Organizations as users in sustainability transitions: Embedding Vehicle-to-Grid technology in the United Kingdom

Abstract

This study explores organizations as users of innovations in sustainability transitions. Existing literature concentrates on organizations that are producers in energy-intensive sectors. And yet, transitions also greatly affect organizations as users of innovations in everyday contexts. We develop a lens on organizational embedding of technological innovations during transitions using social practice theory and neoinstitutional theory. In this view, innovation embedding involves dynamics between innovation, organization and wider context. Empirically, the study considers how Vehicle-to-Grid Electric Vehicles (V2G-EVs) can be embedded in the fleet management practices of organizations. V2G-EVs deliver electricity back to the grid, and could provide an important contribution to a future electricity grid based on intermittent renewables. The study draws on interviews with fleet sector practitioners, conducted as part of a trial project to explore the potential role and uptake of V2G-EVs in organizational fleets in the United Kingdom. The findings highlight how, in innovation embedding, developments in everyday practices and organizational environments are inherently linked. During embedding, organizations follow different pathways. A sustainability pathway, a market-sustainability pathway and a professional-sustainability pathway are identified, and are shown to enhance and hinder embedding with and through their particular dynamics. The paper demonstrates the added value of jointly considering everyday organizational practices and wider system-level developments when studying innovation embedding during transitions.