The Incumbent German Power Companies in a Changing Environment

This paper examines the actions and strategies of Germany’s leading energy companies—E.ON, RWE, EnBW and Vattenfall—in the light of a changing regulatory framework and other circumstances. The liberalization of the German electricity market, measures to promote renewable energies, market developments as well as exogenous shocks such as the Fukushima nuclear disaster and the fiscal crisis all had far-reaching consequences for these companies. A comparative analysis of these companies from 1998 to 2013 shows their development from thriving growth at the start of liberalization up to the current state of crisis. Conducted with a focus on the context of the Energiewende—Germany’s commitment to shift towards sustainable energy production—this article contributes to the current debate on the sustainable transformation of energy supply. The theory of strategic action fields by Fligstein and McAdam serves as a theoretical framework.

[1]  W. Powell,et al.  The iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields , 1983 .

[2]  R. Werle,et al.  Regulation of Cyberspace , 2010 .

[3]  Andrew J. Hoffman,et al.  INSTITUTIONAL EVOLUTION AND CHANGE: ENVIRONMENTALISM AND THE US CHEMICAL INDUSTRY , 1999 .

[4]  Jan-Felix Schrape,et al.  Der Wandel des Buchhandels durch Digitalisierung und Internet , 2011 .

[5]  Rüdiger Mautz,et al.  Auf dem Weg zur Energiewende : die Entwicklung der Stromproduktion aus erneuerbaren Energien in Deutschland ; eine Studie aus dem Soziologischen Forschungsinstitut Göttingen (SOFI) , 2008 .

[6]  R. Kosche.  Kollektive Identitäten in Industrial Cultural Districts: Theoretische und konzeptionelle Überlegungen am Beispiel des Schmuckindustrieclusters in Pforzheim , 2013 .

[7]  J. Schrape.  Neue Demokratie im Netz?: Eine Kritik an den Visionen der Informationsgesellschaft , 2010 .

[8]  G. Fuchs,et al.  Fuchs. The Governance of Innovations in the Energy Sector: Between Adaptation and Exploration , 2014 .

[9]  Georg Schreyögg,et al.  Organizational Path Dependence: Opening the Black Box , 2009 .

[10]  Bharat N. Anand,et al.  The Music Industry and the Internet , 2003 .

[11]  Ulrich Ellwanger,et al.  The Theory of Fields , 2012 .

[12]  J. Schrape.  Social Media, Massenmedien und gesellschaftliche Wirklichkeitskonstruktion , 2011 .

[13]  S. Wassermann,et al.  From Niche to Mass Markets in High Technology: The Case of Photovoltaics in Germany , 2012 .

[14]  Ulrich Dolata,et al.  Masses, crowds, communities, movements: Collective formations in the digital age , 2014 .

[15]  Mario Neukirch.  Konflikte um den Ausbau der Stromnetze: Status und Entwicklung heterogener Protestkonstellationen , 2014 .

[16]  Gerhard Fuchs.  Die Rolle lokaler Initiativen bei der Transformation des deutschen Energiesystems The Role of Local Initiatives in Transforming the German Energy Supply System , 2014 .

[17]  Ulrich Dolata.  Soziotechnischer Wandel als graduelle Transformation , 2011 .

[18]  Ulrich Dolata.  Radical change as gradual transformation: Characteristics and variants of socio-technical transitions , 2011 .

[19]  D. Mcadam,et al.  Toward a General Theory of Strategic Action Fields* , 2010 .

[20]  Peter Dreier,et al.  Blatter fur Deutsche und Internationale Politik , 1996 .

[21]  M. Callon,et al.  Organizational Paths: Path Dependency and Beyond , 2005 .

[22]  Ulrich Dolata.  Technologische Innovationen und sektoraler Wandel: Eingriffstiefe, Adaptionsfähigkeit, Transformationsmuster ; Ein analytischer Ansatz , 2008 .

[23]  Jochen Gläser,et al.  Experteninterviews und qualitative Inhaltsanalyse , 2010 .

[24]  Jan-Felix Schrape,et al.  Zwischen Individuum und Organisation: Neue kollektive Akteure und Handlungskonstellationen im Internet , 2013 .

[25]  Georg Schreyögg,et al.  Organizational Path Dependence , 2015 .

[26]  Jörg Sydow,et al.  The Hidden Dynamics of Path Dependence , 2010 .

[27]  Ulrich Dolata,et al.  Kollektives Handeln im Internet. Eine akteurtheoretische Fundierung , 2014 .

[28]  Raymund Werle,et al.  Institutional analysis of technical innovation: A review , 2011 .

[29]  Ulrich Dolata,et al.  Transformative Capacity, Adaptability, Patterns of Change: An Analytical Framework , 2009 .

[30]  Sandra Wassermann,et al.  Organising a market: Photovoltaics in Germany , 2012 .

[31]  R. Werle.  Institutional analysis of technical innovation. , 2005 .

[32]  R. Werle.  Institutions and Systems: Analysing Technical Innovation Processes from an Institutional Perspective , 2012 .

[33]  Dirk Neumann,et al.  Software als Institution und ihre Gestaltbarkeit , 2009, Informatik-Spektrum.

[34]  Ulrich Dolata,et al.  Das Internet und die Transformation der Musikindustrie , 2008 .