Gilbert-Squires, Amber

Abstract

We present and test a new conceptual framework for understanding sustainable transitions in co-evolutionary sociotechnical systems. We apply this in the first study of sustainable transitions in UK retail banking. This system has suffered recently from banking crises, and links to environmentally-sensitive industries such as fossil fuels. Sustainability-focused values-based banks are a potential solution, but have had little impact on mainstream banking systems. We aim to understand the constraints on a potential transition and how to overcome them. Our new approach identifies the intersections between transitions in regimes (using the multi-level perspective MLP) and transitions in practices (using social practice theory SPT), two competing conceptual frameworks in the literature. We ask: what are the intersections between transitions in the banking regime and banking practices, and how may critical points of constraint be unlocked to become points of opportunity, thereby aiding a transition to more sustainable banking systems? We present new empirical findings from a mixed-method case study of the UK banking sector and two values-based banks in particular. Interventions for growing sustainable banking are identified and we demonstrate the added-value of the combined approach through indicating strategies for unlocking the transformative potential of sustainable innovations.

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  • Seyfang, Gill & Gilbert-Squires, Amber, 2019. "Move your money? Sustainability Transitions in Regimes and Practices in the UK Retail Banking Sector," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 156(C), pages 224-235.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:156:y:2019:i:c:p:224-235
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolecon.2018.09.014
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Tom Hargreaves & Noel Longhurst & Gill Seyfang, 2013. "Up, Down, round and round: Connecting Regimes and Practices in Innovation for Sustainability," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(2), pages 402-420, February.
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    Cited by:

    1. Renata Karkowska, 2019. "Business Model as a Concept of Sustainability in the Banking Sector," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-12, December.
    2. Saeed Nosratabadi & Gergo Pinter & Amir Mosavi & Sandor Semperger, 2020. "Sustainable Banking; Evaluation of the European Business Models," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(6), pages 1-19, March.
    3. Elisabeth M. C. Svennevik, 2021. "Providers and Practices: How Suppliers Shape Car-Sharing Practices," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-14, February.
    4. Sovacool, Benjamin K. & Baum, Chad M. & Low, Sean, 2023. "Beyond climate stabilization: Exploring the perceived sociotechnical co-impacts of carbon removal and solar geoengineering," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 204(PA).
    5. Saeed Nosratabadi & Gergo Pinter & Amir Mosavi & Sandor Semperger, 2020. "Sustainable Banking; Evaluation of the European Business Models," Papers 2003.13423, arXiv.org.
    6. Marta Cuesta-González & Julie Froud & Daniel Tischer, 2021. "Coalitions and Public Action in the Reshaping of Corporate Responsibility: The Case of the Retail Banking Industry," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 173(3), pages 539-558, October.
    7. Chantal P. Naidoo, 2019. "Relating Financial Systems to Sustainability Transitions: Challenges, Demands and Dimensions," SPRU Working Paper Series 2019-18, SPRU - Science Policy Research Unit, University of Sussex Business School.
    8. Monk, Alexander & Perkins, Richard, 2020. "What explains the emergence and diffusion of green bonds?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    9. Alexandra Lenis Escobar & Ramón Rueda López & Jorge E. García Guerrero & Enrique Salinas Cuadrado, 2020. "Design of Strategies for the Implementation and Management of a Complementary Monetary System Using the SWOT-AHP Methodology," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-23, August.

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