Alumni

In the transition towards alternative energy technologies, there are many technological and economic barriers to its implementation. Apart from high production and implementation costs, and low technological performance, the biggest barrier to the smooth transition to these technologies comes from conventional forms of fossil-based energy that are still heavily subsidised - oil, coal and gas. And as such, transition to alternative energy systems from fossil-fuel based systems requires considerable changes at all levels - technological, organisational, social and institutional. Transitions begin when systemic changes have taken place through a process of interaction between the different components of a system. Changes in the alternative energy system are expected to occur as a result of a new policy implementation or the strategy of a firm active in the industry.

The thesis enquiries into an understanding of how as technological conditions change from nascence to maturity, firms change their innovation strategy from less committal forms of partnership to more committal forms like M&As. It deduces that changes in renewable energy systems occur as a result of changes in the nature of technologies over the technology life cycle and changes in firm competition ( how and why firm strategies change).