Selective coupling as institutional response to sustainability development in electric utilities

Abstract

Electric utilities are in an environmental sensitive industry, exploiting natural resources and contributing to climate change issues. The focus of critical stakeholders on sustainability agendas and management approaches and the increasing tight sector-regulations pressure electric utilities to act and distribute sustainability reports declaring their sustainability performances and goals towards achieving climate targets. However, literature criticizes the utility’s reporting practices as form of impression management being decoupled from actual sustainability compliance. This paper analyzes in light of institutional theory the compliance with or decoupling from sustainability agendas in the under-researched electricity sector by identifying the coverage of materiality in sustainability reports and the implemented sustainability management control systems for sustainability development. Quantitative and qualitative methods are used including correlation- and variance analysis of material indicators and expert interviews. This study contributes by having identified a sector-wide continuous form of selective coupling from the sustainability agendas in electric utilities. Furthermore, this paper found that sustainability agendas and the implementation of sustainability control mechanisms are governed by institutional hybrid logics which are still at an early stage.

Building a Hierarchical Enablers Framework for Service Business Model Innovation for Sustainable Performance: Evidence from Ghana’s Electricity Sector

“…Moreover, the sector is often heavily regulated and involves significant infrastructure [121,122]. In the sector, sustainability issues focus on integrating sustainability principles into the organization's operations and resource management, investment pressures for adopting renewable energy and carbon-neutral technologies, and economic and environmental regulations in achieving sustainability [2,10]. Due to these reasons, it is challenging to prioritize experiential services in the context of utilities, which may contribute to its relative position.…”

“…Utility companies face a multitude of economic sustainability performance issues, including financial constraints, demand for investment in renewable energy technologies, and adherence to economic and environmental regulations [10]. These difficulties are exacerbated by the need to strike a balance between environmental, economic, and social factors, as emphasized by the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) [11].…”