IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/gemptp/hal-00763647.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The development and commercialization of solar pv technology in the oil industry

Author

Listed:
  • Jonatan Pinkse

    (Energy Management - MTS - Management Technologique et Strategique - EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management)

  • Daniel van den Buuse

    (University of Amsterdam Business School - UvA - University of Amsterdam [Amsterdam] = Universiteit van Amsterdam)

Abstract

In diversifying energy supply, the transformation of the energy industry has been identified as a key challenge for a sustainable energy future. This suggests that incumbent firms in this industry have a vital role in the development and commercialization process of renewable energy technologies. This paper provides a comparative analysis of oil and gas firms' strategies regarding solar PV technology investments, a renewable energy technology that has seen explosive growth of late. The main aim is to examine the strategic approach of incumbent firms in the oil and gas industry towards the development and commercialization of solar PV technology. To investigate this, a multiple case study has been conducted within the European oil industry, focusing on the three largest oil and gas firms: BP, Royal Dutch/Shell, and Total. Findings show that oil and gas firms have difficulties with integrating solar PV technology in their supply chain. The analysis suggests that it is uncertain whether all oil and gas firms will abandon solar completely, as this depends to what extent they are able to generate profits. Nevertheless, there is currently a trend in the oil industry of leaving solar and positioning towards a 'recarbonization' of business activities.

Suggested Citation

  • Jonatan Pinkse & Daniel van den Buuse, 2012. "The development and commercialization of solar pv technology in the oil industry," Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) hal-00763647, HAL.
    • Handle: RePEc:hal:gemptp:hal-00763647
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2010.09.029
    Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: http://hal.grenoble-em.com/hal-00763647
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hal.grenoble-em.com/hal-00763647/document
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2010.09.029?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Reiche, Danyel & Bechberger, Mischa, 2004. "Policy differences in the promotion of renewable energies in the EU member states," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 32(7), pages 843-849, May.
    2. Jacobides, Michael G. & Knudsen, Thorbjorn & Augier, Mie, 2006. "Benefiting from innovation: Value creation, value appropriation and the role of industry architectures," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(8), pages 1200-1221, October.
    3. Utterback, James M & Abernathy, William J, 1975. "A dynamic model of process and product innovation," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 3(6), pages 639-656, December.
    4. Unruh, Gregory C., 2000. "Understanding carbon lock-in," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 817-830, October.
    5. Klepper, Steven, 1997. "Industry Life Cycles," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 6(1), pages 145-181.
    6. Gautam Ahuja & Curba Morris Lampert, 2001. "Entrepreneurship in the large corporation: a longitudinal study of how established firms create breakthrough inventions," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 22(6‐7), pages 521-543, June.
    7. Jacobsson, Staffan & Johnson, Anna, 2000. "The diffusion of renewable energy technology: an analytical framework and key issues for research," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(9), pages 625-640, July.
    8. Kolk, Ans & Levy, David, 2001. "Winds of Change:: Corporate Strategy, Climate change and Oil Multinationals," European Management Journal, Elsevier, vol. 19(5), pages 501-509, October.
    9. Shum, Kwok L. & Watanabe, Chihiro, 2007. "Photovoltaic deployment strategy in Japan and the USA--an institutional appraisal," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(2), pages 1186-1195, February.
    10. Grant, Robert M. & Cibin, Renato, 1996. "Strategy, structure and market turbulence: The international oil majors, 1970-1991," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 12(2), pages 165-188, June.
    11. John P. Holdren, 2006. "The Energy Innovation Imperative: Addressing Oil Dependence, Climate Change, and Other 21-super-st Century Energy Challenges," Innovations: Technology, Governance, Globalization, MIT Press, vol. 1(2), pages 3-23, April.
    12. Sanden, Bjorn A. & Azar, Christian, 2005. "Near-term technology policies for long-term climate targets--economy wide versus technology specific approaches," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 33(12), pages 1557-1576, August.
    13. Raven, Rob, 2007. "Niche accumulation and hybridisation strategies in transition processes towards a sustainable energy system: An assessment of differences and pitfalls," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 2390-2400, April.
    14. Ans Kolk & Jonatan Pinkse, 2008. "A perspective on multinational enterprises and climate change: Learning from “an inconvenient truth”?," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 39(8), pages 1359-1378, December.
    15. William J. Baumol, 2002. "Entrepreneurship, Innovation and Growth: The David-Goliath Symbiosis," Journal of Entrepreneurial Finance, Pepperdine University, Graziadio School of Business and Management, vol. 7(2), pages 1-10, Summer.
    16. Levy, David L. & Kolk, Ans, 2002. "Strategic Responses to Global Climate Change: Conflicting Pressures on Multinationals in the Oil Industry," Business and Politics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 4(3), pages 275-300, November.
    17. Levy David L. & Kolk Ans, 2002. "Strategic Responses to Global Climate Change: Conflicting Pressures on Multinationals in the Oil Industry," Business and Politics, De Gruyter, vol. 4(3), pages 1-27, November.
    18. Staffan Jacobsson & Anna Bergek, 2004. "Transforming the energy sector: the evolution of technological systems in renewable energy technology," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 13(5), pages 815-849, October.
    19. Milgrom, Paul & Roberts, John, 1990. "The Economics of Modern Manufacturing: Technology, Strategy, and Organization," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(3), pages 511-528, June.
    20. Robert M. Grant, 2003. "Strategic planning in a turbulent environment: evidence from the oil majors," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(6), pages 491-517, June.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bondarev, Anton & Dato, Prudence & Krysiak, Frank C., 2021. "Green Technology Transitions with an Endogenous Market Structure," Working papers 2021/07, Faculty of Business and Economics - University of Basel.
    2. Nicoletta Corrocher & Ilaria Solito, 2017. "How do firms capture value from environmental innovations? An empirical analysis on European SMEs," Industry and Innovation, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 24(5), pages 569-585, July.
    3. Tuukka Mäkitie & Håkon E. Normann & Taran M. Thune & Jakoba Sraml Gonzalez, 2018. "The green flings: market fluctuations and incumbent energy industries’ engagement in renewable energy," Working Papers on Innovation Studies 20180524, Centre for Technology, Innovation and Culture, University of Oslo.
    4. Maria A. Franco & Stefan N. Groesser, 2021. "A Systematic Literature Review of the Solar Photovoltaic Value Chain for a Circular Economy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-35, August.
    5. Absi Halabi, M. & Al-Qattan, A. & Al-Otaibi, A., 2015. "Application of solar energy in the oil industry—Current status and future prospects," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 296-314.
    6. Fernanda Guedes & Alexandre Szklo & Pedro Rochedo & Frédéric Lantz & Leticia Magalar & Eveline Maria Vásquez Arroyo, 2018. "Climate-Energy-Water Nexus in Brazilian Oil Refineries," Working Papers hal-03188594, HAL.
    7. Chaiyapa, Warathida & Esteban, Miguel & Kameyama, Yasuko, 2018. "Why go green? Discourse analysis of motivations for Thailand's oil and gas companies to invest in renewable energy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 448-459.
    8. Mäkitie, Tuukka & Normann, Håkon E. & Thune, Taran M. & Sraml Gonzalez, Jakoba, 2019. "The green flings: Norwegian oil and gas industry’s engagement in offshore wind power," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 269-279.
    9. Verhees, Bram & Raven, Rob & Veraart, Frank & Smith, Adrian & Kern, Florian, 2013. "The development of solar PV in The Netherlands: A case of survival in unfriendly contexts," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 19(C), pages 275-289.
    10. Bram Verhees & Rob Raven & Frank Veraart & Adrian Smith & Florian Kern, 2012. "Interrogating Protective Space: Shielding, Nurturing and Empowering Dutch Solar PV," Working Papers 12-04, Eindhoven Center for Innovation Studies, revised Sep 2012.
    11. Henning Breuer & Florian Lüdeke-Freund, 2017. "Values-Based Network And Business Model Innovation," International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 21(03), pages 1-35, April.
    12. Wang, Jingfan & O'Donnell, John & Brandt, Adam R., 2017. "Potential solar energy use in the global petroleum sector," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 118(C), pages 884-892.
    13. Karoline Augenstein & Alexandra Palzkill, 2015. "The Dilemma of Incumbents in Sustainability Transitions: A Narrative Approach," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 6(1), pages 1-23, December.
    14. Damien Bazin & Nouri Chtourou & Amna Omri, 2019. "Risk management and policy implications for concentrating solar power technology investments in Tunisia," Post-Print hal-02061788, HAL.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mäkitie, Tuukka & Normann, Håkon E. & Thune, Taran M. & Sraml Gonzalez, Jakoba, 2019. "The green flings: Norwegian oil and gas industry’s engagement in offshore wind power," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 127(C), pages 269-279.
    2. Ans Kolk & Jonatan Pinkse, 2012. "Multinational enterprises and climate change strategies," Post-Print hal-00835257, HAL.
    3. Jonatan Pinkse & Ans Kolk, 2010. "Challenges and trade‐offs in corporate innovation for climate change," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 19(4), pages 261-272, May.
    4. Matthew P. Johnson & Theresa S. Rötzel & Brigitte Frank, 2023. "Beyond conventional corporate responses to climate change towards deep decarbonization: a systematic literature review," Management Review Quarterly, Springer, vol. 73(2), pages 921-954, June.
    5. Tiberio Daddi & Niccolò Maria Todaro & Maria Rosa De Giacomo & Marco Frey, 2018. "A Systematic Review of the Use of Organization and Management Theories in Climate Change Studies," Business Strategy and the Environment, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(4), pages 456-474, May.
    6. Hellsmark, Hans & Jacobsson, Staffan, 2009. "Opportunities for and limits to Academics as System builders--The case of realizing the potential of gasified biomass in Austria," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 37(12), pages 5597-5611, December.
    7. Marlene O’Sullivan, 2020. "Industrial life cycle: relevance of national markets in the development of new industries for energy technologies – the case of wind energy," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(4), pages 1063-1107, September.
    8. Sarasini, Steven, 2013. "Institutional work and climate change: Corporate political action in the Swedish electricity industry," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 480-489.
    9. Safarzyńska, Karolina & Frenken, Koen & van den Bergh, Jeroen C.J.M., 2012. "Evolutionary theorizing and modeling of sustainability transitions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 1011-1024.
    10. Samuli Patala & Jouni K. Juntunen & Sarianna Lundan & Tiina Ritvala, 2021. "Multinational energy utilities in the energy transition: A configurational study of the drivers of FDI in renewables," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 52(5), pages 930-950, July.
    11. Markard, Jochen & Raven, Rob & Truffer, Bernhard, 2012. "Sustainability transitions: An emerging field of research and its prospects," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 41(6), pages 955-967.
    12. Natalie Slawinski & Jonatan Pinkse & Timo Busch & Subhabrata Bobby Banerjeed, 2014. "The role of short-termism and uncertainty in organizational inaction on climate change: multilevel framework," Working Papers hal-00961226, HAL.
    13. Binh Hoang Duc & Khang Do Ba, 2017. "Business responses to climate change: strategies for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in Vietnam," Asia Pacific Business Review, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(4), pages 596-620, August.
    14. Eleftheriadis, Iordanis M. & Anagnostopoulou, Evgenia G., 2015. "Identifying barriers in the diffusion of renewable energy sources," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 80(C), pages 153-164.
    15. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/f6h8764enu2lskk9p4oq2cqb0 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. del Río, Pablo & Peñasco, Cristina & Mir-Artigues, Pere, 2018. "An overview of drivers and barriers to concentrated solar power in the European Union," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P1), pages 1019-1029.
    17. Erlinghagen, Sabine & Markard, Jochen, 2012. "Smart grids and the transformation of the electricity sector: ICT firms as potential catalysts for sectoral change," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 895-906.
    18. Nesta, Lionel & Vona, Francesco & Nicolli, Francesco, 2014. "Environmental policies, competition and innovation in renewable energy," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(3), pages 396-411.
    19. Martin Kalthaus, 2020. "Knowledge recombination along the technology life cycle," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 643-704, July.
    20. Martin, Nigel J. & Rice, John L., 2012. "Developing renewable energy supply in Queensland, Australia: A study of the barriers, targets, policies and actions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 119-127.
    21. Jacobsson, Staffan & Lauber, Volkmar, 2006. "The politics and policy of energy system transformation--explaining the German diffusion of renewable energy technology," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(3), pages 256-276, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Renewable Energy; Solar Photovoltaic; Oil and Gas industry;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:hal:gemptp:hal-00763647. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: CCSD (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.