Kriechbaum, Michael | Austria

Michael Kriechbaum is a PhD candidate at the Institute of System Sciences, Innovation and Sustainability Research of the University of Graz and a member of the University’s interdisciplinary PhD program “Climate Change – Uncertainties, Thresholds and Strategies”. He holds bachelor degrees in environmental system sciences (with a focus on geography and economics) and a master degree in sustainable development. He has studied mainly at the University of Graz, but also has had exchange semesters and research stays at Utrecht University, at the University of Stellenbosch, and at the Technical University of Madrid. In his research, he deals with technological change and its underlying institutional dynamics. He is particularly interested in the nature and role of institutions during transition periods where radically new technologies ‘break into’ established structures, shake up organizational fields and often lead to a transformation of actor networks and power constellations. His empirical focus is on renewable energy technologies (including solar photovoltaics, wind power and biogas), the emergence of which he is analyzing in different geographical and temporal contexts. His analyses draw on various theoretical concepts including the strategic niche management approach, the innovation systems framework and the sociology of expectations.

Project at IAS-STS: Actor strategies to overcome disappointment in renewable energy diffusion: A case study of biogas technology in Austria

In order to comply with the Paris climate agreement and the related goal of keeping the global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius, many governments all over the world have committed themselves to a rapid and large-scale implementation of renewable energy technologies. Such a transition is not only associated with huge infrastructural and financial challenges, but also with changing actor networks, conflicts of interests and uncertainties. Collective (or widely-shared) expectations about the emerging technologies may play a crucial role in guiding through such an ‘era of ferment’. However, scholars are just about to begin to understand how widely-shared technological expectations actually impact the behavior of actors at the micro-level. In this project, I want to contribute to fill this gap by shedding light on how actors make sense of (or frame) changes in collective expectations, and how their interpretations relate to the response strategies employed. Furthermore, I will also shed light on the actors’ role and power, both of which are considered as important factors that influence the strategy choice as well. The empirical focus will be on the Austrian biogas sector, which, towards the end of the last decade, seems to have experienced a hype that was followed by (still persisting) disappointment.

Selected Publications

Kriechbaum, Michael; Brent, Alan C.; Posch, Alfred (2018): Interaction patterns of systemic problems in distributed energy technology diffusion: a case study of photovoltaics in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management 14 (2), pp.1-15.

Kriechbaum, Michael; López Prol, Javier; Posch, Alfred (2018): Looking back at the future: Dynamics of collective expectations about photovoltaic technology in Germany & Spain. Technological Forecasting and Social Change 129, pp. 76-87.