Melf-Hinrich Ehlers

Fermented Dreams

Regional Entrepreneurship and Institutional Dynamics of Germany's Agricultural Biogas Sector


Front	Back

ISBN:

978-3-8440-6219-9

Series:

Institutioneller Wandel der Landwirtschaft und Ressourcennutzung - Institutional Change in Agriculture and Natural Resources
Herausgeber: Prof. Dr. Volker Beckmann and Prof. Dr. Konrad Hagedorn
Greifswald und Berlin

Subseries:

Allgemein

Volume:

Keywords:

institutional economics; resource economics; regional entrepreneurship; agricultural biogas sector; agriculture; biogas; change; entrepreneurship; governance; innovation

Type of publication:

Thesis

Language:

English

Pages:

558 pages

Figures:

12 figures

Weight:

837 g

Format:

21 x 14,8 cm

Bindung:

Paperback

Price:

38,00 € / 47,60 SFr

Published:

November 2018

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DOI:

10.2370/9783844062199 (Online document)

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Abstract

This study analyses how the agricultural biogas sector in Germany was shaped at regional levels between 1980 and 2008. It focuses on reasons for future-oriented action and the underlying role of uncertainties and institutional change. Informed by institutional economics and entrepreneurship theories, the analytical framework captures reasons for regional-level transactions among diverse actors and facilitates explanation of the changes and effects of institutions governing the biogas sector. The framework guides a case study, using data from qualitative interviews with actors, such as farmers and planning authorities, who are involved in biogas transactions in two settings, in the west and east of Germany. The interview analysis uses time-sensitive coding schemes interlinked with quantitative time series to capture change. Some changes at regional levels are endogenous, while others are exogenous – influenced by higher-level events such as electricity feed-in tariffs and changing agricultural prices. In the early stages of biogas sector development, actors faced great uncertainties that they partly mitigated in shared arrangements. The later stages are marked by specialisation of expertise that helps regional actors to navigate through increased regulatory complexity and adaptive technological, regulatory and financial fine-tuning. Standardisation of approaches and technologies, regionally dominant experts, internal economies of scale and regional diseconomies of scale imply path dependencies. Sectoral governance and regional actors’ strategies are generally contingent on both regional-level and higher-level dynamics. To be effective, the actors need to creatively project and critically evaluate these dynamic contingencies in joint efforts.